The Racism of the One-Drop of Blood rule.
I'm watching the second season of "The Orville". One of the key changes is the replacement of a main character by actress Jessica Szohr, a beautiful woman having a very blended genetic heritage. Her IMDB biography lists her as "of Hungarian and black ancestry" but a deeper reading of her biography lists these details: "Her father is of African-American and European descent. Her mother, whose maiden name is Szohr, is of Hungarian, German, English, and Irish descent. Szohr is a Hungarian name." So the question in my mind is "How far back do we go to count something as part of our heritage?" At best she is 1/4 "black", but probably less. Elizabeth Warren has taken heat for her claims of Native American heritage. Obviously there is a difference between 25% and 1%, but where is the cut off?
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/fe/d3/e2/f...sica-szohr.jpg
This article brings up the fact, and I agree with it, that it's mainly a cultural idea, not a genetic one: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...-tragedy-farce
Quote:
Halle Berry Cites 'One-Drop' Rule in Battle Over Whether her Daughter Is Black or White
Halle Berry said she is in a war of words with her ex-partner, Gabriel Aubry, about their daughter's racial identity.
Berry, 44, is the daughter of a white mother, who was a psychiatric nurse, and a black father, who was a hospital attendant in the same ward. Aubry is French-Canadian and white.
The couple is in the middle of a bitter custody battle over their 2-year-old girl, Nahla.
"I feel she's black. I'm black and I'm her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory," Berry said in an interview with Ebony magazine.
This is a fascinating bit of cultural development. Halle Berry would no more raise her child and send her to a "Black" primary school than would Barack and Michelle Obama. Their "Blackness" is an affectation rather than an identity forged in the "authenticity" of the streets.
As the article notes, Barack Obama is mostly "white" at less than half "black", yet he identifies as "black" culturally. About a hundred years ago, the "one-drop rule" was written into law by racist states. Miscegenation didn't stop being against law in the US until 1967's Loving v. Virginia. Nowadays, as noted in the article above, it's mostly African-Americans who continue to perpetuate the "one-drop rule" for political and cultural reasons.
