Those Discriminated Against Are Now the Discriminators |
Those Discriminated Against Are Now the Discriminators
Indian Country Today Media Network
2015-12-31
Juilanne Jennings
For some odd and stupid reason many of us continue to be color struck. I really think most of us are ignorant or at the very least forgetful. Black people who look “white” is not a new phenomenon. In the United States, anyone with a trace of African blood, no matter how remote, has been considered black. Following the centuries-long evolution of Eurocentrism, a concept geared to protecting white racial purity and social privilege, race has been constructed and regulated by the “one-drop” rule (i.e., hypodescent), which obligated individuals to identify as black or white, in effect erasing mixed-race individuals from the social landscape. Walter Plecker, first registrar of Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving from 1912 to 1946, had brought racial policies to blood and bone level.
Now, deep into the 21st century, the socially constructed racial ladder continues to keep people of color, including individuals of mixed race, from enjoying the same privileges as Euro-Americans. Moreover, as we try to march forward with new members of a new multiracial movement pointing the way toward equality, those who have been discriminated against are now becoming the discriminators…
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Tags: ICTMN, Indian Country Today Media Network, Juilanne Jennings