One Drop Rule

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The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; meaning any person with "one drop of black blood" was considered as black. The principle was an example of hypodescent, the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union between different socioeconomic or ethnic groups to the group with the lower status.[1] The one-drop rule was not adopted as law until the twentieth century: first in Tennessee in 1910 and in Virginia under the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 (following the passage of similar laws in numerous other states).

Despite the strictures of slavery, in the antebellum years, free people of mixed race could have up to one-eighth or one-quarter African ancestry (depending on the state) and be considered legally white.[2] Community acceptance, carrying out community responsibilities, and appearance were often the most important factors if a person's racial status were questioned, not his or her documented ancestry. Thomas Jefferson's four surviving "natural" children by his mixed-race slave Sally Hemings were seven-eighths European in ancestry and thus legally white although they were born into slavery. Three of the four entered white society as adults, two married white persons, and all their descendants identified as white.

In the United States, people of partial Native American descent were usually classified as Native American, in a similar example of hypodescent. In the early years of these types of unions and marriages, the fathers were usually European and the mothers Native American. Most Native American tribes had matrilineal descent systems, so within those communities, they considered the children to belong to the mother's people.

The concept of the one-drop rule has been chiefly applied to those of sub-Saharan black African ancestry. The poet Langston Hughes wrote in his 1940 memoir:

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.[3]

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  • There is a lot that's going on right now and I am just trying to organize it in different formats to understand how we arrived to this problem of one-drop-rule vs the bloodquantum.

     

    I never really gave it a thought to understand the 'bloodquantum' and how it had it's devastating affects and still continue politically, until the 1978 Con Con. 

     

    It is with grave experience that I understood back in 1974 when native Hawaiian women asked for incomes and proceeds from the revenues of the ceded lands--they were turned down! It was for a summer educational program.

     

    The US Armed Forces had their Native Hawaiian Veterans in the Hawaiian Movement to be sure that we the native Hawaiian women produce should they get past the 'Legal Abortionist' medical treatment, that we produce sick, dumb, and worthless children.  I have resisted ever since I gained this background knowledge to produce otherwise.  It hasn't been easy. 

     

    The next step, is to stay in the act of maintaining a balance between the 'peace' and violence!

     

    To do this the 'balance of survival' is to read, write and crunch the numbers the best way one can show evidence to ones contention.  That's the task at hand which is to do critical analysis from reseach documents and experiences and especially if one has a land mark to share that piece of origin. 

     

    This is Dr. Geoarge Kanahele's true meaning from my perspective of a 'sense of place'  41-646 Kalanaianaoly Hwy and 1845 Maunawili Road are connected to ancient practices and it's people.  This includes the invisible highway that navigators should be aware of today.

     

    Should we return to slavery!  That is what OHA did to the native Hawaiian people--we returned to an American Slavery system and poverty for the likes of the Pentagon of the US Armed forces. 

     

    I do not have a model yet, to place this thinking process into an  organized way for surface 'look see'.

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