One Drop

Just finished reading a book by Bliss Broyard called, "One Drop". It's about her late father, Anatole Broyard, who was a literary critic for the New York Times until his death in 1990. I couldn't use the word "passing" in the previous sentence, since "passing" is what Anatole Broyard did in adulthood in order to get ahead in the white America of the 1950s and 1960s.

Why someone as "white" as Anatole Broyard had to pass as white in the first place just beats me. He probably had more white blood than 40% of the "whites" that I know. In California you can be half Chinese, a quarter Native-American and a quarter Shepardic Jew and still be considered white. Although the rules for blacks - even light-skinned blacks - are much tougher. For them, the "one-drop" rule still applies.

In this century, those who look white and want to be seen as white, must be allowed to be white. Why force someone to be what he is not? Adding to that, there are over 900 million black people who are damn proud of being who they are. It's an insult for Africans and diaspora blacks to be mixed together with people who hate to be considered black. Let those who don't want to be black be! And let the real blacks be themselves!