July 3, 2007
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Half and Half
It never ceases to amaze me how many prominent African Americans are actually half-black. And yet, society at large considers them to be African American! This is very different from being half anything-else-in-the-world.
A partial list of some celebrities who are half-black (or less):
- Barack Obama (half Kenyan, half American)
- Alicia Keys (half Jamaican, half Irish-Italian)
- Derek Jeter (half African American, half Irish-American)
- Halle Berry (half African American, half English)
- Mariah Carey (mother is of Irish American descent, and father is of African American and Venezuelan descent)
- Tiger
Woods (one-quarter African American, one-eighth Chinese, one eighth
Filipino, one-quarter Thai, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth
Dutch).
Be honest: do you distinguish in your mind between someone who is half-black/half-white, and someone who is more traditionally African American?
Comments (64)
I never even knew Mariah Carey or Alicia Keys had any African ancestry in them.
I’m afraid I’m superficial in this… it really depends on their skin colour.
I imagine the more significant question is: “Does one’s skin color even make a difference?”
I think not…
it comes down to how they’re portrayed i suppose.
mariah sings music that would be more known as white while alicia sings music more known as ‘black’ so i think of alicia as black and mariah white.
barack the media is hyping up as future black president so i see him as black.
I think of people as being simply people unless they for some reason make a point of their skin color at which time I lose all respect for them no matter what color their skin is or what their ancestry is.
I did not know that Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, and Derek Jeter had any african ancestry at all.
i think most people consider mariah white.
what do you mean by “traditionally”?
What’s black tradition??
Did you mean heritage-wise?
In the U.S., where everyone from different background come together to merge into this society, I think people are what they consider themselves to be. Interestingly enough though, most half white and half something people tend to consider themselves to be that something rather than white (if they had to choose between two).
don’t forget halle berry!
So one time I said to my friend, “MANN you’re really tan!” And then he goes, “I’m half black.”
I never would have guessed.
other than mariah, i didn’t know any of those folks are only half black! but when someone is half asian and half whatever, i can easily distinguish that.
amy above – ooo that’s embarrassing! – well i guess it depends on how close you are to your friend
and about halle berry – i find it interesting that she can look either really black or white depending on her makeup/clothes/hair
i have ALWAYS argued about this with people. i mean, why in the heck are those that are half white/half black or even half anything/half black considered to be black and not white or the mix that they are??
and funny story, i know these 2 brothers who are from a chinese mother and a guyanese father. and oddly enough, one looks totally chinese and one looks totally black. does that mean only one would be considered “black”?? it just makes no sense…
Skin color is of little relevance to me, and the stereotypes that are associated with one’s skin coloring is even more irrelevant.
But, I’m fairly decent at differentiating between mixed and African descent. I’ve met enough mixed people that it tends to become easier with time.
I found out recently that white people are becoming a bit of a minority. I’m amused by this.
i am half asian/white, whites always consider me asian, and asians consider me white (at first)
but relate more to my asian half, but that is just due to my mom’s family not rly loving asians i think. heh
to pseudo above, to me, as to most, stereotypes come to be for a reason, but not only the ones with bad connotations get complaints. i am not sure why asians complain that people think they are smart, but i can understand why they complain when people think they have small members. but that last one may be pseudoirrelevant to you. heh
i have a friend who is half nigerian and half british. Her dad is british but she can speak the local Yoruba language and understand it. I see her as nigerian in that regard but british with regards to everything else.
I have another friend who is hard chinese and half indian. I see him as a Malaysian but more a chinese than an indian.
Its hard but i guess i see the most prominent features of the particular person.
Maybe this is controversial to say, but unless you have true-African-black skin, chances are there’s some white blood mixed in there somewhere.
I was surprised to find out recently that Halley Berry is half-white. I didn’t expect that. I guess if their skin looks dark enough, and you never see their parents, you just don’t think it. There’s such a wide range of skin shades even among african americans born to 2 african american parents.
i don’t even think about it….
no. I tend to be colorblind…
I thought Derek Jeter was white.
I think I would have considered all of them black except Mariah.
And I would not have thought of Jeter is black either.
It drives me up the wall how they are just lumped into the African American/black category whereas the rest of us get to pick it apart. E.G. I’m half Korean and half Scottish; purely American!
I’ve been reading too much Harry Potter lately (yes, I’m nearly 30 and I read Harry Potter!)…I keep wanting to say, “I’m half and half. Me dad’s a Muggle. Me mam’s a witch. Bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out!”
OK…all that blither being said…I truly don’t see ethnicity. I judge people by what comes out of their mouth within the first few minutes of meeting them. Has NEVER led me wrong.
I opt for “multi-cultural” and admire their cultural background. Being a naturalized citizen, I have the best of both cultures, my native (Cuban) and my naturalized (American). I think and dream in English, yet cannot go a day w/out rattling off in Spanish. We have all these beautiful cultures, styles, features, customs . . . how lucky the world is when different cultures get together . . .
Personally, I ‘see’ whatever is presented to me to see, if they prefer to be seen as black, and present themselves that way, that’s what they will be in my eyes. Tiger Woods for one makes it a point to play up his ancestry. If he had never brought it up, it likely would not have been as much an issue as it is. I’d say, “Tiger who? Oh, the golfer. I don’t watch golf.” The same thing goes for gays/lesbians, or people of differing religions, or anything else. Tell me that you’re a gay half black agnostic, and I’ll treat you the same way I’d treat the pope or any other member of the human race, until I have had a bad experience with you personally. Then, my reactions are based on my experience with ONE human being…but I don’t hold every other human that is similar accountable for the acts of that person.
My question to your question would be along the lines of this…what is it that makes ‘half’ blacks, or half any other race or those who are gay, or those who do have easily discernable qualities upset that those qualities are observed? When I look at a human being, I see first if it’s male or female, or if it is similar to me, or different. Because I admit to that, and say it, doesn’t make the differences I may or may not notice reasons for how I treat anyone, because I treat people as they treat me, and it has nothing at all to do with the sex they are, the color of skin or thier preferences in bed or religion or anything else. We as humans do see differences and similarities, yet not all those are socially acceptable to discuss. You can usually say “I met the biggest jerk the other night, he/she was rude, obnoxious, and I don’t care to EVER see them again,” in ANY crowd of people, and no one gets upset that you qualified the human as a male or female, yet if you add in the words black, gay, muslim, jewish, or many others into that sentence, the acts done that made the person a jerk are overlooked in favor of seeing that you noticed something that may be as obvious as the first observation you made…that it was a male or female…and that observation makes whatever else the person did to be seen as a jerk irrelevant.
yea…sometimes i don’t know if i am iced tea or lemonade. i just know i’m satisfying on a hot day.
Yes.
if i know the fact that they are half, then i do distinguish them as half in my mind
Great question. I really don’t. I’m always curious about people’s heritage. I’m just a “mutt”. German, Norwegian, Scottish, English, & Irish. The only time I was really questioned such a thing was in wondering how my cousin dealt with his “mix”. He’s half white, and half black, yet he’s paler than me. So a lot of blacks don’t accept him as “black”, and some whites want nothing to do with him. One girl he was dating was forced to stop when her father found out that Ian’s father was black. He told his daughter, “I don’t want a black grandchild!” *sighs*
i thought derek was latino!
Well, since I am also half black, I would tend to see such people as simply “multiracial.”
I’m sure everyone is a mix one way or another. It’s almost like people who says they’re 100% chinese, but they were born in Cambodia. The fact of the matter is, it doesn’t even matter anymore
Mariah Carey isn’t half black, and neither is Tiger Woods. Mariah’s half white, one quarter black, and one quarter Hispanic (Venezuelan). Tiger is half Asian (Thai and Chinese), one quarter black, one eighth Native American, and one eighth white (Dutch). He checks Asian on forms, but calls himself “Cablinasian.”
Add these people to your list, though, because they’re all half black: Bob Marley, Lenny Kravitz (half Jewish), Mya, Sade, Samantha Mumba, and Soledad O’Brien (father is Irish, mother is black Cuban).
By the way, Malcolm X was a quarter white, and Naomi Campbell is partly Chinese. Rosario Dawson is Puerto Rican, Black, Cuban, Irish and Native American.
I’m not gonna lie i lump them in based on what they look like to me. Alicia keyes and halle berry – black. Derek jeter and mariah carey – white. I’m really only colorblind once i get to know the person. You said be honest :-p.
(Sorry about the long comment – but it’s worth a read!)
Nope – I don’t necessarily make a distinction between those “African Americans” who have a parent who wouldn’t be considered African American and those that have two parents considered to be African American – largely because somewhere down the line, most “African Americans” are of mixed ancestry. (And I put the term in quotes because it’s a questionable one – one that many would argue doesn’t apply to people like Barack Obama, because it was originally used for those black people who could never be able to identify just where in Africa their ancestors came from.) I don’t use the term African American though – I just stick to Black because of how “African American” is applied to people who can trace their ancestry to some other country easily and I don’t apply it to myself (my family is from Jamaica – so I go with Jamaican-American)
The reality of the social system that resulted from the practice of slavery in the US and in other countries is that miscegenation became more common than others would want to acknowledge – largely because a great deal of mixing occurred not by choice, but by force. A great deal of black people in the US are mixed with European and Native American ancestry - in the West Indies it’s more common to see Black people mixed with European, Middle Eastern, Asian or East Indian ancestry. One of the lasting impacts of the social system which grew out of the practice of slavery is the hypodescent rule (i.e. one-drop of black blood makes someone black) which is why people like Tiger Woods and Mariah Carey are lumped into the “African American” category. Race is a social construct we use to understand the world around us largely based on the mores and values of a society – so as we cling to the hypodescent rule as far as black ancestry is concerned, we will continue to lump anyone with some black in them together.
Whatever. People are people and no matter the classification used, we are all one people so despite different ancestries it’s hard for me to really look at anybody as half of anything, you know - even though I probably feel that way because of my own mixed ancestry (part East Indian, part black, and part a bunch of other things). I’m clearly made up of some different things but I feel far from fractured.
I’d recommend checking this site: http://www.pbs.org/race. PBS did a really interesting documentary a while ago and it’s companion site has really good information about the evolution of race, how it works in society, and an interesting game to see if you can guess people’s race (most ppl end up guessing wrong!)
My friend is half white, half Japanese. I call him “one of those halfsies.”
Mooriah! <3
for me, it depends on what they classify themselves as.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
what about those famous people who are partially asian but you would never even know it:
1. Enrique Iglesias
2. Lou Diamond Phillips
3. Rob Schneider
4. Phoebe Cates
hm, an honest discussion about race. People need to realize it’s okay to talk about race; it’s inappropriate to discriminate based on a person’s racial background.
add American Idol Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks to the list.
Yeah the greatest golfer in the world is Asian-American! LOL
Tiger Woods is actually a quarter black. By the numbers, he would more rightly be considered Asian. Colin Powell is another guy sonsidered black even though he’s less than half. I think Jim Crow 1/8 laws are still in effect, but now it just determines your fanbase rather than where you’re allowed to sit in restaurants and busses.
What I think is kind of sad is that half-black is how many African Americans even view the black half when the white half or the other half whatever it may be is not viewed that way. There is a break down like German or Scottish or Greek etc. And if African American had the chance many of them would find that they also have a variety of nationalities ion the black half. (Given, the unique history in this country has prohibited such knowledge but it doesn’t always have to be that way.)
Maya Angelou has a story called “All God’s Children Need Travellin’ Shoes” in which she tells of going to Africa and having the women there tell her of her own heritage basing their opinions upon her features. She was not then simply African just like not one of us is simply any color.
But to your question, with as many different skin colors and ethnicities I see during the school year I do distinguish but more for getting to know more about a kid and for things like seeing what colors will look good next to them like in frames or hats or things like that. For practical purposes.
There is a dying stigma about darker skin if that is what you mean by “more traditionally African American” even among the minority cultural set here as you know, but it is dying and thank god for it. I once had to comfort a young dark skinned girl displeased with her appearance, it didn’t work long term to quell the anxiety, but I told her the truth and it made her feel a bit better that all jewels, especially diamonds look their best on the darkest of skin. There is even a line in Romeo and Juliet to support it historically, “She shines like a jewel in an Ethiops ear” or something like that.
I know not to assume everyone is black.
I don’t use color or ancestry so old that the person doesn’t even speak the language of their ancestors. If you are an American born in America then you are just an American. I don’t get to claim my father’s military ribbons as my successes so why should I get to claim my great great great grandfather’s nationality as part of my own, especially seeing as how I have never even been to their native nation.
We would all get along much better if we quit trying to make ourselves more special than we are and if we started looking at ourselves as part of a greater unified whole…Americans with an interest in America’s progress…or lack of progress.
It can be difficult to tell, seeing as people of any racial decent can have a large and varied spectrum of skin colour.
We are all Children of God. every color is Beautiful that’s what makes the rainbow!
God Bless VARIETY. The Spice of life!!!
hello john!!!!!!!
wow @ mariah carey and derek jeter
i don’t distinguish between the two until i know they are, then in my mind i just think, “oh they’re a mix. cool”
I didn’t even know Tiger was half
Barak Obama and John Kerry’s wife are the only AFRICAN Americans i know of in the limelight. i’m Jamaican, although technically i’d be Jamaican-American, but since i was born in New York that don’t make me a REAL Amerikkklan
When i came up from Jamaica in the mid-Sixties, if you called these Nigroes BLACK or told them they came from AFRICA they wanted to slit your throat
They’d tell you they were “Negroes” or “colored”
As Malcolm said—they left their minds in Africa.
This whole African-American thang is just a passing fancy
To be completely honest? well… I look most at whether their behavior substantiates any stereotypes. If there’s no stereotypical behavior, I tend not to notice skin color. Certain behaviors force me to notice, such as accents, methods of dress, number of expletives per sentence, etc. etc.
In an effort to be P.C., I’m neither condoning nor condemning this. It’s just what I see.
My children are half and half. I think they often identify more with the Chinese side than the white side. What does “white” really mean? We’re actually all sort of tan and I have too many freckles. Can I be considered “spotted”?
Wow this is somthing I never thought about! On an individual basis day to day contact it matters not to me. If I witness an accident or robbery or something and am asked the ‘actor’s’ race than I’d probably chose one over the other. Never seen a form with ‘mixed’ or ‘half’ on it.
Going to be thinking about this all day.
Clearly Tiger Woods is only good because he’s half Asian. (Filipino, Thai, Chinese)
Well my question is how the hell do you come up with oh im half or im a quarter and something like that…not you and in u personally but you, like people who say that they r like a thrird or something like that…thats where i get confuzed…and im proud to say that both my parents r <a style=’text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 3px double;’ href=
John said, “Be honest: do you distinguish in your mind between someone who is half-black/half-white, and someone who is more traditionally African American?”
From the tone of your post, I’m going to assume that you’re old enough to remember the Civil Right Movements as more than just historical. To those of us who grew up after that long, dark period in history, your post is somewhat confusing. I have to disagree with your claim that, “And yet, society at large considers them to be African American!” Only the older people who were brought up in such a social system even care to manipulate various ethnicities into races. None of the younger generations use races as identifiers. MLKjr and CC and so many others taught our parents and grandparents the error of such thoughts, that color of skin is just another feature like color of hair or color of eyes. Those of us who grew up in the new system, we celebrate ethnicities as things to share with each other. What’s the point of doing anything less??
Mariah Carey is an exception.
Unfortunately, it seems that regardless of even the color of your skin, if you have negroid features you are considered african-american in the US. A friend of mine is white-skinned, but her features are slightly like those of her Jamaican father and she was at her wits’ end with being neither here nor there….and being told she “should” behave in certain ways, endorse certain things, etc. by the black and white communities.
I don’t know if I make any distinction between the categories. But I’ve always been intrigued and vaguely bothered by how Tiger Woods is never identified as also being Asian-American.
Yes, but I grew up in a society that had all whites and all blacks and racial mixing was unacceptable. There weren’t even any other minorities. Greatfully, my parents who had both grown up in very different cultures didn’t let my mindset form into that of the people around me. I was teased at church because my white dad pastored and all black church. I was teased at my white prep school because I was the only kid there with black friends. Then, to move to a culture that was not only tolerant of all races, but also of racial mixing was a huge relief. There may be a term “mulatto,” or whatever, but honestly, I just think of all of my friends as my friends. If I’m telling a story, the race of the people involved is never mentioned. I simply don’t consider it an issue. Unless I go back to that city where people look at me funny because I walk down the street with a black girl. She calls half white/half black people “light skinned.”
Whenever these discussions come up, I’m reminded of the movie Bulworth when the senator said: All we need is a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction. Everybody just gotta keep (deleted) everybody ’til they’re all the same color.
very true- i always wonder why they say halle berry is the only african american woman to have won the award for best actress. its like they dont acknowledge that she’s also english.
Culturally, yes, I will distinguish them. I would never want to act like someone is of a certain ancestry if they really weren’t at all from that line of descent. Just looking at them though, like if they’re skin is lighter than a “traditionally” African American person, I don’t at all. After moving from such a tiny tiny town in South Dakota to the deep south of Texas, I came to realize that the possibilities are endless when it comes to people and who they are. Someone might just have lighter skin than others. I know people who are of all lighter-skinned ancestry but still look like they have a year-round tan (and not because they go to the tanning bed all the time). Some people that you think are just light-skinned African Americans could be mixed, and some people you think are mixed sometimes turn out to just be light-skinned purebloods.
In general, I think people totally make guesses, if not judgment, about the person based on their skin. But it’s totally inaccurate and if used to make a real decision about them, wrong to do so. I think once someone makes the mistake of misjudging someone and gets called out on it, they remember how dumb it made them feel and always remember to get all the information before making an assumption first. At least they should anyway.
Interesting. It kinda annoys me that the one-drop “rule” is still used today. It’s really as if it’s embedded in a large portion of American society. My issue with it is that so many multi-racial people just get one-dropped and allow themselves to be. There is nothing wrong with being of African American ancestry in the slightest, but what’s wrong with being mixed so much so that you choose not to I.D. with being mixed? Why is it even controversial?
Oh well. I’m mixed and I know, accept, and have pride in who I am. I refuse to be one-dropped, my parents are not the same ethnicity and no ones about to make it out like they are.
I’m pinky-white with blue streaks and greeny bits around the jaw, but I’m going to wash soon