All three people look Black to me. Looks are in the eye of the beholder. It is based on your upbringing,culture,region,etc.In N.O.,if the first guy and Alana would walk in the mall, people,White,Black,would see them as Black. I know here is not the only place in the world. Buffalo was an interesting place to interview people because it is not NYC. Buffalo has many White ethnic groups(Polish,Italians), plain Whites and then Blacks. Alana had the most healthiest outlook on her life because both sides of her extended family accepted her.She has CHOSEN to be Black,but she lives in White society. The first guy was pretty healthy too. Dennison,the secondguy,have a great life in The Czech Republic. He looked most Black to me,(that Afro) and I know people,Black,but Creole and who have passed ,meaning going as White,and they would look at him and RUN!Would not date,be friends or nothing with him. Too Black. These people are really color struck, predjudice.
Barack Obama was brought up. I really wish he would have married a Black person who looks White. What a hoot that would have been!! He would have lost. It would have been a real issue for Black Amer.
I really do like M.Obama.I really admire her for her own worth and background and upbringing.
BO could have married White and the kids would have gone that side.
He maried Black and identifies with being Black.
You get to pick your ethnic group depending on your looks as well as an ethnic group picks up,whether you like it or not or want to be that or not.
Last edited by Creole GAL on Thu 02 Jul 2009 13:03; edited 1 time in total
Rather than start a new thread/topic, I thought I would just include a link here to a related video discussion (six brief segments) called "Multiracial in America: Changes in the Obama Age." These segments likely were edited down into a short piece that aired on a local news station in the Bay Area. What is interesting is that the four participants (five if you count the reporter) reflect different generations (more or less 2) and different circumstances as far as the “multiracial” angle goes.
Joined: 07 Feb 2007 {Posts: 1829 } Location: Lookin DC Metro, Feelin Geneva
Posted: Thu 02 Jul 2009 10:47 Post subject:
Creole GAL wrote:
All three people look Black to me. Looks are in the eye of the beholder. It is based on your upbringing,culture,region,etc.In N.O.,if the first guy and Alana would walk in the mall, people,White,Black,would see them as Black. I know here is not the only place in the world. Buffalo was an interesting place to interview people because it is not NYC. Buffalo has many White ethnic groups(Polish,Italians), plain Whites and then Blacks. Alana had the most healthiest outlook on her life because both sides of her extended family accepted her.She has CHOSEN to be Black,but she lives in White society. The first guy was pretty healthy too. Dennison,the secondguy,have a great life in The Czech Republic. He looked most Black to me,(that Afro) and I people,Black,but Creole and who have passed ,meaning going as White,and they would look at him and RUN!Would not date,be friends or date him. Too Black. These people are really color struck, predjudice.
Barack Obama was brought up. I really wish he would have a Black person who looks White. What a hoot that would have been!! He wouldhavelost. It would have been a real issue for Black Amer.
I really do like M.Obama.I really admire her for her own worth and background and upbringing.
BO could have married White and the kids would have gone that side.
He maried Black and identifies with being Black.
You get to pick your ethnic group depending on your looks as well as an ethnic group picks up,whether you like it or not or want to be that or not.
I agree with your last paragraph but what you said in the beginning sounds like [correct me if I'm wrong] is that their cultural queues make them as "black" (at least the first two). The first guy to me looks mixed race, I looked directly at his facial features.
But if I listen to him, his dress style, etc. He seems like a African American. I talk and dress more "white" than he does, but due to phenotype I would never been seen as a "white man" in America. He would not either, but he might be seen automatically as ambiguous or mixed race if he changed his cultural queues.
Alana had the most healthiest outlook on her life because both sides of her extended family accepted her.She has CHOSEN to be Black,but she lives in White society.
It is interesting, though, that she expressed her reason for "choosing" to be "black" as-
Alana wrote:
Depending on the situation I identify myself as being either biracial or black. I've never identified myself as white because nobody's ever going to look at me and think that I'm white.
In other words she is not choosing, but feels the choice has been made for her and that she must accept it. She shifts between "biracial"and "black" based upon how she thinks that others see her, and not based upon something that she chooses independently of this for herself.
The first guy sees himself as between two worlds-
Don wrote:
... there's not one side or the other. So, I hang... like... I tell my friends all the time, I can be... I can be on Main Street Berkfields and I can be on Hurtle later on and Empty Pockets and I don't feel.. no change. I have friends on both sides on Main Street.
(I am not sure if I heard and wrote the names Berkfields and Hurtle and Empty Pockets properly. Perhaps someone from Buffalo can correct me. I am interpreting this as a reference to "black" and "white" sections of town.)
I find what Dennison says to be very meaningful-
Dennison wrote:
I think before I left and began to live abroad I would have seen myself a being biracial, but... after having lived abroad and, perhaps I would say widening my perspective on what ethnic identity is, I prefer the term multiethnic at this point.
Isn't so much of the question of how we choose to identify dependent upon the question of how we feel that others identify us? And more specifically, isn't it dependent upon the matters of how much others are able to control us and on how we much we let others control us?
the 1st guy could go for many different ethnic groups, I don't think he 'looks black' right off the back at all
the 2nd guy if he wore his hair differently or lived in Hawaii could be assumed as Hawaiian or polynesian or of some southern Asian ethnic group
the lady is a bit more like a quadroon looking at the mother, the mother is obviously MGM,
she looks mixed but could easily go for various ethnic groups as well
I don't see how any can just see a black person
I find that people OneDrop easier when they are not used to a variety of ethnic groups
'
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