The One Drop Rule: The Social Construct Of Race

When applying the 80 percent rule, there is evidence of disparate impact against African Americans. The test results showed that Whites had a 58% selection rate, which is greater than the 49% selection rate of African Americans.

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,

It is important to note that the concept of hypodescents only exists in United States, not in any other part of the world and is used to refer to American blacks only, which makes this term and the one-drop rule, rather unique.. In fact, definitions of who is black vary quite

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

The English term ‘race’ is believed to originate from the Spanish word raza, which means ‘breed’ or ‘stock’ (Race). People use race to define other groups, this separation of groups is based largely on physical features. Features like skin color and hair don’t affect the fundamental biology of human variation (Hotz). Race is truly only skin deep, there are no true biological separations between two ‘racial’ groups. Scientifically speaking, there is more variation between single local groups than there is between two large, global groups; the human variation is constantly altering (Lewontin). The majority of today’s anthropologists agree that race is a form of social categorization, not the separation of groups based on biological

Even though race is often confused with something having to do with biology it is not, instead race is a cultural construction. People commonly use biology to try and determine the race of another person by using physical characteristics and skin color to put them in a racial classification. Assigning race based on physical characteristics is problematic since traits vary independently they are not inherited as some sort of genetic package based on the race a person is. Therefore using biological concepts to explain race is problematic since society is the one who defines what race is and because those definitions change race is a cultural construct.

“Desiree’s Baby” provides insight into the application of the hypodescent rule in plantation-era Louisiana, depicting individuals of mixed race who are marked and assigned to the subordinate social group. In her short story, “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin addresses the practice as it was applied to the “one-drop rule,” the notion that an individual with white complexion may be deemed black by society given the presence of any African ancestry. Desiree, the story’s protagonist, is eloquently placed at the intersection of the two races, victimized in order to highlight the flaws and inadequacies of the rule. Desiree’s ultimate removal from white society and possible death may indicate a text working to criticize racial prejudice; however,

Whether or not we claim that race is a socially constructed or a legitimate area of scientific inquiry, it all comes down to the primary idea that we all belong to the human race, regardless of skin color, facial features, height, weight, or any other specific physical characteristics. It is truly unforgiving that many individuals all across the United States have evolved with the mentality of this social and political category of race which has been deeply rooted in our brains, surprisingly, without in actuality realizing that everybody in the entire world is closely related to one another. Nonetheless, sociologists and gender scholars, such as Dr. Dorothy Roberts and W.E.B Du Bois, argue that race is a social and political concept and does

In The Social Construction of Race, Ian F. Haney Lopez defines race as a social construct that is constantly changing its meaning due to the fickle nature of society. Lopez believes that this fickleness stems from a social climate formed by a variety of factors such as human economic interest, current events, and ideology. There are certain racial definitions however, that have remained mostly the same despite efforts to bring attention to the offensiveness and immorality of such discriminatory thinking. These stereotypes are oftentimes negative and apply to members of minority races, which end up perpetuating themselves into various cultural outlets of society including the media and film. Through the use of such popular forms of entertainment, the definitions of a race remain largely unchanged as future generations remain exposed to these racial classifications.

Race is a social construct that was developed to classify people into vast different groups through ethnic, anatomical, cultural, genetic, historical, linguistic, geographical, and social attachment. Initially, race referred to people using a common language to identify national affiliations, but with time observable physical traits were used to denote race. The idea of race means that humans are divisible into biologically distinct and exclusive groups in terms of physical and cultural features. The ideology of race is also associated with the beliefs of the superiority of white people. These beliefs were concretized during the Scientific Revolution and American colonization that established political relations between Europeans and people with different cultural and political backgrounds. Therefore, race is a social construction, the idea that people have perceived through their daily interaction. Race does not have any significance in taxonomy because all humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens. Assertions from various scholars

Omi and Winant’s discussion from “Racial Formations” are generally about race being a social construct and is also demonstrated in the viewing of Race - The power of an illusion. Omi and Winant have both agreed that race is socially constructed in society. Ultimately this means that race is seen differently in different societies and different cultures. Media, politics, school, economy and family helps alter society’s structure of race. In the viewing , also media as well as history seemed to create race by showing how social norms have evolved in different racial groups.

“Think about race in its universality. Where is your measurement device? There is no way to measure race. We sometimes do it by skin color, other people may do it by hair texture - other people may have the dividing lines different in terms of skin color. What is black in the United States is not what 's black in Brazil or what 's black in South Africa.”-Dr.Goodman, Race: The Power of an Illusion

When we hear the word "race" we're more than likely inclined to automatically think of the color of someone's skin. Though this isn't entirely inappropriate, there is so much more to race than that. Sociologists say that race is a social construction created in society, meaning it's basically a set of "stories" we tell ourselves and hear overtime to make sense of the world. Since we hear these stories over and over again, we act on them, ultimately making them true. This can be said of many aspects of culture and society, however, it seems to happen with race without our realization.

Race, to many people is one thing and one thing only; the color of one's skin. But race is more than just the color of one’s skin, but it’s their biological makeup and social makeup. Biological race is the skin color we are born with along with the other genetic traits that come with certain ethnic backgrounds. Social race, however, is how society depicts your skin color and biological traits, and decides from there what social “class” you may be placed in, how you’ll be treated, and how you’ll live your life, socially. All people are biologically born the same “race” as their parents, or a mix, if the parents are different. But what determines the social race?

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.