Thursday, November 13, 2008

Mixed Mentality II

Sheila - Mixed race people may want to entitle themselves mixed race or otherwise...
cnulan - I believe you may be over thinking it...
sjp - I think you have to consider that he is half African and how that influences him...

Thank you for your input.
I may have been unclear in my original question.

If Obama (or cnulan or myself or...) were caught stealing a television and hopping through a window - no witness would say that it was a mulatto, mixed or half black male. The witness statement would state that it was a Black male. I'm sure that when someone asks our race, we simply state "Black" (although for census or statistical situations I always check all that apply). I understand and accept the "One Drop Rule". There is no shame in being Black.
That's one of the reasons I use the UBJ moniker. Anyone can call me whatever they hate, no problem. When people try to use the excuse that I'm not really Black and must be mixed with something (usually after I've bettered them in one pursuit or another), I simply say that I'm ALL Black.

Sheila - I'm not trying to entitle myself to any special status. On the contrary, every time I go to a new 'hood, I have to prove that I can still "throw dem dogs". Even in somewhat affluent Black neighborhoods, the people later tell me that they thought that I was stuck on myself. People in certain areas assume that I must think that I'm better than them. I always hear from my friends how they used to hate me. When I tell them that I knew but didn't care, they tell me that it's that attitude that made them hate me. The reasons for being more easily accepted in one situation balances out by being an outsider in a different situation for the same reasons.

But thinking that success is largely psychological, both in it's acquisition and pursuit, I was asking why some people have no desire to buy into the limitations of race and why others believe all that has been told to them regarding the inferiority of their race.

Cnulan - Maybe a bit. I've failed to reach people in many situations while trying to help them progress. I'm not sure if I'm trying to help them be better or if I'm trying to make them into myself.
I just spent the last couple of days with one of my young cousins. This young cousin stated that; "all dark Black women stink". We hung out at the car wash, barbershop and mall. We listened to Blacks reciting to groups of other Blacks how Blacks were inferior to whites in most things, or how all light skinned Blacks were "soft", or how a "Dark Brotha'" couldn't get ahead, or how now that Obama was President, Blacks were going to have everything that whites (or ambitious Blacks) had...
I understand that this is the South and most of the families are one generation removed from Segregation - but why do so many still buy into the limitations of the past. After the weekend of dealing with various people, I asked him why he feels as though dark skinned Black women smelled bad and explained to him his projecting of his own insecurities. I tried to show him how he was judging people by their color (or hue) and that he shouldn't put limitations on people based on color.
I wasn't stating that "Light is better than Dark" but was curious to know why some believe the hype. I was curious to know whether being influenced by more than one culture had the effect of opening one's eyes to a more varied palette of ideas.

sjp - A great example.
African immigrants do better scholastically than any ethnic group. Obama didn't have the stereotypical African-American mentality (along with it's seemingly defeatist ways) but one that was purely African and aspirational. What cultural variances provided him with the mentality to overcome situations that many others where overwhelmed by.

I've read comments on many blogs giving the reason for Obama's success as being that he was raised by his white grandmother - as though through osmosis, the whole of European accomplishment would rub-off on Barack. I've read comments that Obama isn't really Black because he was raised in Hawaii.
Barack knows that he is Black.
I know that I'm Black.
My question is - what makes one less likely to buy into the racial limitations put upon them by others?

5 comments:

  1. If the "one drop rule" were really still in effect, than at least 30% of the people you and everyone else considers "white" would actually be "black".

    Our perception of what someone "is" is based upon what we see externally and what the person identifies with. I have 3 cousins who are bi-racial (black/white) and they ALL identify with being both - not one or the other.

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  2. confidence, self-assurance, arrogance..., since pre-school, I've been repeatedly *stigmatized* for doing whatever I want to do with no regard for social strictures, particularly the strictures of other folks' race/status/color based perceptions and or limits of understanding. I can't remember a time when I've ever consented to requests that I work harder to try and fit in.

    Oh, and let me have wound up in some backward cotton patch where fools think dark skinned women stink. You might as well have renamed me Reeses cause I'd have spent ALL my time snaking creamy peanut butter into all that rich dark chocolate - that some fool was too stupid and ignorant to appreciate.

    b'lee dat!!!

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  3. Yet again an excellent piece. your last question is powerful. It's one of the reasons why most people who just peruse my blog has got no idea "what" I am. The think one thing to put me in a box and then walks away thinking something else. I am me. If you see the color of my skin first and make any judgement based on that... I don't know. Just an excellent piece.

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  4. Parenting and environment play key roles in how views one's self and what possibilities are available, no matter the race.

    I knew many white kids who thought college wasn't an option because they wre not staight A students. They got this idea because thier parents didn't go to college.

    I have known black kids who thought they were going to be both doctors and lawyers, despite having all D's. They got this idea because various adults were "hyping" them up all the time.

    Barack talks in one of his books about a conversation with a teen relative who inexplicably gave up on the dream of being a pilot beacuae "they" won't let no black man fly a plane...not realizing he was speaking to a black man with an elite education. He bought in to what those around him were telling him...despite the facts before him.

    Others will view you how they will view you, but how you view yourself is founded in what your parents tell you while young...black, white, mixed, African, smart, cute... on and on.

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  5. "no witness would say that it was a mulatto, mixed or half black male."

    I agree with you 100% on this point. The unfortunate thing is that even when/if you don't buy into racial limitation others do and there in lies the problem. We've seen this front and center with Obama. We've also seen it with Halle, Alicia, Tiger and so many others. The fact that they are bi-racial and may even identify themselves as such they are still viewed as Black. While I don't view being Black as a limitation others do and as such attempt to limit me because of the color of my skin. I think that this is a point that is often silenced in the race debate of "what are you?"

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