Do you agree with the Pocahontas Exception?

Question

Do you think it's fair that when a white person and a person of another race (I'll say Japanese for an example) have a child, that the child would be considered Japanese (or Asian) rather than white or even half? Also what about with the Pocahontas Exception which says if someone's three quarters white, they're considered white? That doesn't sound right if a half-Japanese guy (who'd legally be considered Japanese and not white) had a child with a white girl and the child would be considered white. Why is it that half-white people aren't considered white? Do you think that's fair to the white parent and the child?

I'm talking about in a cultural sense. It's not fair that one parent gets recognized and the other doesn't.

The white genes are always recessive. I've seen half black children who have blonde hair and green eyes and resemble the white parent's skin tone more than the black one's.

Actually in the Japanese culture, they're very accepting of half-Japanese and I've never seen a Caucasian person reject half-Japanese people either. Not in America or Japan at least. I don't know how they act in other cultures.

I'm Cherokee on my mom's side but my father's white and even though my mother is very dark skinned, dark eyes and dark hair, I was born platinum blonde and blue eyed. My mom also has African-American in her. Despite that, I look nothing like her. So the white gene can be dominant. It was very dominant in my case. Most people laugh when I say I'm part Cherokee and think it's a joke.

Answer 1

Wow, what a lot of pondering to a very simple concept. How about just call them human beings? Our blood all runs the same colour. We don't differentiate between being tall, or short or half tall. What difference does it make! Trace it back, we're all from a common ancestor out of Africa!

Answer 2

The reasoning behind this law has to do with genetics.

The gene which produces white people is recessive. The gene which produces most other races such as Japanese, Native-American, Black, etc is dominant. When a child of one white parent and one parent of one of the dominant gene races is born the dominant gene's qualities are more evident than the recessive gene's qualities.

When a half-white person and a white person have a child both parents contribute white genes thus giving the child the possibility of having mostly white characteristics.

Answer 3

I agree with Molly S.' answer, but we are all human beings and to the Creator, there is no distinction. Let me also give you an answer of how the Cherokee treat this...and most Native American's use the French word Metis' for Mixed-Blood, since this was a common word known to all due to the French Traders...they trace the heritage line through the female (many Native American's trace their ancestry through the female because females were honored and they were the ones to give birth and Pocahontas was in a matrileanial society) - not the male's ancestor line. But they believe that "one drop of Cherokee blood means you are Cherokee" and that is why they were so accepting of others. They also considered those who were "adopted" into their Nation to be Cherokee. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just be accepting of each other as the Nationality of the Creator?

Answer 4

I haven't seen that term -- but the concept is familiar.

The thing is -- half-breeds (for want of a better overall term) have always received unfair treatment because of their mixed background.

Generally, each culture rejects someone who is only half from that culture -- part of some "us against them" need for group purity -- but that applies in both directions. In the examples you gave, Japanese would reject the half-Japanese as not being fully Nipponjin, while whites ould reject the half-Japanese are not being fully Caucasian.

Such is the nature of bigotry and hatred -- it looks at anything different and declares it to be bad.

Answer 5

The long-established and extra outstanding participants of the (Disney Princess) franchise are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine, who have been later joined through Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana and Rapunzel.

Answer 6

If the gov't stopped treating people differently based on ethnicity, it wouldn't matter.