The One-Drop Rule
I’ve been thinking about this entry for a while, but haven’t sat down to write it all out because I never knew where to start. There really isn’t anywhere to start because it’s fifty pages all twisted together in thought, comprised of incomplete sentences.
When I was five years old, one of my closest friends paused right in the middle of us playing with barbies so that she could apologize for her ancestors enslaving mine. Sixteen years later, I still don’t really know what I think about that happening. It leaves me a bit tongue-tied and perplexed. I can joke and say that’s what it’s like coming from Ann Arbor—but it’s still odd, isn’t it? to have that statement posed to you by a six year old? Can I really understand the gravity of slavery at twenty any better than I can at five? Where the hell does a six year come up with the guilt for something like that?
People get really confused when they hear my name. I can’t say that I blamed them—it’s almost like my parents were playing a trick on the world by giving this brown girl a white and very Irish name. With exception of the middle name being Spanish, everything is pure Irish. It’s a fun game to play when people are guessing what I am—or interesting when people just start speaking to me in Spanish.
I talk to my brother a lot about race lately. I’m taking these classes where race comes up a lot and it makes my insides bubble. I don’t know a lot of people that I can talk to about race where they can really understand what I’m thinking and saying and feeling, so I’ve been talking to him about it more and more. He’s dating someone else who’s mixed—she’s white and Asian, but she sees the world so differently than either of us do.
I firmly identify as mixed and don’t want any other term applied to me. I know that some people don’t mind the term mulatto, but it makes my skin crawl and I want nothing to do with it. Even terms like “bi-racial” or “multi-racial” make me turn my nose a bit. I’m not exactly sure why, but maybe because it just seems so… just trying to be polite about something you don’t need to be careful about. A lot of people become uncomfortable when you tell them call me mixed and I haven’t really figured out why yet.
My brother is maybe as dark as me, if not a bit more. His eyes are hazel, whereas you can’t see my pupils because my eyes are so dark. Our little sister, she could easily pass and I think she does to a lot of people. Why wouldn’t she, right? The only thing is the hair—a bit frizzy, borderline of kinda kinky. I don’t even know if people ever wonder if she’s anything but white.
The last conversation we had about race was maybe two weeks ago. He thinks it’s so curious that I identify as mixed [and neither of us know what the little kid thinks of herself—it wouldn’t even shock me that much if she’d never thought about it] and it makes perfect sense to both of us why he considers himself a black male. His experiences in life are far different than my own and a lot of my freedom to identify as I please comes from my being female.
People come to me and they say things like, I don’t mean to offend you, so I apologize if I am, but what are you? Honestly, I have no idea why that question should offend anyone, but I suppose I’d understand if someone was. No, scratch that. I wouldn’t understand. It’s not something… that should be kept quiet. Race is such an interesting concept and topic—why not talk about it as much as you can? The world from my eyes isn’t the same from yours.
But they usually say that. Some sort of preface to their question about not offending me when that is one of my favorite games. I don’t get as much a kick out of it lately as I used to. Everyone nods appreciatively when I list off all the ethnicities.
The main reason I filled out an application for Michigan State was because that was the first form that I ever saw that allowed me to check more than one box. The first time I had to check a box was in seventh grade and I was so fucking confused. Didn’t know what the hell to do. Pick One Box.
Today, I came across this initiative on the MAVIN Foundation website: http://www.mavinfoundation.org/about/news_021505.html
It’s impressive. I’m going to print off a few and bring it into the next GMM. Then I’ll email a link out to some of my friends.
The first laws drawn in the United States against interracial anything appeared in the 1640’s. Loving v. Virginia [http://www.ameasite.org/loving.asp] only happened in 1967, which is the US Supreme Court judgment handed down that stated laws against interracial marriage is unconstitutional. In 1999, Alabama was the last state to take miscegenation laws out of the state law books. The last state to do so. South Carolina did the same in something like 1996—they cleared up language in their state constitution, or something like that.
The upsetting thing isn’t the date—although that’s very troubling—it’s that the law was taken off by such a slim margin. There were 41%-49% of Alabama voters who wanted that law to remain. Whenever I think of this, I just feel crushed. It’s like when I have conversations with my friends and they mention some opinion of their parents, who think interracial marriage may not be such a hot idea because what do the kids do? What about them? Is anyone thinking about them? How would they identify? Bla blab la. I just stare with my mouth hanging open a bit—because they’re fucking joking, right?
But it’s why we should talk about race more, right? Seven million Americans checked more than one box on the 2000 census—that number will go through the roof in 2010.
When I took that rhetoric class, we looked at the social movements in the United States and the last we examined was the gay rights movement that’s been going on for the last thirty years. People always say that you can’t compare it to the interracial battle that’s been happening for centuries, but you can. I never see why it’s not a good point for comparison because all that really matters is that progress happens. Six years ago, people were up in arms about a law being taken out of a state constitution that was ruled unconstitutional 32 years ago. Now, they get upset when you mention the word “marriage,” but sometimes they’re okay when you say “civil union.”
I hate that I live in a state that added a bigoted law in the year 2004. one more reason to move, right?
When I was five years old, one of my closest friends paused right in the middle of us playing with barbies so that she could apologize for her ancestors enslaving mine. Sixteen years later, I still don’t really know what I think about that happening. It leaves me a bit tongue-tied and perplexed. I can joke and say that’s what it’s like coming from Ann Arbor—but it’s still odd, isn’t it? to have that statement posed to you by a six year old? Can I really understand the gravity of slavery at twenty any better than I can at five? Where the hell does a six year come up with the guilt for something like that?
People get really confused when they hear my name. I can’t say that I blamed them—it’s almost like my parents were playing a trick on the world by giving this brown girl a white and very Irish name. With exception of the middle name being Spanish, everything is pure Irish. It’s a fun game to play when people are guessing what I am—or interesting when people just start speaking to me in Spanish.
I talk to my brother a lot about race lately. I’m taking these classes where race comes up a lot and it makes my insides bubble. I don’t know a lot of people that I can talk to about race where they can really understand what I’m thinking and saying and feeling, so I’ve been talking to him about it more and more. He’s dating someone else who’s mixed—she’s white and Asian, but she sees the world so differently than either of us do.
I firmly identify as mixed and don’t want any other term applied to me. I know that some people don’t mind the term mulatto, but it makes my skin crawl and I want nothing to do with it. Even terms like “bi-racial” or “multi-racial” make me turn my nose a bit. I’m not exactly sure why, but maybe because it just seems so… just trying to be polite about something you don’t need to be careful about. A lot of people become uncomfortable when you tell them call me mixed and I haven’t really figured out why yet.
My brother is maybe as dark as me, if not a bit more. His eyes are hazel, whereas you can’t see my pupils because my eyes are so dark. Our little sister, she could easily pass and I think she does to a lot of people. Why wouldn’t she, right? The only thing is the hair—a bit frizzy, borderline of kinda kinky. I don’t even know if people ever wonder if she’s anything but white.
The last conversation we had about race was maybe two weeks ago. He thinks it’s so curious that I identify as mixed [and neither of us know what the little kid thinks of herself—it wouldn’t even shock me that much if she’d never thought about it] and it makes perfect sense to both of us why he considers himself a black male. His experiences in life are far different than my own and a lot of my freedom to identify as I please comes from my being female.
People come to me and they say things like, I don’t mean to offend you, so I apologize if I am, but what are you? Honestly, I have no idea why that question should offend anyone, but I suppose I’d understand if someone was. No, scratch that. I wouldn’t understand. It’s not something… that should be kept quiet. Race is such an interesting concept and topic—why not talk about it as much as you can? The world from my eyes isn’t the same from yours.
But they usually say that. Some sort of preface to their question about not offending me when that is one of my favorite games. I don’t get as much a kick out of it lately as I used to. Everyone nods appreciatively when I list off all the ethnicities.
The main reason I filled out an application for Michigan State was because that was the first form that I ever saw that allowed me to check more than one box. The first time I had to check a box was in seventh grade and I was so fucking confused. Didn’t know what the hell to do. Pick One Box.
Today, I came across this initiative on the MAVIN Foundation website: http://www.mavinfoundation.org/about/news_021505.html
It’s impressive. I’m going to print off a few and bring it into the next GMM. Then I’ll email a link out to some of my friends.
The first laws drawn in the United States against interracial anything appeared in the 1640’s. Loving v. Virginia [http://www.ameasite.org/loving.asp] only happened in 1967, which is the US Supreme Court judgment handed down that stated laws against interracial marriage is unconstitutional. In 1999, Alabama was the last state to take miscegenation laws out of the state law books. The last state to do so. South Carolina did the same in something like 1996—they cleared up language in their state constitution, or something like that.
The upsetting thing isn’t the date—although that’s very troubling—it’s that the law was taken off by such a slim margin. There were 41%-49% of Alabama voters who wanted that law to remain. Whenever I think of this, I just feel crushed. It’s like when I have conversations with my friends and they mention some opinion of their parents, who think interracial marriage may not be such a hot idea because what do the kids do? What about them? Is anyone thinking about them? How would they identify? Bla blab la. I just stare with my mouth hanging open a bit—because they’re fucking joking, right?
But it’s why we should talk about race more, right? Seven million Americans checked more than one box on the 2000 census—that number will go through the roof in 2010.
When I took that rhetoric class, we looked at the social movements in the United States and the last we examined was the gay rights movement that’s been going on for the last thirty years. People always say that you can’t compare it to the interracial battle that’s been happening for centuries, but you can. I never see why it’s not a good point for comparison because all that really matters is that progress happens. Six years ago, people were up in arms about a law being taken out of a state constitution that was ruled unconstitutional 32 years ago. Now, they get upset when you mention the word “marriage,” but sometimes they’re okay when you say “civil union.”
I hate that I live in a state that added a bigoted law in the year 2004. one more reason to move, right?
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