I read this article a couple of years ago about a black guy who took a DNA test and found out he wasn't. It raised some interesting questions about identity, and also whether he was ethically obligated to change how he identifies himself.
http://www.alternet.org/story/16917/
A similar issue came up with the guy in the famous crying Indian ad in the Sixties, Iron Eyes Cody. He was actually Italian, but Indians didn't mind that he identified as Indian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Eyes_Cody
2007-07-09 11:45:58 · 10 answers · asked by yurbud 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
Cock,
He actually was white.
2007-07-09 13:22:08 · update #1
Does it really matter? If someone has lived a certain way for 51 years and no one noticed then it doesn't matter. I have an older cousin who was adopted into my family. He looks exactly like Andre Agassi I'm serious. People see him as being an extremely light skinned black guy. As a kid he had a reddish brown afro like Richard Simmons. He went bald early so his hair style is like a typical black guy now. He grew up in a black neighborhood and attended a mostly black high school. He is a member of a black fraternity and married a black lady. His adopted mother (my uncle’s wife) was adopted as a child as well and she looks the same way. She could easily pass for a white lady. In fact all of the family assumed both came from white families but all of us were wrong. Both my cousin and my aunt found out they were mixed black and white a few years back. They were born to white mothers and black fathers. No matter what there birth race was it really didn't matter to the family because both of them are family and that’s all that counts. My cousin talks and walks just like all of the men in our family. He is truly one of us. Both of our family’s Great Grand Mothers were mixed Black, and White and Native American and black so some members are light skinned and others like myself are dark skinned To finish my point, even when we thought my cousin was white he was still my beloved first cousin regardless. His race has never been an issue in our family. Even when we assumed he was white. I’ll never forget when one of my ex-girlfriends seen him and his mom at a family reunion and she ask me who are those white people. I told her that’s my Aunt and my first cousin. She was like are you serious and I said yes and introduced her to them. One of my other close cousins has a white wife and she is just like family too. Family is family no matter what there birth race so that man should consider himself as a black man because he was raised as a black man.
Remember the Dave Chappel skit about the blind black leader of the Klu Klux Klan. He had no idea he was black. When he found out he was black he dumped his life for being a ***** lover. That skit was funny.
2007-07-10 02:32:36 · answer #1 · answered by Big Sam D 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I would still treat him or her the same .....because of who they are......... now should not make a difference.....I remember "Iron Eyes Cody" Yes it is true...he was Italian and had no blood ties with Indians....and many Indians did accept him.....but his story is different....he was in denial of who he was because he loved Indians and wanted to be one.....but the other story is the person was raised to believe they were black....so they didn't have any idea of who they were so...they couldn't be in denial......a difference
2007-07-09 13:22:10 · answer #2 · answered by T B 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there are no ethics involved. If he thought of himself as black, he can continue to do so even if his DNA says otherwise. This is the age nature/nurture debate and there are no clear answers. Ultimately, identity itself is not solely nature but nurture too.
2007-07-09 11:51:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
First define the point of being raised Black. I never knew raising as a color code...
2007-07-09 11:59:04 · answer #4 · answered by Dj Teeza 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
That's very interesting. I wonder what I am then I THOUGHT I was 40% Cherokee Indian and 60% White but am I?
2007-07-09 11:51:27 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
strange.. ive never heard of anything like that.. n e wayz this jus proves how unimportant skin color is and how we need to stop labeleing e/o in this way.. we're all people. period.
2007-07-09 12:36:23 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would acceot him as he is and not what peer pressure or the need for approval form others said in the limited small minds.
2007-07-09 11:50:57 · answer #7 · answered by Mr. Clean 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Why would you treat someone differently? They are human beings. What does it matter what their ethnic origins are?
2007-07-09 11:55:32 · answer #8 · answered by tentofield 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
what difference does it make
2007-07-09 12:00:34 · answer #9 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As he asks you to treat him.
2007-07-09 11:59:00 · answer #10 · answered by ken erestu 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋