[Sleeplvr]

Manni

Let me clarify something... When I said I only have one black ancestor I said according to the Census Bureau I only have one black ancestor. All the people in my tree identified as black if they had black ancestry but that is not how the government classified them KWIM? The way you identify socially and how the government see's you is two different things.

Now let me go back and read the rest of the thread.

[millie58]

sleeplvr: did you do your family tree? Is this how you got the number from the Census bureau?

Manni: ITA with the "divide and conquer" method used on us. Sad thing is black folks still fall for it.

People don 't realize that if a person isn't "seemingly" CC, SOCIETY will label us. I had a teenager a few years ago. He was bi-racial. I had to report him missing and when the cop came, he asked his race. I said bi-racial to which the cop replied: he's black. If our phentype isn't CC, we'll be seen as black.

[Sleeplvr]

Yep... I did my family tree and got copies of the census records, death certificates, birth certificates and estate papers (Will of slave owners.)

[Sleeplvr]

Need to clarify something else. The current Census allows people to self identify... back in the past when Census takers went to homes, the Census taker assigned you a race...You didn't get to decide what you were... so it was all based on that particular Census takers perception of you and your family. So your race could change from one Census to the next. For example... one of my DH's ancestors was listed as mulatto on one Census and then White on the next. The whole family didn't change just the wife in that family.

[manni28]

Now that is too cool. I wanted to kind of do the European hostel thing with my cousin, (perfect travel partner since she traveled as far as Russia) Then we got distracted by nice guys, I am still married to mine. lol

I've been very blessed! After my mom moved to Germany she wanted me to move there with her, but I was loving the "jet-set life" of flying back and forth!

-Manni

[nickchris]

DH liked Germany, (except for the tiny soap bars lol)
Seems to me its about identity issues up front for the younger set in the youtube. Understandable, but again how were they prepared. Seems that this self reflection occurs a lot in college, meeting other types of people, away from the safety of the parents home. Self reflection is normal in that phase anyway. Others will let you know what you look like, not just Black people either. Not prepared very well for life imo, if a child is given the foundation.. it will not impact them as hard.
Once again, the sheer culture of being raised suburban, rural, small town, urban and such is a factor. This is what I see raising my kids in the suburbs. I grew up in the city, and I can see a huge difference in how kids relate to each other. One learn to deal with teasing, labeling, and questions. My kids will relate to other CC, Asians and AA kids in the suburbs the same way. Since I grew up in the city, I do feel its necessary to teach your kid to learn to relate to all types/class of people.

Then as much as the culture of youtube comments can be void of intellect. lol A couple spoke of the dark skinned girl, why is she in the multiracial meeting? Duh maybe she is AA/CC or maybe she is AA/NA. Big issues with the label by phenotype only.
Another spoke of hybrid vigor what!? we are speaking of people not animal or flora. What's interesting is if you continue to cross breed an animal like a Goldendoodle and a Poodle..they get the characteristics (pheno and genotype) of the more pure bred poodle. Goldendoodle to Goldendoodle per the breeders are unpredictable.. and so far they find some pups will come out phenotype wise more Golden Retreiver or more poodle. Cool info...

Census:
The census info is so interesting Sleeplvr. I also came across some info of Blacks owning property pre Civil War, marrying NA and such in the North. When you read about people like Adam Clayton Powell, and such you get the big picture.
The scholarly link I posted spoke of the mulatto and their place in the AA community over the time line. It would be interesting to compare census taking in the islands.
I will keep reading up on the different view points, so far interesting. One thing is there is an article I am reading in-regards to pro multiracialism. I find the multiracial movement to separate as a single racial/ethnic group very interesting.

[manni28]

People don 't realize that if a person isn't "seemingly" CC, SOCIETY will label us. I had a teenager a few years ago. He was bi-racial. I had to report him missing and when the cop came, he asked his race. I said bi-racial to which the cop replied: he's black. If our phentype isn't CC, we'll be seen as black.

Thank you, and that's my point too!

Once again, the sheer culture of being raised suburban, rural, small town, urban and such is a factor. This is what I see raising my kids in the suburbs. I grew up in the city, and I can see a huge difference in how kids relate to each other. One learn to deal with teasing, labeling, and questions. My kids will relate to other CC, Asians and AA kids in the suburbs the same way. Since I grew up in the city, I do feel its necessary to teach your kid to learn to relate to all types/class of people.

Nick:

I believe this too. I grew-up in the suburbs in Miami, Fl in basically an all white neighborhood, but my parents made sure that my sister and I interacted with kids from all races. But made it priority for us to interact with other blacks kids who came from the same middle class and upper-middle backgrounds.

Then as much as the culture of youtube comments can be void of intellect. lol A couple spoke of the dark skinned girl, why is she in the multiracial meeting? Duh maybe she is AA/CC or maybe she is AA/NA. Big issues with the label by phenotype only.

Yeah, I saw several very dark kids there with very AA features and I was thinking....what are you doing there?

There was one in particular who said that people looked at her and and she "knew" they want to ask what is she? She said she was a mix of caribbean, chinese and NA but all I saw was black! You also could see that she relaxed her hair, her hair was AA. Poor thang! LOL

You know, there's an actor, Terrance Howard, he says he's multi-racial but all I see is a light skinned black man with light eyes and black features. Really, what are these people being taught? They look black but their not? That's insane, imo.

[Sleeplvr]

I guess what really worries me about the new categories is that it will bring back the old classifications of quadroon and octoroons. Just look at how some adoption agencies are marketing babies… ¼ this, ½ that or ¾ something else. We worked so hard to get past all of that and now it seems to be coming back again. The new version seems to bringing along with it a lot of the old... you are special, different or better. It gives a higher rank on the racial hierarchy. That mess left a lot of damage on this country as well as other countries.

[nickchris]

Terrance is a trip.. lol I think quite a few people should (and can) check off other.. and mess with people heads. he he...

I feel the same way too Sleeplvr.

[nickchris]

Any thoughts?