The Study of Racialism

I'm sure that Mrs Powell is going to give me heck for this , but the reason I use the term pass/white to describe Merle Oberon is to highlight the nature of her struggle to "disappear" ethnically (she was biracial).and succeed in the racist Hollywood of the 1930's. I apologize in advance for anything offensive.

Denise van Esche


Merle Oberon

photo link:
http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/im ... n_1938.jpg

With Indian mother and Irish father, Merle Oberon grew up poor in India, came to England in 1928 and reinvented herself as Tasmanian, deciding that the racial mix would do her career no good. After some success in British cinema she was "discovered" by Alexander Korda and began a long career in Hollywood films. She spent most of the rest of her career there, making both good and bad films. She also spent most of those years trying to avoid Hollywood film star Errol Flynn, who was an actual white Tasmanian and was suspicious of Merle's story and her "strange, untasmanian appearance".

Her strange and true life story was the subject of Michael Korda's shoddy best-seller, Queenie (1985), made into an even shoddier miniseries (1987).

"The Trouble With Merle" is a fascinating documentary detailing one director's quest to find the real origins of Merle Oberon, hollywood star.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/ ... 657300.htm

Almost every high white/Asian person in Hollywood that does not look 100% Asian says they are white or at most biracial, I made a post somewhat about this...

http://www.backintyme.com/ODR/about2891.html

Thank you very much for the link. I was wondering whether people from the Indian subcontinent are considered Asian? When I think of the term "Asian", Koreans and Japanese and Chinese always spring to mind. I always thought that Indians belonged to some other ethnic group.

I guess I should do a google search rather than starting a thread here on something which has already been hashed over.

Once again, thanks so much for the link. I'll read it right now

Denise van Esche

From what I have read Indians used to be grouped with white Europeans and Arabs as caucasions. Now they are Asian on the census.

Not sure how that happened or why.

The truth is Indians are a mix of Caucasions (Persian ones or around that area), Turks, Dravidians, and Austrasians, oh with some Mongoloids that migrated down from Southern China through Burma...they are the definition of multiracial.

There was a Supreme Court case in the early 20th century that classified Indians as non-whites.

I've seen Indians who look aas white as some Arabs...India is very diversed mixed place it is pretty stupid.

Well all of this is pretty stupid as it is based on outdated faux science from the 17 and 18 hundreds...

Actually, there have been several U.S. Supreme Court cases about this. The Court has flip-flopped back and forth several times and continues to do so. Sometimes they say that Indians are the original "Caucasians" and so are White, no matter what they look like. Other times they say that Whiteness has nothing to do with whether you are "Caucasian," but depends solely upon what you look like. They have done the same flip-flopping with Arabs. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to post a synopsis of the cases in one of the history forums.

Frank, I'd love to read your synopsis.

Thanks

Okay. Here it is.