Go over there and flirt with that well-dressed young white woman.
Good. Now, tell the quickly-forming mob that you’re not actually black. You’re not really a black person at all because you’re mixed race, only one of your parents were black and you were raised white. I’ll wait right here in the time machine.
Still think mixed race people aren’t really black?
You see, that’s the problem with white people informing mixed race people that they’re not really black. Black people did not invent the one-drop rule; black people did not declare that a person with even a drop of black blood counts as a black person, with all the fringe benefits of being a black person in America. White people did that. This is a rule that white people made when they owned black people. This is a rule that white people lived by and insisted upon for the vast majority of this country’s history. We had slavery in North America for 245 years, and during that time people with some white and some black ancestry were unquestionably categorized as black. After the Civil War, we had legally sanctioned segregation from 1890 until 1965. Those laws were made by white people, and for the purposes of those laws, people with some black and some white ancestry were considered black. There has been tacit acceptance and even full-blown celebration of violence against black people in this country from the beginning, continuing on in some areas to the present day, and to the people who commit and celebrate those acts of violence, mixed-race people count as black.
This is why it’s so horribly offensive for a young blonde white person in pink lip gloss to appear in a viral video chastising a mixed-race man for drawing attention to racism, because one of his parents is white. It’s obscenely offensive.
“But,” I hear you say, “Racism is over! Segregation is illegal! We have a black president now!”
Yes, we have a black president. And you just have to look at any combox on any news story about him to see him being called a half-breed and an ape, and a lot worse names as well. Racism is everywhere, and the racists think a mixed-race person is black right up until they can criticize a mixed-race person for claiming to be black.
“But,” I hear you saying, “I’m not a racist! I don’t see colors! I didn’t make up the one-drop rule!”
Neither did I. But that is the rule that was dictated by the powers that be in this country for literal centuries, and that is the rule that still governs our culture today. Hopefully, our culture can change and we can have this conversation again. But it hasn’t changed enough yet. In this country right now, mixed race people are black, and they know what it’s like to be black, and we absolutely have to listen to them when they try to tell us what it’s like to be black in the United States.
And now I hear you asking, “Can I come out of the time machine now?”
Yes, you can. We’re back in 2016 in wherever you were reading this blog post. Here’s your smartphone back. Have a nice day.
“But,” I hear you asking, “Aren’t you going to transmogrify me back into a white person?”
Why? I thought you didn’t see colors.
Just kidding, get back under the cardboard box.
*Whooshing noises*
There, you’re good as new. I hope you’ve enjoyed our little experiment. Next week I plan to go to Spain and find out if anybody really expected the Spanish Inquisition. See you then.
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