It seems to be an ongoing issue of self naming and racial identification. But it all comes down to how society views an individual of two different race. Society or people determine who is Black or White based on their accomplishment, success and economic status.There has been so many debates on whether President Obama is black or white. If he was'nt the president or if he wasnt educated the he is, he would just be seen as a regular Black man, no one would even recognized him to say whether he is Black or White.
According to a study done By Northwestern University on "should such racial characterization on people like Obama really matter?" The study shows that it matters and also "the study highlights the legacy of hypodescent in racial categorization in the U.S. According to hypodescent, a child of mixed-race ancestry is assigned to the race of what society considers the socially subordinate parent. Historically, mixed-race children in slave societies were most commonly assigned to the race of their non-Caucasian parent. In the most extreme manifestation of hypodescent in the United States, the one-drop rule holds that if a person has one drop of black blood, he or she is considered to be black."[Northwestern University (2008, October 12). Does It Matter If Black Plus White Equals Black Or Multiracial?. ScienceDaily. Science daily.com]
I think that an individual should be able to identify with the race they are comfortable with and not what society says.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Yes, this is historically so, and developed mostly to protect the privilege of white slaveholders to own and exploit their own mixed-race children, and consign them to the status of slave. In our own time, multiracial people are still confronted with pressures to affiliate based on their appearance, and certainly, Obama is no different. I don't see the fact that he was raised by a white mother as something that makes him "less black" or "un-black", but some black people do, and even worse, we label some behaviors as "un-black" and accuse others of being "un-black" just because they have other experiences than the stereotypical. Obama is clearly confident and secure in his identity, but what about those who aren't (who aren't allowed to be)?
ReplyDelete