One-drop rule

The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the that holds that a person with any trace of  ancestry (however small or invisible) cannot be considered  and so unless said person has an alternative non-white ancestry they can claim, such as, , , , they must be considered.

This notion of invisible/intangible membership in a "racial" group has seldom been applied to people of Native American ancestry (see for details). The notion has been largely applied to those of black African ancestry. wrote, "You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word 'Negro' is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all Negro, therefore black. I am brown."

During the era of the, the  associated with sub-Saharan ancestry was claimed as a socio-political advantage.

Legislation
The 1910–19 decade was the nadir of the era by most measures. Tennessee adopted a one-drop statute in 1910. It was followed by Louisiana the same year, Texas and Arkansas in 1911, Mississippi in 1917, North Carolina in 1923, Virginia in 1924, Alabama and Georgia in 1927, and Oklahoma in 1931. During this same period, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Utah retained their old blood fraction statutes  but amended these fractions (one-sixteenth, one-thirtysecond) to be equivalent to one-drop . By 1925, almost every state had a one-drop law on the books, or something equivalent. These were the laws that gave power to bureaucrats like of Virginia,  of Louisiana, and similar people around the country, who insisted on labeling families of mixed ancestry as Black.

Before 1930, individuals of mixed European and African ancestry had usually been classed as es, sometimes as black and sometimes as white. The main purpose of the one-drop rule was to prevent interracial relationships and thus keep whites "pure." In 1924 Plecker wrote, "Two races as materially divergent as the white and negro, in morals, mental powers, and cultural fitness, cannot live in close contact without injury to the higher." In line with this concept was also the assumption that Blacks would somehow be "improved" through white intermixture.

Walter Plecker had been preceded by who had written in his book : "The cross between a white man and an Indian is an Indian; the cross between a white man and a negro is a negro; the cross between a white man and a  is a Hindu; and the cross between any of the three European races and a  is a Jew." In the case of admixture with whites the one-drop rule was extended only as far as those with one-quarter Indian blood due to what was known as the "Pocahontas exception." The "Pocahontas exception" existed because many influential Virginia families claimed descent from. To avoid classifying them as non-white the declared that a person could be considered white long as they had no more than one-sixteenth Indian blood.

In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ruling on the case of , conclusively invalidated Plecker's, along with its key component, the one-drop rule, as unconstitutional. Despite this holding, the one-drop theory is still influential in U.S. society. individuals with visible mixed European and African and/or ancestry are often still considered non-white, unless they explicitly declare themselves white or Anglo, and are typically identified instead as,  or , or Black or American Indian, for example. By contrast these standards are widely rejected by America's community, the majority of whom are of mixed ancestry, but for whom their Latino cultural heritage is more important to their ethnic identities than "race." The one-drop rule is not generally applied to Latinos of mixed origin or to.

Recent classifications
There are different ways of trying to assess the future of the one-drop rule in the United States. Some of them include how interracial parents label their children on the decennial U.S. census, scholarly opinions, and trends in affirmative action court cases.

From Reconstruction until about 1930, the children of black/white interracial parents and of mulatto parents were usually identified as. It is becoming increasingly common for people to identify themselves as multi-racial, mulatto, or mixed rather than as black or white. That the fraction of mixed children census-labeled as solely black dropped from 62% in 1990 to 31% in 2000 (when multiple "races" were first allowed) suggests that the one-drop theory and denying one's European ancestry is no longer accepted the way it used to be.

Despite the one-drop rule being illegal (ever since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 overturned the Virginia Racial Integrity Act), as recently as 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the ODR to stand by refusing to hear a case against ’s "racial" classification criteria as applied to Susie Phipps (479 U.S. 1002). In addition, several authors and journalists have found it very profitable to "out" as black famous historical mulattoes and whites, who were regarded as white in their society, who self-identified as such, and who were culturally European-American, merely because they acknowledged having (often slight) African ancestry (,, ., , , , &mdash; a Louisiana Creole).

Many scholars publishing on this topic today (including Naomi Zack, Neil Gotanda, Michael L. Blakey, Julie C. Lythcott-Haims, Christine Hickman, David A. Hollinger, Thomas E. Skidmore, G. Reginald Daniel, F. James Davis, Joe R. Feagin, Ian F. Haney-Lopez, Barbara Fields,, Joel Williamson, Mary C. Waters, Debra J. Dickerson) affirm that the one-drop rule is still strong in American popular culture. Affirmative action court cases on the other hand (when an apparently white person claims invisible Black ancestry and claims s and/or enforcement) are mixed. In some cases, such as 1985 Boston firefighters Philip and Paul Malone, courts have held that such claimants are guilty of "racial fraud" despite their claim of a Black grandparent. In other instances, such as the 1988 Denver case of schoolteacher Mary Walker &mdash; a person of fair complexion, green eyes, light brown hair, and no documented Black ancestry &mdash; courts have ordered employers to accept claimants as Black for EEOC purposes. And other claimants, such as 1997 Detroit businessman Mostafa Hefny, a Black-looking immigrant actually from Africa (Egypt), are denied benefits because North Africans are considered to be White.

As the U.S. presidential election approaches,  acknowledged the change in a  magazine essay on potential candidate 's "black" identity: "This is the infamous one-drop rule, invented and imposed by white racists until the middle of the 20th century. As with so many other areas of ethno-racial relations, African Americans turned this racist doctrine to their own ends. What to racist whites was a stain of impurity became a badge of pride. More significantly, what for whites was a means of exclusion was transformed by blacks into a glorious principle of inclusion. The absurdity of defining someone as black who to all appearances was white was turned on its head by blacks who used the one-drop rule to enlarge both the black group and its leadership with light-skinned persons who, elsewhere in the Americas, would never dream of identifying with blacks."

The one drop rule and Latin America
The one drop rule does not apply outside of the United States. Many other countries treat race much less formally, and when they do self-identify racially, they often do so in ways that surprise Americans. Just as a person with physically recognizable sub-Saharan ancestry can claim to be black in the United States, someone with recognizable ancestry may be considered white in.

In the of colonial, there was no barrier for interracial mating while, at the same time, a racial hierarchy operated, combined withe the Iberian  rules. As a result, the status of a mixed-race person would be determined by the proportion of "white blood" with elaborate names classifying the combinations of black, Amerindian and white. Inverse from the abovesaid system, small drops of white blood was enough to position a person above "pure" non-whites. Furthermore, racial caste did not only depend on ancestry or skin color but also could be risen or lowered by the person's economical fortune. After the and, the caste divisions were blurred into wider groups.

In December, 2002 the ran a story on the one drop theory. In the reporter's opinion: "Someone with 's deep chocolate complexion would be considered white if his hair were straight and he made a living in a profession. That might not seem so odd, Brazilians say, when you consider that the fair-complexioned actresses of the television show "" and  are identified as black in the United States."

According to Jose Neinstein, a native white Brazilian and executive director of the Cultural Institute in Washington, in the United States, "if you are not quite white, then you are black." However, in Brazil, "If you are not quite black, then you are white." Neinstein recalls talking with a man of Poitier's complexion when in Brazil: "We were discussing ethnicity, and I asked him, 'What do you think about this from your perspective as a black man?' He turned his head to me and said, 'I'm not black,' . . . It simply paralyzed me. I couldn't ask another question." It must be said that precisely what the gentleman considered himself &mdash; white, brown or other &mdash; the story doesn't say.

The Washington Post story also described a Brazilian-born woman who for 30 years before immigrating to the United States considered herself a . Her skin had a caramel color that is roughly equated with whiteness in Brazil and some other Latin American countries. "I didn't realize I was black until I came here," she explained. "'Where are you from?' they ask me. I say I'm from Brazil. They say, 'No, you are from Africa.' They make me feel like I am denying who I am."

The same racial culture shock has come to hundreds of thousands of dark-skinned immigrants to the United States from Brazil,, and other Latin American nations. Although most lack the degree of African ancestry required to be considered black in Brazil, they have enough to be seen as black the second they set foot on U.S. soil. According to the Washington Post, their refusal to embrace the United States' definition of black has left many feeling attacked from all directions. Many African Americans believe the immigrants are denying their blackness; white Americans discriminate against them for their black skin; and  dominate  and media even though a majority of  possess some African or Native American ancestry. Many of these immigrants feel it is hard enough to accept a new language and culture without the additional burden of transforming from white to black. Yvette Modestin, a dark-skinned native of Panama who worked in, said the situation was overwhelming: "There's not a day that I don't have to explain myself."

Currently the Brazilian government has attemped to implant the One Drop Law in the country, through the Special Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality managed by the movement. This has generated attrition with the Brazilian mixed race movement, which accuses the government of not respecting the identity of the mixed descendants of Natives, Aficans, and Europeans or the so-called s, s, and s. The mixed race movement obtained the institution of the, as a symbol of resistance against the One Drop Rule.

Professor J.B. Bird has said that Latin America is not alone in rejecting the United States' notion than any visible African ancestry is enough to make one black: " In most countries of the Caribbean, would be described as a, reflecting his mixed heritage. In Belize, he might further be described as a 'High Creole', because of his extremely light complexion."

Many Americans reject the one drop rule
Many people in the United States are increasingly rejecting the one drop rule, and are questioning whether even as much as 50% black ancestry should be considered black. Although politician self-identifies as black, 55 percent of whites and 61 percent of s classified him as  instead of black after being told that his mother is white. Blacks were less likely to acknowledge a mulitiracial category, with 66% labelling Obama as black. However when it came to, only 42% of African-Americans described him as black, as did only 7% of White Americans.

Some consequences of the one-drop rule
Mainly because of the one-drop rule there are many pale-skinned people that are considered black. In many of these instances the person can actually have more white ancestry than black. There are examples of how this could happen through the generations. During slavery, there could have been a mulatto person, who because of the one-drop rule, was considered black. If they then had a child with a white person, the child would have been considered one-quarter black, but still considered black. There are plenty of people through American history that have been more Caucasian than sub-Saharan (Black) but have been generally, or often, considered black. Examples of this would include and. However these people are the exception, not the rule. The average person who self-identifies as black in America has 53% of their ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa. Only 10% of Americans who self-identify as black are less than 50% sub-Saharan in ancestry.

One-drop rule in popular culture

 * Someone having literally one drop of black blood in him is a plot point in .
 * In the episode, Peter discovers that he has a black ancestor from slave days. Despite being no more than one-sixteenth black, probably even less, he describes himself as black throughout the episode and attends events with a primarily African American audience making fun of the fact that people will classify you as black even if you have one ancestor and disregard any other heritage you may have.

One-drop of racial majority
The required applicants to be only 25% Caucasian, mirroring "partial-bloodedness" requirements for minority scholarships.

Preponderance of ancestry
Increasingly, the one-drop rule and the reverse one-drop rule are being replaced by another methodology of deciding who is black and white. In this definition, a persons race is in terms of where most of their ancestors come from.

Debra Dickerson writes that "easily one-third of blacks have white DNA" she wonders why, in light of this, so much of the focus on tracing ancestry in the black community has focused on finding a link back to a region in Africa. She holds that in ignoring their white ancestors African Americans are denying their fully articulated identities.

According to who holds that gaps in IQ scores between races represent genetic differences between these races.: "Yes, to a certain extent all the races blend into each other. That is true in any biological classification system. However, most people can be clearly identified with one race or another. In both everyday life and evolutionary biology, a 'Black' is anyone most of whose ancestors were born in sub-Saharan Africa. A 'White' is anyone most of whose ancestors were born in Europe. And an 'Oriental' is anyone most of whose ancestors were born in East Asia. Modern DNA studies give rather much the same results."

According to : Hybrid populations with multiple lines of descent are to be characterized in just those terms: as of multiple descent. Thus, American Negroids are individuals most of whose ancestors from 15 to 5000 generations ago were sub- Saharan African. Specifying 'most' more precisely in a way that captures ordinary usage may not be possible. '> 50%' seems too low a threshold; my sense is that ordinary attributions of race begin to stabilize at 75%.

Meanwhile the company analyzes DNA to determine the exact percentage of Indo-European, sub-Saharan, East Asian, and Native American heritage someone has and assigns the person to the category White, Black, East Asian, Native American, or mixed race accordingly. According to U.S. sociologist Troy Duster and ethicist Pilar Ossorio: "Some percentage of people who look white will possess genetic markers indicating that a significant majority of their recent ancestors were African. Some percentage of people who look black will possess genetic markers indicating the majority of their recent ancestors were European."

The Pencil test
During the system of apartheid in South Africa, one drop of sub-Saharan blood was nowhere near enough to be black. South African law maintained a major distinction between those who were black and those who were. When it was unclear from a person's physical appearance which racial classification he/she belonged to, the was employed. This involved inserting a pencil in a person's hair to determine if the hair was kinky enough for the pencil to get stuck.