Does It Matter If Black Plus White Equals Black Or Multiracial?

[amyrose2712]

Does It Matter If Black Plus White Equals Black Or Multiracial?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2008) — "Is Barack Obama Black or Biracial?" a recent CNN.com headline asks. The question of whether Obama should be considered black or multiracial has been a concern of the media throughout the campaign.

Should such racial characterizations of people like Obama -- who have one black parent and one white parent -- really matter?

According to a new Northwestern University study, they do matter.

The findings suggest that the immediate response of non-black study participants is to categorize a racially ambiguous person as black when it was known that one of the person's parents was black and one was white.

In other words, when study participants knew of the person's black-white ancestry, in comparison to not knowing of the parentage, they quickly adhered to the simplistic characterization of biracial people as black, said Northwestern's Destiny Peery.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081010135033.htm

[NightWatcher]

1. in most mixed race children, they are tagged with the "name" of the race with the lower socio-class

as seen by those doing the naming. It is also common in Asian cultures to do the same.

My SIL is Korean and she has referred to people of mixed heritage as belonging to the race that was considered lower in the class system throughout Asia.

It's not fair, but widely practiced.

[notadmblnd]

2. Well I think it has more to do with the line wirtten in the constitution

I don't know the exact phrase but it has to do with having less than white blood. I know in real life, it shouldn't matter. I hate labels, I think labels separate us as people and we should avoid using them. My son is multi-racial, African American, American Indian, and Western European. Most people don't know what mix he is. He does not have prominent African American features such as coarse hair, dark skin, large nose or lips. He does have fat cheeks, but he gets them from me. I've had people ask me, "what is he" and my only reply has been - he's a little boy. His coloring is such that he can pass for Arab, Mexican, Indian, Italian, Black or White which results in him being pretty much accepted by every one. What race does he most identify with if you were to ask him? African American even though his father died when he was ten, and has spent most of his life being raised by a white mother.

[Karenina]

3. White people define what "whiteness" is.

Their standards are VERY STRICT! ;-)

[notadmblnd]

4. Until they find out they're "mixed" with something

[Karenina]

7. Such a paradox!

[Brewman_Jax]

5. Hypodescent is the term for said practice

same in Asia as in North America.

[jcla]

6. My son says "a little from column a, a little from column b, a little

from column c, a little from column d... et cetera. Multi-ethnic and humorous.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. since race is a social construct and not a bio construct, it matters that barack looks black

it means he has had to face racism. since no one looks at genetic structure to determine their bias.