Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Tariq Nelson
After including ethnic groups like Irish, Italians, Greeks and Poles, Jacob Sullum writes:
We’ve become so accustomed to this arbitrary definition of “ethnic and racial minorities” that it’s easy to lose sight of how bizarre it is. Is there a single objective criterion that
Filed under: Race
I have also always thought of racial/ethnic classifications in the US context as quite bizarre. I find especially intriguing the classification of black/white biracial people as black, the explanation being that black people come in different colors. How about thinking of it as white people come in different colors? How about they are black , white, Asian and whatever else they decide they are? There’s too much pressure in America for people to identify as one thing or the other even if they may be more than one thing.
I know cases of light-skinned “African Americans” who have come to Ghana and been shocked when they have been described as “obroni,” the local expression for “white.”
If my research memory serves me right, only 3% of “black” Cuban immigrants identify as “black.” I know some black Americans who take offence with this but it’s perfectly fine with me. They don’t have to conform to the American narrative. People can identify as whatever they want. Are they enjoying the privileges of whiteness and taking minority “spots.”
Maybe, but there are so many spots for everyone.
I think for black people especially, the key is to look within to take advantages of opportunities in this country rather than looking at what and how other “minorities” are doing. One example that comes to mind is the Gates millenium scholarship, which funds minority students in the sciences all the way to PhD. Last time I checked, as you can imagine, many of the beneficiaries are ethnic Asians, some of them are probably even half white. Is that disingenous? Well, maybe, but if there’s a pot of money there and blacks are not applying, what are scholarship administrators to do?
I remember when I was in College, there was a movement by some black students for the school to hire more black professors. While that is a worthy ideal, I argued that we approach the problem of the paucity of black professors by asking the question “how many blacks are getting PhDs and what can we do to improve that?” Then, we’ll be in a position to demand more black professors.
The clamor for society to provide opportunities for minorities is meaningless if those minorities are not positioned to take advantage of those opportunities. When that happens, the minorities who are prepared are the ones who will benefit, even if we may consider their minority status disingenous.
That said, I think the conversation around the growing minoritization of America is unnecessarily sensationalist because it is based on the assumption that today’s white majority is all-white. What we’re seeing is just the expansion of the grey areas in American racial categories. America is becoming a penumbra nation. In that regard, the Census Bureau has done the right thing by allowing people to start checking multiple boxes for race.
To your point about black children, I think black children–in fact, all American children–shoudl study hard and kick butt regardless. But the best thing we can do for black children, and it will be as hard as hell to do, is to get them to forget that there is an achievement gap and that their schools are less equipped, their teachers less qualified. As long as they get out of the gates thinking there is a gap, they’ve lost.
Tariq:
I think this is a good point. I actually believe is has already begun to happen and it ties into what you said earlier:
In a sense, the “white” race can be seen as something of a sorority/ fraternity, considering there are some unique rewards, benefits, and privileges to being a part of the group that many “minority” groups who couldn’t pass for “white” being that quite obviously they are black have to get supplements for if anything at all.
Kobi:
I think the explanation was more so that “whites” are somehow pure and the “one drop rule” (black blood) trumps this “pureness” (except in special cases like Jewish/black mixes when the mother is Jewish).
I’m sure many WA would be shocked to know just how “impure” they are in reference to racial identification (black/white). Many of the offspring of slaves/masters were light enough to “pass” for white and some married white, while their mate thought them to be “purely” white, so to speak.
You are right that there is a lot of pressure to indentify with one race or the other, and it should be up to the individual indefinitely. I suppose this is the reason some of the offspring of slave/master I mentioned above decided to pass for white, as they saw more opportunity for themselves that way. Ultimately, I see Asians and Hispanics are doing the same things and for the same reasons….. Social-economic opportunities.
If the tables were turned, and blacks were are the top of the socio economic hierarchy, maybe we would see the reverse.
…all while living on the same American soil.
Have you looked at the National geographic genograph project tracing DNA. I sent my DNA in via a kit from NG (and paid my money) for an individual tracking. Rather cool.
The point is though, we all originated from the same area as tracked by our DNA.
These racial classifications are so crazy.
I was looking pictures of Sudan’s president Omar Al Bashir, Anwar Sadat and Prince Bandar. All three claim that they are Arab, but if anyone would see these three men in the streets of America, they will quickly classify them as Black people.
How can one be classified as ” Black” and some one be of another race? I looked at old article in JET of this Afro Egyptian man who wanted to be classified as a Black man and by all physical appearances, his ancestry and how we would see him, he looks like a lighter brown skinned Black man. Strangely, this man is having the hardest time trying to be classified as such.
According to the US Census Bureau, any person who are natives of North Africa( Egypt included), and the Middle East are classified as White Arab. This why he’s classified as a “White Arab”. It was said that Anwar Sadat didn’t want Louis Gossett Jr to play the his role of the making of his movie because he is AA.If that is the case, the darkest Arab should also be classified as such.
I have also wondered about their conclusions about these screwed up classification. It’s so illogical. Samoans , Mexicans and Dominicans( The Dominican Republic) look “Black”, but are not considered to be Black, but a person who has 1/8 black in their blood lines are ” Black” in spite of their appearance. Depending on where we live, you may be black here and not black some where else.A couple of years ago, I read a Book called TWILIGHT PEOPLE by David Houze. It was interesting not only for him to find long lost his sisters and his mothers background, but also to comprehend being a fair-skinned Black in the US and being “colored”( in his native South Africa.
In general, I just think these racial classifications are only meant to confuse , divide and downgrade people.There is no real sense in it.