The Study of Racialism

MrSolo · Posted: Fri 24 Jun 2005 18:22 Post subject: ODR: In the Crosshairs

A rare appearance that it was, John Stossel’s March 2005 (ABC News) 20/20 segment on Colorism within so-called “black” America received worldwide media exposure and attention. Wouldn’t it be interesting if he or a media powerhouse like Oprah Winfrey were to do an in-depth segment on “The One-Drop Rule”; an archaic and patently discriminatory “Jim Crow”-era policy that unjustly classifies any individual with any degree of “black” African blood (i.e., gene pool) as “colored” (i.e., Negro [then], black/African-American [now]) in racial and ethnic identity. With the played-out but still valid term “colored” having since been misguidedly replaced (by those with alternative agendas) with the term African-American, the United States and its insane and persistent acceptance and reliance on “practiced” racial classification, would seriously be exposed and undermined in the eyes of the world - Oh, the hypocrisy of it all.

Idea

An e-mail/letter writing campaign (to those of a John Stossel mindset: JohnStossel@ABCNews.com) requesting the airing of such a powerful and compelling segment might stand a decent chance of succeeding. However, getting a person of more identifiable sub-Saharan “black” African heritage (such as an Oprah Winfrey) might be a lot more difficult than one would think – (http://www2.oprah.com/email/reach/email_reach_fromu.jhtml [not necessarily Oprah@Oprah.com or O@Oprah.com]). No matter how socially and financially successful they are, certain segments of the U.S. black population have absolutely no interest in exposing, contesting or eliminating the One-Drop Rule. The ODR has become a critical ingredient of their “success” equation and in their minds - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Albeit, many of them have a strict affinity for the “lighter” fare in virtually every sense of the word. Therein lies the rub.

Does the more black-identifying black American constituency benefit from the One-Drop Rule? You betcha! By being able to “collar” an ever-growing segment of “black” America that not only identifies with but is of mixed-race, multi-ethnic, multi-ancestral and multi-cultural heritage, background and the like - they have managed to consistently impede efforts by many to be accepted in “American” society as what they actually are; people of blended and diverse backgrounds by blood and otherwise. Not being able to escape the more dominant characteristics of the “black” African gene pool (and mindset), this “black once, black all the time” constituency (would in appearance) seem to be making sure that those who can identify otherwise – don’t have the opportunity to do so and benefit (in American society) from the intrinsic advantage of having that capability.

Whether one is quadroon, mulatto, black-mulatto or anything else except pure black African, it would behoove that person to demand accountability of those who support the ODR in any context. At this point, on rejection of the ODR as a de facto standard, some might well ask; “if white America were actually to accept it, would black America embrace it?”