If you mix blue paint with yellow paint, you get green paint. If a Finn and an Indonesian “get together,” as my teenage boys would say, a child produced by that union would be Finnish-Indonesian. However, in our race-warped culture, when a black person and a white person produce a baby, something different happens. The baby is black. The “white” side ceases to exist in a meaningful way for most Americans. Now, in any other context, such a result would be dismissed as illogical and absurd. But in America, most of us still passively accept the racist “one-drop” notion.
A quick recap: Ever since Africans were first dragged by Europeans to this continent, they and their descendants have been kicked to the bottom of the caste system. Maintaining separation required making consensual sex between the two groups the ultimate taboo. And, if sex occurred (as it often did, if one can call the rape of millions of African women sex), the resulting offspring had to be black. Any other result flew in the face of the Declaration of Independence, with its soaring eloquence about a certain kind of equality. Slavery could not exist in a land where “all men were created equal” with the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” unless the slaves were tainted, not quite human beings. If blacks were tainted, then their “blood” would be as well, forever corrupting anything it touched.
And so, in this world, black plus white equals black, no matter what. Most Americans, regardless of color, bought into this racist line of thinking. And, until very recently, I did too. I have two fine sons from my first marriage to a woman of European descent. Even before they were born, I told her my boys would be African American. For me, calling them “bi-racial” was a bourgeois cop-out used only by folks in serious racial denial. I knew that most of the world would view them as black, and I did too.
I am now in my second marriage, this time to a woman of Swedish-Irish descent. We are expecting our first child, a son. His impending arrival has made me rethink my ideas on racial identity. My wife wanted assurances from me that our son would not have to choose racial sides. I said he would not, thinking deep down that he would be African American, just like his brothers and his dad, whether she liked it or not. I said to myself, the world will see this child as black, I have to get him ready for reality. More important, he is black, legally speaking. Finally, I said to myself, black people are the only people that will accept him as he truly is.
Historically, there was some truth in the first two arguments. The world—at least our world—will view this young boy as solely a black person, for all the reasons discussed above. Beyond that, American law does presume black parent plus white parent equals black child. And, yes, black people were—and often still are—more likely to embrace a person of black and white parentage than white people. However, that acceptance often comes at the cost of denying the white side of that person. This so-called “acceptance” has done untold psychological damage to many bi-racial children. No one should be forced to deny part of his or her cultural heritage as the price of social acceptance.
The last population census forced people to rethink what constitutes a black person. It was threatening to many people, including many African Americans. There is no question that the “one drop means you’re black” thinking has increased African American political clout. Census numbers are used for everything from political redistricting to government aid to schools. Therefore, who’s who and who’s what has far-reaching implications. The fact that the concept is based on intellectual hokum means little when money and power are at stake.
What does this all mean for my wife, my sons, and me? Not much, really. Our little family will not be defined by antiquated, racist notions of “blackness” or “whiteness” because that’s the way it has always been done, or because it increases black political clout. Instead, we will raise this boy to be proud of who he is, which is part African, part Native American, part Irish, part Swedish, completely human, and all American.
Clinton Collins Jr. is a Minneapolis lawyer and ABC Radio commentator. His email address is ccollins@collins lawfirm.com.
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