What Truly Classifies One As An "African American"
Faith Thomas
Posted in: BLOGS on 2/14/08 at 1:36 PM PST
The Declaration of Independence clearly states "We hold these
truths to be self evident THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL." If that is
truly the case, then why did it take so long for African Americans to be
defined as an ethnic culture. It took the Jim Crow laws, The abolishment of
slavery, the Civil War and plethora of other unmentionable acts to
give African-Americans the freedoms they deserve, and that was all before
I was even born. As a child of "African American Decent", meaning that
I've got African-American blood in me but I'm no darker than the
night's sky, it seems the more I look around the more it makes me slightly
question if racial profiling still exists to this very day. When I look
back to my elementary school years, I was always considered "mixed" by my
immediate family because my dad's Creole (French, Indian and White) and
my mom's Black.
However, when it comes to census voting, it always ends up with me
being considered African-American or Black. Whenever, I hung out with
my friends, skin color never mattered, I hung out with everyone. I've
hung out with people who are Iranian, Irish, African American, Dutch,
Polish and Nicaraguan just to name a few and I've even had a Jewish
boyfriend. When I was in middle school (I'm surprised that I can remember
this far back), I had a friend named Kieran Joshua Haile who was both
Japanese and Black but the census defined him as black.
I never knew (and probably still) to this day don't know what my
true ethnicity is. That's possibly due to the drop rule. This rule
implies that if you have one fourth of African American blood in you, but
you happen to be of mixed race, then you're black, but I'm like dairy
creamer half-and-half and I look more like my father than I do my
mother. This was immensely hard for me when I was younger, because I never
fit in with the black kids at my school, because I always used the
"King's English" and I never really found myself fitting in with the white
truths to be self evident THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL." If that is
truly the case, then why did it take so long for African Americans to be
defined as an ethnic culture. It took the Jim Crow laws, The abolishment of
slavery, the Civil War and plethora of other unmentionable acts to
give African-Americans the freedoms they deserve, and that was all before
I was even born. As a child of "African American Decent", meaning that
I've got African-American blood in me but I'm no darker than the
night's sky, it seems the more I look around the more it makes me slightly
question if racial profiling still exists to this very day. When I look
back to my elementary school years, I was always considered "mixed" by my
immediate family because my dad's Creole (French, Indian and White) and
my mom's Black.
However, when it comes to census voting, it always ends up with me
being considered African-American or Black. Whenever, I hung out with
my friends, skin color never mattered, I hung out with everyone. I've
hung out with people who are Iranian, Irish, African American, Dutch,
Polish and Nicaraguan just to name a few and I've even had a Jewish
boyfriend. When I was in middle school (I'm surprised that I can remember
this far back), I had a friend named Kieran Joshua Haile who was both
Japanese and Black but the census defined him as black.
I never knew (and probably still) to this day don't know what my
true ethnicity is. That's possibly due to the drop rule. This rule
implies that if you have one fourth of African American blood in you, but
you happen to be of mixed race, then you're black, but I'm like dairy
creamer half-and-half and I look more like my father than I do my
mother. This was immensely hard for me when I was younger, because I never
fit in with the black kids at my school, because I always used the
"King's English" and I never really found myself fitting in with the white
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