My girlfriend is half black and half white. While she was filling out a form recently I noticed when it came to the question of race she checked “black.” I asked her why she didn’t mark white since she is as much one as the other. She replied that in America one is considered black if the amount of black parentage is one-eighth or greater. Is or was this true? Why? Since I am a Mexican male, what will the white establishment consider our children? Not that it matters, but I’d like to know what is in store for us. –An in-love but mixed-up couple, Los Angeles
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These days there’s not much official guidance on who’s black and who’s white. The Census Bureau has adopted the sensible policy of letting you be whatever you mark down on the form. You can look like Snow White and talk like George Plimpton, but if you want to be a Fiji Islander, by God you’re a Fiji Islander as far as the census is concerned.
Unofficial standards are a different story. Experts on race relations agree that up until very recently, and to some extent even today, white America held to the “one-drop” rule: if you had one drop of black blood in you–any detectable African ancestry at all–you were black. This is an extremely peculiar attitude that may well be unique in the world; even South Africa acknowledges the existence of people of mixed race.
So where does that leave you? Hard to say. No question the one-drop rule still prevails for a lot of white folks. But since even racists don’t have the nerve to ask for proof of pedigree these days, what matters most is what you look like. The fact that you’re Hispanic is the perfect smoke screen. Your kids probably won’t pass for Swedish but they’ll be able to declare themselves black or Hispanic as the whim moves them. Better yet, have them say it’s nobody’s damn business.
