Another interesting question is how many “black” or “Asian” filmstars and supermodels actually, like Halle, have one non black/asian parent?
I ask this because from my experience mainstream media standards of beauty still appear worryingly biased towards “western”/“caucasian” features, (just as they are towards youth and childlikeness).
I may be completely wrong, but does anyone know?
by SimonX:
That’s not how I define it. To be honest, that’s just what it is, because that’s how it’s been historically. I’m a black woman even though phenotypically, I’ve been pegged as “biracial” more times than I can remember. Halle Berry and me could easily be kin, and I’m not saying that to flatter myself.
"How can you be black if you look biracial?"a lot of people ask. And I tell them it’s because my parents are black. Even though they too are mixed with various amounts of stuff, they are black. Why are they black? Because their parents are black. Even though my grandparents are mixed with lots of stuff, they are considered black. And so on and so forth. I only know of one white relative in my bloodline, and he’s a great-great-great somebody far too upstream to be completely responsible for my racially ambiguous appearance.
So do you understand why I equate black with mixed? I could easily imagine that Halle Berry has every bit as much “white” blood that I have. Just because both of my parents are black and one of her parents is white, doesn’t change that fact. She’s as much black as millions of other “full-blooded” black people, so it makes perfect sense for her to call herself black instead of biracial.
by sum:
Depends on what school she’s in.
And, ironically enough, the same sort of gradual change in skin color and other superficial characteristics happens again. The Pacific Islands were not immune. Then you have the whole mixing thing when the explorers show up.
Here’s the problem in a nutshell: skin color is very mutable. There is no white or black race that we can point to scientifically, IIRCC. Therefore, Halle Berry literally is what she is. Sort of an indeterminate in-between color. Her kids could be the same, whiter, darker. In other words, the only wrong answer to this question is thinking there is a right one.
“Skinny Mariah Carey in the 9th grade”? Excuse me? Anyway Mariah, for example, is not white or black. She is a human being with fair to middlin’ skin color.
What does her being skinny have to do with anything?
Beagle:
Yes, race is a funny thinng. All your human experience tells you that there are races out there. Hey, plop me down somewhere on earth, let me look at the locals, and I’ll tell you roughlly where I am, right? But as soon as you try to define race scientifically you see that it simply can’t be done.
So we’re left with the political definintion.
I didnt mean it in a bad way…I would luv to have her body…
I was trying to use her as an example for me…
So, black includes gray, then?
I found this very interesting article (book excerpt, actually) from Frontline:Who is Black?" which talks about the United States unique racial definition.
Arrooo? I dated a black woman in college for several years, and it was absolutely no deal whatsoever. And that was 20 years ago.
Possibly shooting myself in the foot here, but in a similar vein to parts of this discussion, does anybody know how strongly Tiger Woods identifies himself as Asian-American? I haven’t seen any mention of it…
The people in Africa vary in color significantly. Each part of Africa has its own tendencies towards particular shades. Just like every place does. African does not mean “black.”
Sometimes people forget that if anyone stands out in the Sahara for a few years they get a good tan. It is not all genetics that determines your skin color. Have you seen a Southeastern Conference football team after two a day practices? You are talking some very large and dark African Americans. By the bowl game, not so dark, though usually just as large. The “white” kids vary a lot also.
That’s it. The study of DNA seems to diminish the significance of so-called “race.” Clusters of rare genes, however, take on a whole new significance. This raises all the issues of genetic engineering and such. So, genetics may help us with race to a point - until some nutball decides to clone and hatch the “master” one.
I agree with your “plop me down” assessment to a point. In lots of urban areas throughout the world, depending on the size of your sample, you might get some confusing results.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Tiger Woods got slammed pretty hard for saying he wasn’t black (or just black), but Cablasian—Caucasian, black and Asian. Which is exactly what he is, but he was slammed for it nonetheless. And slammed especially hard by the black community. Here’s an essay that conveys the feelings of many black Americans at the time.
Excellent article, Biggirl. The author broke things down pretty well. And I liked this part:
The question in bold really highlights how deeply the one drop rule is embedded into the American psyche. The idea of passing as black is one that I can’t even get my head around. It’s crazy.
BTW, I’m talking about the first article Biggirl linked to.
I like to dip my octaroons in milk before I eat them…
I knew an ethnic Russian guy from Khabarovsk, on Russia’s Pacific coast, who marks himself as “Asian” whenever the opportunity arises on statistical forms. His reasoning? “Hey, I’m just as Asian as anyone; most of Russia is ggeographically in Asia, and my family has lived there for hundreds of years.”
I also have a white South African friend who was pissed off at being kicked out of the ANC under apartheid, because, “Hey, am I not African because of my skin color? My family has been here for hundreds of years, and I support the organization’s platform, so why don’t they want my support?”
No, “gray” means “extraterrestrial butt-centric humanoid.” 
What’s a octaroon?
“Octaroon” used to be the name for someone who was one-eighth black.
MonkeyMensch is making a play on the word “macaroon”, just in case you didn’t know.
She’s half black/half white. Classifying her oh-so-sexy breasts is simply stupid. I don’t really care what color her daddy was, or her mommy. Thank god they got together though :9