I see a lot of the struggle in being mixed race in this generation is over terminology denoting membership or affinity with other groups and I thought I’d drop a useful way of looking at identity I learned from the former president of ASALH (Association of African American Life and History) and Chair of Howard University’s History Department. I’m going from least to most specific here…
Race = lines of descent / phenotype (edited from “genetics” which I used colloquially)
Nationality = Legal association with a country
Ethnicity - A combination of the following factors that establish degrees of ethnicity
- Line of descent
- Acceptance within community
- Membership / participation in institutions
- Cultural knowledge / Tradition.
Being ethnically Black -which in America traditionally refers to descendants of the diaspora here before the Civil War- is not entirely based on racial lineage BUT race makeup does factor into your degree of ethnicity.
This becomes apparent when you look at people like Clarence Thomas whose commitments to white institutions, culture, and lack of acceptance in the Black community him an “Uncle Tom” to most Black people. Note that Thomas is obviously racially West or Central African. His ethnic identity has shrunk as his commitments and community changed but his race and nationality haven’t.
Another example from the opposite political isle is Barack Obama who was viewed as mixed or “African” rather than Black prior to his work in Chicago, living and working among Black people, becoming part of the Black church, and ultimately marrying a Black woman.
As we see with the many non-African descended people who have found popularity and have received “a pass”, race isn’t the only factor and oftentimes is not the most important when determining functional belonging.
What I tend to see is that mixed race people conflate race with ethnicity and mono-racial people confuse ethnicity with being solely racial. Both sides are fiercely defensive of their own experiences.
In American society race often means color which is not causally linked to race and ethnicity (not everyone in Subsaharan African is dark-skinned has the same physical features, hair texture etc)
The combination of these misunderstandings and artificial legal structures imposed by “white” ( a term I find really empty) Americans has resulted in a clusterfuck for which we are often blamed.
Context
I’m a mixed race Black man. One of my parents is Sicilian and Lithuanian, the other is African-American and descended from Nigeria and Ghana.
Both my parents are respectively very ethnic. They moved me and my sister out to the suburb among all white people (which sucked). When I graduated HS I immediately moved to Baltimore where I studied history and became very active in the Black community, joining institutions, making friends / connecting with my southern Black relatives etc. Many years later, my partner is white, I teach American history in a predominately Black / Hispanic neighborhood and am about to start at an HBCU.
I can’t pretend I’ve had the same experiences with racism as a darker skinned person but I’ve had plenty of my own.
I can’t claim I grew up in a black community.
I do have extensive knowledge of culture, history, and tradition , am accepted in the community, and am a member of ethnic institutions. I will pass down all of that to my child regardless of their color.
I do have a fully Black parent and largely interact / have relationships with that side of my family.
There is no ultimate black score or rating, it’s about knowing yourself and not trying to be something you aren’t or claim experiences you haven’t had. Does this mean some people will reject you based on their own beliefs? Sure but those aren’t people who want to understand you and can pound sand.