His father is a black man, from Kenya.
I’m not sure about this, but I think the “one drop” rule was actually something legal. If you were of at all mixed blood, and didn’t mark “Negro” on whatever questionaire, and were found out…you could get fired, defamed, or whatever. I “know” this from the '50s.
I’m used to revealing my ignorance on these boards, so put me down as a white guy who had no clue that either Wentworth Miller or Mariah Carey had any black heritage.
(I’ve seen Miller guest-star on two hour-long dramas, and his skin tone is nothing like it appears in the picture Citizen linked to.)
Being old, fat and ill I resemble that remark. 
I am the Walrus.
Plessy v. Ferguson, the famous Supreme Court case where they decided that “separate but equal” was acceptable, involved the one-drop rule in its background. The plaintiff in that case was only 1/8 black, but under state law he was categorized as black for the purposes of segregation. However, the case was brought against the segregation law itself; the one-drop rule wasn’t litigated.
Of course, the one-drop rule is ridiculous on many levels.
My ex-husband’s telling features are a somewhat broad nose, kinky hair and large lips. The lips are pretty persistent, showing up in both his father and his son as well, and his son has the kinky hair times 1000. I wonder how far down the line those genes would go? Not likely to find out, unfortunately, as his son is profoundly autistic and unlikely to marry or reproduce. One of his brothers has the lips at least, though, so maybe we’ll see that one continuing.
I’m curious about the genetic ancestry of Alex Kingston. I always assumed, when I saw her on ER, that she had some African ancestry in there somewhere – probably mainly because of the hair, and perhaps a bit of something about her skin and the shape of her features. But I can’t find anything on what her parents’ racial background might be. Her mother is German and her father is English, but that doesn’t preclude anything as such.
How would the participants in this thread read this person’s features?
Red hair, check. Light skin, check. Kinky hair, check. Broad nose, check. Thick lips, check.
She’s the Duchess of Alba and she happens to have more officially recognized European titles of nobility than anyone else in the world. (A duchess seven times over, a countess 22 times and a marquesa 24. Cite) Descended from King James II of England/VII of Scotland, and related to the Churchills and Princess Diana. She’s as blueblood as it’s possible for a person to be. Wasn’t there a thread a few years back about a crackpot who insisted that all the royals of Europe were black Africans passing as white? That was quite silly. However, Doña Cayetana is Spanish and it’s a historical fact that Spain’s population has absorbed a certain quantum of Moorish ancestry, is all that comes to mind (limpieza de sangre aside). But then everyone’s ancestry traces back to Africa.
Scary enough to give me nightmares, that’s how! Jeez, put a warning up when you post stuff like this.
Can’t sleep, Duchess of Alba will eat me…
Old.
I remember that, it was quite bizarre…
Heh. I remember early internet days when this guy I was marginally friendly went off the deep end and started a site dedicated to the idea that all the East Coast Native American Tribes were really African ruled Kingdoms that were destroyed and deliberately obscured by European colonists.
I remember years ago I was watching ER on a television with horrible staticky reception. I just knew that the actress on the screen was a black woman, especially since she was flirting with Eric Lasalle’s character. Later I realized I was wrong, but that feeling remained. She will always be that light-skinned black chick to me!
Representative Debbie Waserman Shultz is another one who sets off my -dar. For me it’s a combination of her looks and voice. I do not know if she is Jewish, but in general, Jewish folk often make me do a double-take. Which is not TOTALLY strange, since I recently read about a study that found Jews (all major groups combined) have about 3-5% sub-Saharan African ancestry.
And that strikes me as really funny. No one outside of my grandmother has ever asked me whether I am of African descent, but I’m often mistaken for Jewish, including questions of that sort from the family of my Jewish cousin by marriage. (Mostly I’m asked whether I know that I look like Bette Midler. Short answer: yes.) And, as I said earlier, my brother looks like a very fair Morgan Freeman. Hard to envision unless you know us, but no one with better-than-legally-blind vision would miss that my brother and I are closely related. So I guess we just look like the whitest black Jews on the block?
(And yes, my hair looks like Alex Kingston’s - ringlets galore when it’s long. But mine is between strawberry and copper red, I have very fair skin and green eyes, full lips, and a nose that could easily be described as Semitic, Negroid, or “big and ugly” if you ask me.)
Mind you, a dear co-worker recently commented to me that I was the blackest white girl she knew, but I think it was meant as a compliment, because I know how to cook soul food (i.e. the stuff readily available to poor folk in southern USA) and dance, and I have a big butt.
FWIW Paula Abdul is Jewish, with Middle Eastern, Russian and Ukrainian ancestry. I found that a little surprising.
And as for people who were successfully passing and never “outed,” I’m still convinced late 19th century First Sea Lord Jacky Fisher must have been the champion.
Once I caught a ride from the husband of a fellow graduate student (we were leaving the airport together). I was in the car not two minutes before he started talking about black-Jewish interracial relationships during the civil rights movement. He asked if my parents were activists.
I was very confused until I realized he was assuming I was both biracial and Jewish. Even though I hadn’t uttered a single word beyond, “Hi, nice to meet you.”
She is Jewish.
But I doubt that Ashkenazim (of which she would be a member) would have recent African ancestry. Most of them lived in Eastern Europe for hundreds of years.
As for the Duchess of Alba, I agree that she just looks old. I don’t see a broad nose, and the hair looks like it was perm’ed.
For reference (and amusement value), this is the crackpot thread: Was Europe (1500-1789) a black civilisation? - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board
This is Doña Cayetana when she was young and not scary-looking. I still think that’s a rather broad nose for a European. But with straight(ened?) hair, the effect is diminished. I’m not saying she is passing, just noting how African-looking features can show up in Europeans, perhaps randomly. Her parents don’t look like that.
Research into my genealogy has turned up evidence of mixed-race ancestry on both sides of my family, i.e. some of my long-ago ancestors passing for white and becoming assimilated to white, so I take a personal interest in the subject.
I always assumed this to be the case. Irish people (even prior to mass immigration) run the gamut from translucent pale to very sallow. A friend of mine who has no non-Irish ancestry in his recent past gets mistaken for African or Spanish on an occasional basis. He has dreadlocks which I think some people parse as “black” regardless of your complexion. Now it could turn out he does have an African ancestor relatively recently but if he does it’s not to his knowledge, and while his siblings are all dark haired and quite sallow none look quite as Mediterranean as he does.
You people have some interesting ideas about what black or white noses should look like. Sure, generally speaking, around these parts black people’s noses are broader than whites’, but this idea that if a nose isn’t paper-thin it’s “rather broad for a European” makes me wonder what Europeans this opinion is based on. Her nose’s width looks fairly typical of a white person to me.
Classic answer is a nigger in the woodpile, in a manner of speaking. Dude - casual bastardy can not be entirely eliminated unless you wall the married couple up on their honeymoon and don’t let them out until the kid is on the way. They did have black servants in Europe as far back as Imperial Rome you know. One boink on the sly at the wrong/right time and you have a bastard.