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Running
Head: WHAT CONSTITUTES BEING BLACK AND WHITE?
What Constitutes Being Black And White
[Author's Name]
[Institution's Name]
What Constitutes Being Black And White
Race has forever been a common theme of discussion for North
Americans. Common as it is, most North Americans have never
questioned the definitional system that makes achievable the
discussion in the first place. The "black" and "white"
North American argument groups are so defined founded on the
"hypodescent" rule.
Quite basically, hypodescent states that, in the case of sexual
union involving parents of different "races", the
offspring automatically takes on the status of the lower caste
parent. Therefore a sexual union between a "black"
and "white" invariably produces a "black"
(even though this "black" is now a mulatto). Furthermore,
if this mulatto also has sexual relations with a person of
the "white" group, his offspring will also be labeled
as "black". The hypodescent rule does several things:
first, it eliminates African ancestry from the "white"
population. Second, it establishes two very rigidly defined
social groups. Third, it discourages intermarriage. Fourth,
it encourages a mind set in which one thinks of immutable
"races" in which people are placed for life.
"In my last column two weeks ago, I laid out a proposal
to promote integrated schools that I believe has never been
tried. We have tried coercion, in the form of busing, a spectacular
failure. We have tried enticement, in the form of magnet programs,
less a failure though certainly not a sterling success. But
we have never tried simply rewarding people who live in integrated
neighborhoods and send their children to integrated neighborhood
schools." (Chenoweth, HOMEROOM FINAL M13)
This system has been in effect for many years in the United
States. Paradoxically, both the "black" and "white"
groups hold up the rule. The "blacks" support it
because it increases the numbers of persons labeled as "black".
The "whites" embrace it for the reason that there
are enough "whites" in the US so that partial "whites"
are not needed for numerical and cultural dominance. On the
other hand, some rumblings have been occurring in the US.
Adherence to the hypodescent rule has been facing challenges
from new quarters.
"Investigators poking among the smoking ruins of the
Great Society tend to identify Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy
as the detonator" (Hess, p760)
Many of the children of "interracial" unions no
longer adhere to the "hypodescent" rule. "Blacks"
have heaped scorn on mixed persons by alleging that they have
been "deserters" to the "black cause".
Years ago, such social mechanisms were effective. Now, however,
as the country becomes more diverse with immigrants from Latin
American and Asia, and with the "white" population
becoming less of a dominant percentage of the population,
"racially" mixed persons have found social space
to exist in the United States.
Regardless of the fact that racism is a foremost social question
in the U.S., there has not been a Marxist critique of racism.
To be sure, many writers of Marxist orientation have made
studies of the empirical and operational aspects of racism,
and their contributions will long be respected. But, a methodical
Marxist critique of racism must begin with an examination
of the dialectic of racial categories (e.g., White, Black
or Negro), and then study the real relations that have produced
these categories. This kind of logical-historical analysis,
modeled following Marx's Capital, has been in total absent.
As an alternative, most writers have accepted racial categories
as social immutable, either given by natural biology or derived
by continental descent. In particular, Marxists have never
questioned the peculiarly chauvinist logic of assigning the
offspring of Black-White "mixtures" to the side
of Black. (Marx)
"A nation is a historically constituted, stable community
of people formed on the basis of a common language, territory,
economic life and psychological make-up manifested in a common
culture."(Selections from V. I. Lenin and J. V. Stalin
on National Colonial Question, p68)
What was the manner of this discourse? (Allen,
pp13-31). The social determination of racism is disguised
as that of nationalism without changing its developmental
essence in the least. It was all but inevitable, therefore,
that the Black Nation Thesis would immediately encounter the
predicament of its own illogic. Even at the height of Black
concentration in the Black Belt (1880), over 45% of Blacks
in the U.S. lived outside of the Black Belt. Moreover, about
40% of the Black Belt residents were White (Allen, pp 212).
References
1. Allen, James S. The Negro Question in
the United States, pp. 13-31, or Harry Haywood, Negro Liberahon,
pp.11-16.May 29, 2002
Allen, Negro Question, p. 212, 216 May 29, 2002
2. Chenoweth, Karin 11/30/2000 Problem:
Defining What Constitutes an 'Integrated' School The Washington
Post PG Extra, HOMEROOM FINAL M13 May 29, 2002
3. Hess, John L12/11/1995 Nixon's Piano:
Presidents and Radical Politics from Washington to Clinton.
The Nation (V261 n20) Start Page: p760 (3) ISSN: 0027-8378
May 29, 2002
4. Marx, Karl The Poverty of Philosophy
May 29, 2002
5. Selections from V. I. Lenin and J. V.
Stalin on National Colonial Question, Calcutta Book House,
p.68 May 29, 2002
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