Rethinking the Color Line: Readings and Ethnicity of Races

A minortiy group is the percentage of a ethnic group in a certain area. While dominate culture stay “dominant” even if thy are technically the minorty, people of color are still considered to be minorties. Sociologists define a minority as a group of people that are different from others in the same society by race, nationality, religion, or language. “A minortiey group is a social group that is systematically denided access to power and resources avaible to the dominant groups of society” (pg 220). Minorties tend to lack in power roles which then are subjected to certain discriminations, and other unfair treatment. People are put into these minortiy groups because of

Historically, people with light skin were beneath Caucasians but they were above African Americans. Light skin people tend to have more privileges because they were closer to Caucasians which made them better than people with darker skin. Today people still believe that skin

In the essay “Color Lines” by Ralph Eubanks, the author explores the flawed logic of race from a scientific perspective. In the article, Eubanks explains the fact that a person cannot know the ancestry of another person or the nature of that person by looking at their race alone. Heritage is a much more complex concept than a simple racial categorization. In writing the article, the author sought to demonstrate that when looking at a person, you could not confirm their identity based on what percentage of a certain race they may have and that social construction meant to depict one group as being superior or inferior to another. This rhetorical analysis will therefore explore the importance of the rhetorical devices and strategies used by Eubanks to communicate with the audience.

The One-Drop Rule: A Key Player in the Construction of Race in the United States

have to be black. Some may argue that is is just a term people use just a way of speaking., but

group, even for whites on the bottom rung, confers a social status and recognition which

There is an issue of class by their blood where a Red is inferior and

First, whites have the power to decide who is white and who is not. In Pudd’nhead Wilson, one of the main characters in the story, Roxy, is identified by white people in her town as black because she is one-sixteenth black. This situation is an example of the “one drop” rule, a term used in history to describe people who have “one drop” of black blood in their bloodline. This is saying that during those times and even currently, if you have any parts

To keep the color line in place and to keep whites in the dominant position, the one drop rule was established in America. This rule means that if any ounce of black ancestry could be traced in somebody’s ancestral line, then they would be considered black. This includes people who even can “pass” as white. The rule also guaranteed that there would be a constant source of slaves even after the importation of African slaves was banned in 1808. There has been an increase of miscegenation over the years, and the mixed race children of these relationships have been impacted by the one drop rule because with that in place, children are forced to identify with only one of their parent’s race. For example, even though Tiger Woods is a mixture of Thai,

When discussing race, having the right intention is not nearly enough to ensure progress in racial tensions; as such, only positive, tangible action can be the catalyst for change in race discourse. This general rule can help when looking at the concept of colorblindness as a supposedly well-meaning myth, which realistically only serves to continue racist attitudes and systems. Using a critical lens to determine the harm caused by colorblindness can diminish the impact and eventually eradicate a source of racist microagressions. Patricia Williams explores the inherently harmful idea of colorblindness in her book Seeing a Colorblind Future: The Paradox of Race, through exemplary anecdotal evidence. This paper aims to analyze one such anecdote to fully explain the pervasive and malicious way colorblindness is employed in everyday life.

There are many different ways that government has established the racial lines as we understand them in America. The one drop rule as discussed above was a result of the southern state legislatures and the development of Jim Crowe Laws. In Virginia that state passed some racial integrity laws an in 1924 one such act read in part as this “It is estimated in the state from 10,000 to 20,000, possibly more near white people, who are known to possess and intermixture of colored blood, in some cases to a slight extent it is true, but still enough to prevent them from being white,” (LAW). This was the response the legislature of Virginia put forth when faced with the biggest whole in the race is a static nonmalleable fact. They had to find a way to get those of mixed races into a box. Depending on how one looked at the issue either these people fit in both boxes or did not fit in any box. The State legislature had to decide which box would be accepting them. And it was the political institution that decided that one drop was enough to remove you from being considered white. It was a maneuver to oppress blacks and trash the whites who mingled with them. This was not a biological decision that would argue the black gene is dominant enough that one great grandparent is enough to make all future off spring black (which wouldn’t be true), it was a social and political choice. A State legislature decided the borderlines of race, not some natural law.

The one drop rule is part of the social construct of race. Research shows all humans stem from one set of ancestors out of Africa. So, according to the one drop rule, we are all black. Unfortunately, the difference in our skin tones have caused contentions between whites and people of color. For example, blacks have endured slavery, segregation, mass incarcerations, and inequalities. The social construct of race triggered many

Hypodescent is define as classify of a child of a mix union or “the subordinate category of any one of many ancestor”. It is also known as the one drop of blood rule. As for example, if a girl have a white skin tone and both of their parent are white, however one of her grandma was an African- American. Then this girl will be label as hypodescent because she have the black genes in her body. The only way if a person was not consider a hypodescent was if the ancestor and both parent are whites. Hypodescent was important to the United States during the 1970 because it used to determine race. This is how the United States culture construct, category people between skin of color or white by the skin tone.

Frequently confused to imply that African Americans as people are viewed as three-fifths of a man or that they are three-fifths of a national of the U.S., the three-fifths condition (Article I, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution of 1787) in truth announced that for motivations behind portrayal in Congress, oppressed blacks in a state would be considered three-fifths of the quantity of white tenants of that

We often connect ourselves to the world through our appearances. One of the first characteristics we notice about another human is the color of their skin. It is unavoidable, as the largest organ of the body, it covers and highlights our individual features and forms a protective wall against the elements. There is no escape from the social repercussions our pigmentation causes no matter what range of the very broad spectrum of color we fall into. I have never thought so much about the genetic and social evolution of skin and its properties until I read Nina Jablonski’s Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color. This book encompasses, in great detail, how our skin has evolved, adapted and mutated throughout time and in what