saw this via facebook today:
by force or otherwise, many great-to-the-nth-power grandparents and other ancestors of black folk were also the result of mixed-race unions. however, due to societal conventions or just straight up slave status, they had to stay "black"--unless they could pass or you were in louisiana or something like that.
however, given a choice, we don't necessarily know how they would have identified.
who would they have married?
who would we be/what would we look like as a result?
without all the one-drop rules and slave codes, i wonder if black identity in america would have emerged more along the lines of various latin@ cultures or the métis of canada. and let's not forget that whitefolks have lost quite a bit of history and ethnic identity by being lumped into the american salad bowl.
the parents' consciousness is also a factor. if you wanna just be "american", ok. if you have a deeper understanding around your family history/identity and participate in your various cultural traditions, a different understanding might emerge.
i also noticed that this trailer seems to focus on african-european parentage. i'm told there's a whole other conversation that happens around having two parents of color (e.g., bi-cultural parentage among west indians, (afro) latin@/african-american, asian/african, etc.) that often gets overlooked in the typical american obsession with black/white relations.
either way, it looks like an interesting documentary, and--given the changing demographics of this nation--something we need to begin talking about.
No comments:
Post a Comment