Wuwop;8417957 said:
You are correct that a lot of people with a white parent identify as black
But why? Especially when it is more beneficial to not be black?
Because the other race doesn't accept them? Or because the look like a certain group of people?
What would you consider them black? And ignore the white in them?? Does that work for convenience?
I believe that we(black) need a more definitive way of identifying and separating because when we get lumped in one group you have what is called the blanket effect....Mexicans Dominicans, Puerto Ricans will let you know before you finish your sentence if you guess wrong about where they are from , Africans the same, Asians no different, idk about cacs I'm sure Irish don't want to be called russian
I can only speak for myself. The reasons I self identify as black are:
1) I look black. Unless I tell people, no one even knows I'm mixed.
2) I was raised primarily by my Black family. I had a good relationship with my white fam, but they live in OH and I'm from SC, so I wasn't really influenced by them much.
3) I was raised in a mostly black area and grew up around mostly black (or mixed) people.
4) I can't really relate to the average white person.
5) I'm treated the same way as any other black person by both blacks and nonblacks.
In other words, there are a ton of reasons why I identify as black. But if you really consider the circumstances, I didn't even have much of a choice. I couldn't have self identified as white even if I wanted to, and me acknowledging my white side wouldn't have done anything for me. It's not like whites would have treated me more like them if they knew I had some shared heritage, and black people certainly don't treat me any different when they find out I'm mixed. When when they find out, they still call me black.
Admittedly, things are changing now. There are more people that claim to be mixed, but when I grew up, saying you were mixed was a novelty comment. If you had any significant black admixture, you were black. You can't compare mixed black americans to groups from other countries. In the Caribbean, nationality and ethnicity outweigh race, so of course they wouldn't consider themselves the same as African American when they come here. For the most part, mixed Americans don't have that option.