The one drop rule does not exist? Mr. Kamiya, I beg to differ. Riddle me this. Barack Obama's unique background presents America with both a puzzle and a challenge. With a father from Africa and a white mother from Kansas, Obama adamantly maintains being “African-American." Why does Barack Obama, who is 50% white, not asserting himself as white to the American public? Can he?
It is true that the scientific basis for "race" is shaky. Humans are 99% alike on the genetic level. Our genes say we are a single species. However, "race" continues to be used and defined. In America, "race" has become a slippery sociocultural mental construct that allows us to group people by visual discrepancies, weak but identifiable phenotypes. To this end, race is as present now as it has been since its inception of use.
It is ideal to strive toward a colorblind society, where our actions and behaviors realize the hope of this nation's Founding Fathers: that all men are created equal. However, the visual categories we use to classify and treat people do exist even as we are mentally haunted by this thread that sewed our nation together. Where so many decisions and actions continue to manifest the results of those "in here/out there" illusory categories,” America has proven its firm reputation in socially trafficking people by race.
The one-drop rule exemplifies the significance of the illusory social construct of "race." This notion has mostly been applied to American-born people of “black” (African) ancestry. Any person with any African ancestry, no matter how miniscule, is deemed a “black” person. Because tracing ancestry is complicated, the concept has sustained on the reliance on using color: shades of brown to signify "blackness." When we say "race" in America, we are delving directly into the realm of "drops." Color blindness? Hardly. Human blindness? Sight is a very powerful sense.
If the one-drop rule does not exist, then nearly all of us would identify and be viewed as multiracial. Langston Hughes once wrote: “You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are a lot of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word ‘Negro’ is used to mean anyone who has Negro blood, therefore black. I am brown.” That only 3 percent of Americans currently identify as biracial pinpoints the dominance of people's perceptions over actual racial makeup.
Most "African-Americans" in this country have mixed ancestry. Obama is no different. He identifies as black because he is perceived at face value to be black. His blood composition is half black and his skin tone is more than sufficient to mark him as black. The one-drop rule has dire implications. For example, if both Obama and McCain were to drive fancy cars at night, who is more likely to be pulled over by police? That one drop sure goes a very long way.
Given the above category illusion, rampant among American minds, “African-American” is indeed the most accurate race to describe Obama. By doing so, Obama has opened our eyes to acknowledge the perpetuation of the one-drop rule. By going linearly with his "African-American" identify, Obama is demonstrating that while our country is indeed a melting pot of all kinds of people from all sorts of backgrounds, racial categorization is heavily dependent on perception. He is changing our misunderstanding that African-Americans are monolithic. Obama's claim of blackness is not denigrating his white heritage because a black person in America, most likely, do have some white ancestry. To accept Obama's black identification recognizes this fact and unravels the reality that blacks have a unique racial history in America.
In acknowledging our own propensity to uphold the one drop rule even as we strive to abolish it, we will inch closer to becoming a colorblind society. Our nation must learn to refrain from making judgements based on people's physical appearance and skin color. This nation is now undeniably multiracial and multicultural; our diversity is more than skin deep. In making friends, hiring employees, electing candidates, we should focus on the personal qualities and characteristics that people can bring to the table. I am far more interested in what Obama can do for me as the President of the United States than how he exemplifies a post-racial society. Reevaluating centuries of American race relations is beyond the job description for presidency!
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Rap About The One Drop Rule
Rap About The One Drop Rule
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