General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe One Drop Rule
Occasionally on this board posters declare their prejudices against White people. While I generally agree that *some* White people are White Supremacists and that *some* Whites only vote White, I do not agree that ALL Whites are bad people who hate people of color. A lot of us don't give an RA what you are outwardly, but only care what you are inwardly. But, we take the rap anyway.
Now, I am White, and have been designated such from the day I was born. However, I discovered a picture of an ancestor which seems to be a family picture wherein he is sitting next to a female who appears to be a woman of color, and there are children arrayed around them. I thought probably that was a weird nanny picture, but what if.....
Now, if you are one eighth Black, you are an Octoroon. Kind of a cool name, probably not in practice, though...at any rate, it used to be that if you had *any* Black blood, you were Black, period. So, even if you were snow white and called White, a smidgen of ancestoral love could pull you into the realm of being Black, with all the work that entails, and you would be passing as White, even if you didn't know. Hear me out. It will take generations and generations to get past this skin, culture and heritage nonsense. What with global warming, we will all drown before we reach that treasured state of nonprejudiced brotherhood.
Why don't we just all declare ourselves to be whatever we want? College students do that all the time for selection advantage. (I, myself, have considered whether my possible-but-not-proven heritage could be upheld through my family picture; it would be better if she were Native American, but I swear I can't tell...) We can sweep all the pain away for today by simply picking whatever we want to be and ignoring the puzzled looks. Voting blocks of all Blacks could contain White people with no problem. Blaming people for voting failure wouldn't work, because everyone would be whatever color they needed to be. Not only that, but you could switch up whenever you wanted. On Monday, you could be White, but on Tuesday, you could be Black; on Wednesday you could be Native American...
Same for religion. Go with the flow. Be a human on all days, but celebrate whatever you want, whenever you want. It's all irrelevant, anyway, except for when you are entering battle, and on the last day, when everyone will pray to somebody.
I think those boxes on forms that the Government wants you to check should be removed and replaced with, "Are you human?" Then, we would gradually teach each other not to worry about that stuff. "Decline to state" doesn't get there. I don't decline to state anything. I'd tell you if I knew. The problem is, who does know for sure? You look at my color, you look at my facial features, and think you know, but as you insult me, do you really know who I am?
marie999
(3,334 posts)My husband is 75% Jewish and Iranian and 25% Jewish and Eastern European from his grandfather 4th generation American. The government considers us White but we don't. It is not because of White supremacy
Mary in S. Carolina
(1,364 posts)But my heart is 100% Mexican.
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)B-b-b-but not all white people
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EndlessWire
(6,526 posts)Ron Green
(9,822 posts)And that is the truth.
EndlessWire
(6,526 posts)Decoy of Fenris
(1,954 posts)Similar to gender-fluidity, race-fluidity is now becoming a more popular thing, where people simply feel or identify as different race from time to time.
I can't say I understand it, but it's one more step in the right direction socially, where your race in the end doesn't matter, since anyone can be any race.