tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post4402115829102394740..comments2024-03-24T11:47:12.059+01:00Comments on Those Who Can See: Mulatto History MonthM.G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06817230141673953233noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-89255986516565225552014-11-22T05:28:20.289+01:002014-11-22T05:28:20.289+01:00Anonymous said...
This is really quite devastating...Anonymous said...<br />This is really quite devastating.... "It won't matter in 25 years anyway because the Black race simply won't exist." We can save the Elephants, but the Black race, oh well, that's another story.<br /><br />This is one opinion, but many say the same about the White Race. This is becoming more apparent as many cultures and races intermarry because of love in our modern and yes, more open-minded world. As a 'mulatto' myself, who identifies with being black, I felt prejudice in the 60's and 70's by both blacks and whites. I married a white man, and our children strongly identify with both the African and European heritage. I agree your statements about our past history in this country, but moving forward- those who have strong bi-racial identities, and are educated will embrace strong cultural values, and they will be our next generation! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-75479249637513235552014-07-23T21:46:08.820+02:002014-07-23T21:46:08.820+02:00This is really quite devastating. As a mixed race...This is really quite devastating. As a mixed race person who identifies as Black, I see a horrible trend taking place that chooses to identify high achievers of color as Mulatto and the lowest of the lowest class of humans, Black. That makes me sad because mulattos in this country, particulary those prior to the 1900s are the result of rape in most cases. Just another way to discredit the Black race. It really is devastatingly sad because I believe many Black people will allow this separation to take place without challenging it. Your website is a great disservice. But alas... Who really wants to be Black in a world that despises us for who we are? As a professor at Columbia University recently stated in a lecture about race to her students, "It won't matter in 25 years anyway because the Black race simply won't exist." We can save the Elephants, but the Black race, oh well, that's another story.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-37383625315753848922014-04-15T23:53:57.596+02:002014-04-15T23:53:57.596+02:00"Black looks are dominant; white looks are re..."Black looks are dominant; white looks are recessive. Some of the genes that code for black looks are probably quite old and quite "polished."<br /><br />Nothing could be further from the truth and Blacks are kidding themselves to believe that their genes would be somehow "dominant". Mulattoes look very distinctively different from Sub Saharian Africans. Barack Obama looks nothing like his biological African father. Also would a man who would have looked like his African biological father really have been accepted as America's president? Only eye color and hair color are inherited in accordance to a dominant/recessive scheme. Skin color is inherited according an intermediate scheme. It would really be about time for many black people to stop claiming mulattoes and to accept themselves. <br /><br />Thanks a lot for this article!I'm a mulatto who is not American at all but in the past I was bullied by black Americans into calling myself black. This was so awful that I don't deal with them anymore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-53182942033539954112013-10-20T16:26:12.481+02:002013-10-20T16:26:12.481+02:00...the photograph here is not of her, but a white ...<i>...the photograph here is not of her, but a white woman (emigrant from England, Mormon pioneer I think) with the same name.</i><br /><br />Thank you kindly for the correction Anon; I've found and posted the right photo. From her Wikipedia page:<br /><br /><i>She was born Sarah Elizabeth Jacobs in 1855 in Toledo, Ohio, although she would sometimes say that she was born in Spain. Sarah Goode was the second of seven children of Oliver and Harriet Jacobs, both described in public records as mulattos. Oliver Jacobs, a native of Indiana was a carpenter.</i><br /><br />Apparently her father and husband were both carpenters, and she opened a furniture store and later invented the folding bed/desk.M.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06817230141673953233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-49074242129369173122013-10-15T18:03:01.166+02:002013-10-15T18:03:01.166+02:00The first black US patent recipient listed here is...The first black US patent recipient listed here is Sarah E. Goode. She was claimed to be born in Spain, but was not. She married a white man and passed for white. Also, the photograph here is not of her, but a white woman (emigrant from England, Mormon pioneer I think) with the same name. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-44265267285906264782013-04-15T16:55:02.328+02:002013-04-15T16:55:02.328+02:00What about all of the "Native American" ...What about all of the "Native American" tribes that have failed to get recognition because they are in fact the early mulatto communities that claimed to be Indian. DNA has finally shed light on these people who try to distance themselves from Blacks starting 200 years ago. They cosistantly mix with White so as to erase the traces of AA ancestry. Specifically the Lumbee of NC.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-39705303403254920852013-03-04T14:15:18.997+01:002013-03-04T14:15:18.997+01:00rosa parks, and langston hughes were also mulattorosa parks, and langston hughes were also mulattoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-17960228275389615052012-03-24T22:06:55.003+01:002012-03-24T22:06:55.003+01:00BPWP--
I was eyeballing it, and thought Jemison lo...BPWP--<br />I was eyeballing it, and thought Jemison looked about half Asian, which I'd have thrown in the 'mulatto' pile. But I was wrong, she turns out to be mostly African-descended, so I've removed her. Thank you for the correction.<br /><br />I've also added Williams, Drew, and first 'black' M.D. James McCune Smith. From his portrait I'd assumed Smith was mostly black, but the <a href="http://jamesmccunesmith.com/smiths-family/family/" rel="nofollow">James McCune Smith website</a> gives him a probable white father. It also notes that he, his wife and children were marked 'mulatto' in census records and that after his death, the census records his wife and children as 'white.'M.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06817230141673953233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-88910683042625627702012-03-24T19:07:47.877+01:002012-03-24T19:07:47.877+01:00Mae Jemison, the first 'Mulatto' in space ...Mae Jemison, the first 'Mulatto' in space is NOT a Mulatto! She doesn't even have one drop of white DNA!<br /><br />She is 84% Subsaharan African, 13% North East Asian, and 3% Native American. She's descended from Chinese laborers.<br /><br />But otherwise your point is excellent. Don't forget first 'Black' heart surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, and first 'Black' bloodbank operator Dr. Charles Drew (“the first African-American to earn an M.D. [at New York’s Columbia University]”).Black Power White Powerhttp://unamusementpark.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-27453208010114491532012-03-04T16:58:51.869+01:002012-03-04T16:58:51.869+01:00Olave--
It does sound delightfully sinister. Here ...Olave--<br />It does sound delightfully sinister. <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JP5pAZ62ubkJ:www2.oxfordaasc.com/article/print/opr/t0001/e3943%3Fimage_size%3Dinline+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a" rel="nofollow">Here</a> they note that<br /><br /><i>Some historians believe that the name “Twilight” might have been chosen as an apt description of Ichabod Twilight's [Alexander's father] racial identity, which was somewhere between white and black—although legally he was black.</i><br /><br />I feel Pinckney Pinchback (first 'black' governor) would be a tough name to carry, particularly if one adds in his middle initials (B.S.). Happily it doesn't seem to have held him back.M.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06817230141673953233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-82854690875298728642012-03-04T15:59:16.236+01:002012-03-04T15:59:16.236+01:00It's off the subject, but I have to say some o...It's off the subject, but I have to say some of these surnames are excellent. "Alexander Twilight"?! Sounds like a character from a spy novel.B322https://www.blogger.com/profile/18257802768718375656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-76508160260488327692012-03-03T22:21:20.769+01:002012-03-03T22:21:20.769+01:00Maybe so in the US context, given our history. But...<i>Maybe so in the US context, given our history. But the larger question is, why don't they identify specifically as mulatto?</i><br /><br />Exactly. A Mulatto may 'look black' to an ethnic Euro, but 'look white' to a Sub-Saharan African. Remember the first Afro-American Liberian settlers, many of whom were considered white exploiters by black West Africans. S. Africa's 'Cape Coloreds' were mentioned, and there have been mulatto castes all over the Western Hemisphere, from the British West Indies to Haiti to the "gens libres de couleur" in Louisiana that Heliogabalus already mentioned. Context is everything.<br /><br />As for the U.S., in the past, when it was highly socially beneficial to be White, many of those who could 'pass' did so. Today, the racial spoils for Blacks are legion, and unsurprisingly those very same people (or rather those who look like them) now identify as 'Black'. (Though many sure seem to apply the 'paper bag test' to their own potential spouses.)<br /><br />If all affirmative action incentives were removed, I'm just curious if many Mulattoes in the U.S. would come to embrace their mixed identity, instead of defaulting to 'Black' even in cases where they are of 75% or more European blood.M.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06817230141673953233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-48290135559655712692012-03-03T12:04:17.402+01:002012-03-03T12:04:17.402+01:00Walter: "it's pretty natural that mulatto...Walter: "it's pretty natural that mulattoes will identify as black"<br /><br />Maybe so in the US context, given our history. But the larger question is, why don't they identify specifically as mulatto? That's the norm in Latin America, and in South Africa there are part-blacks (the "Cape Coloureds") who don't identify as black.Heliogabalusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-47043035012598340872012-03-03T05:35:20.925+01:002012-03-03T05:35:20.925+01:00Black looks are dominant; white looks are recessiv...Black looks are dominant; white looks are recessive. Some of the genes that code for black looks are probably quite old and quite "polished."<br /><br />As Jonathan Kingdon in _Self-Made Man: Human Evolution From Eden to Extinction_ noted, a person can only be 1/16th black and still look black.<br /><br />Thus, it's pretty natural that mulattoes will identify as black.Walternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-6415545978847844802012-03-01T16:32:30.141+01:002012-03-01T16:32:30.141+01:00"mulattoes tend to form the most militant and..."<i>mulattoes tend to form the most militant and race-conscious layer of blacks</i>"<br /><br />Yes. It even encompasses the truly heroic Mulattoes, such the <a href="http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9218/animosity.jpg" rel="nofollow"> noble peace prize winners</a> among them.Hailhttp://hailtoyou.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-50214222732403735152012-03-01T13:26:16.561+01:002012-03-01T13:26:16.561+01:00The case of actor Wentworth Miller absolutely epit...<i>The case of actor Wentworth Miller absolutely epitomizes the phenomenon you refer to.</i><br /><br />Yes, and witness the passion that this stirs in some of the commenters on your post--It's not surprising, but this is a subject many people find it hard to talk about cool-headedly and detachedly. (I also thought of <a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQVkhn_RlzRuVl9sXP9OZ2L6U5H45c_23Roe7O-xCf7eBIaeXZV" rel="nofollow">Soledad O'Brien</a>.)<br /><br /><i>The practical result of this is that the mulattoes tend to form the most militant and race-conscious layer of blacks</i><br /><br />Yes. You made me think of this quote from <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/mulattoinuniteds00reutuoft#page/n3/mode/2up" rel="nofollow">E.B. Reuter</a> (1918):<br /><br /><i>The larger part of the present-day discussion of inter-race matters, the agitations for social and political rights and privileges, the fulminations against discriminations, the exaggerations of real and fancied wrongs, is not the work of Negroes. It is a small, widely scattered, light-colored and largely deracialized group of mulattoes who have not found their place in the bi-racial community life--who refuse to be Negroes and are refused the opportunity to be white--whose sentiments and attitudes find expression in the present-day agitations.</i>M.G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06817230141673953233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-27171011459000573742012-03-01T09:50:33.660+01:002012-03-01T09:50:33.660+01:00This shows how the 1-drop rule (which I think only...This shows how the 1-drop rule (which I think only ever existed in the USA) screws things up. America's black elite is really a mulatto elite, and if different gradations of color had existed, or a more relaxed approach to race generally, they might now be considered a separate race or people from "pure" Afros. There's a precedent - the "free people of color" of Louisiana when it was still a French/Spanish colony. But then LA was absorbed by the Confederacy and the rest is history.<br />But NO, they had to get thrown into the same pot as all the other black folks. The practical result of this is that the mulattoes tend to form the most militant and race-conscious layer of blacks: think Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, Eric Holder…the list goes on. One concludes that this militancy must be rooted in their insecurity - having to prove constantly that they're black enough, in a country where they can never be "really" white.Heliogabalusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1740067042613887004.post-2187369195344025762012-03-01T03:21:49.715+01:002012-03-01T03:21:49.715+01:00"to label even those octoroons with no visibl..."<i>to label even those octoroons with no visible African admixture 'Black.'</i>"<br /><br />The case of <a href="http://hailtoyou.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/wentworth-miller-and-racial-identity/" rel="nofollow">actor Wentworth Miller</a> absolutely epitomizes the phenomenon you refer to.Hailhttp://hailtoyou.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com