Letters to the Editor
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The One-Drop Madness is Still With Us
One thing that drives me mad is when people use the word "literally" to mean its opposite, that is, "metaphorically." TexanGirl, if Berke Breathed "kills you," "literally," then how the hell are you posting here??
Balitwilight, thanks for exposing the madness of racialism in America. Your comments are right on.
If could expand for a moment...
Somebody mentioned the fact that in America, "one drop" of African blood makes you black. This is true, but did you ever stop to think why? The reasons why are disturbing, something Americans prefer not to think about: the reason is that without that rigid racialist system of categorization, the whole system of slavery would have broken down. After all, when a slave master rapes a slave (which happened frequently, as you can see today from the rich variety of skin tones among the folks whom we call "black"), the child would be both "white" and "black." The one-drop rule served to ensure that children of such encounters would remain classified as "black," hence remain in slavery, and would not challenge the system of racialism by which slavery operated.
Today, we no longer have slavery, but we still have this stupid one-drop mentality. Isn't there something wrong with that? Doesn't that show that we still have a lot of baggage to deal with regarding race?