I'm Not Black. Why Do You Care?

Why is it that we in the Melting Pot seem collectively more resistant to blurred and blended views of thinking about cultural identity than folks in other increasingly multicultural countries like Canada and Australia. I wonder if the nickname makes us work less hard. Great post.

crunchyvtmommy You said it, sister. Keep staying true to yourself. Also. Brown skin is so beautiful that it's hypnotic. (Just sayin'.)

Conversations about race intrigue & frustrate me all at once. This debate has been going on for decades & it seems like very little ground has been gained. Can't help but feel it's HIGH TIME for things to evolve on this front. Agree to disagree & move on.

My grandfather was black. My grandparents are Venezuelan. My youngest daughter asked for some school project "your grandfather was African-American, right" I explained he had never been to Africa nor America in his life. Apparently, there was no box to check off on the form for people like us.

As a Carribean Canadian, I say I am "black" insofar as my racial heritage is concerned but I am not African American. Culturally I am Canadian/Carribean. You can say you are racially mixed with White, Black and Asian ancestry and are culturally Dominican. I would shy away from merely "Latina" as that category is too broad. Mexicans are not the same as Brazilians or Peruvians or Cubans. By the way, there is no contradiction in being black AND Latina. As a mixed person you are fully entitled to see yourself as mixed heritage but you shouldn't expect Americans to change racially dichotomous cultural norms to suit evolving norms. In the American mind, one is either white, black or Hispanic (in which case they will look Mexican). This may not suit reality but it's not unusual to the norms of other countries. In Brazil for example, anyone who looks not-black at all, despite having black ancestry, will be considered something else entirely and treated differently on that note. So race and culture classification are localized and self-perpetuating to an extent.

Really interesting post. I studied Anthropology in college and construction of identities is a topic that I find fascinating. My husband's brother is half-Zulu and grew up with their white mom and surrounded by her family, in a largely-white county. I believe he identifies as Brown. ;p

One of my best friends from college is Filipina, and your photo reminded me of her skin tone. I've seen billboards here in San Francisco letting people know how wide the range of appearances is, within the Filipino community. (Which I knew, having taken an Anthro class on South East Asia.)

Being peach-skinned, and with my education, I feel a great responsibility to be tactful in discussions of race. (& While I have a bit of Cherokee blood, I don't have the culture or community to go with it!) I notice that not a lot of commenters are pale, especially compared to a lot of other BlogHer articles I've read. I suspect that people are afraid of saying the wrong thing, or not having something relevant to say. I had those thoughts, too, but figured that a well-meaning comment would be, hopefully, well-received. ;-)

I appreciate the blogger's comments, still I can't help but hear through her article how she doesn't want to be associated with Black or African American peoples. Many many many people "of color" do not want to be associated with any person who is dark skinned. I'm black and have heard it in the Black community with the whole "high yellow" and "good hair" comments, my best friend is Chinese and I've heard her rag on darker skinned Asian people, I have Latino/Latina friends who have stated how the fairer skinned Latinos/Latinas are highly favored over the darker skinned ones... heck, I've even heard Native Americans make interesting comments about darker skinned people within their own tribes - lol. Unfortunately, its going to be a while before most with darker skin can look at themselves in the mirror and be OK with their dark skin and how that darker skin may lead to African ancestry and be OK with someone making notice of it.

It is not my intention to come off as mean spirited or disrespectful to the blogger... she seems like a lovely person. I just felt compelled to state my opinion based on my own interesting circle of friends -- interestingly, White people have less of a problem with it than people of color do - lol. (my opinion, anyway) ;^)

Black America has a well documented history of rejecting its Black ancestry. As a result, we assign the same "pathology" (self hate) onto others with Black ancestry who don't choose to self-identify exclusively as Black. (Dominican, Puerto Rican, bi-racial, etc.)

Black America has some deep wounds in our collective psyche. Its gonna take a while for American Blacks to heal so they can accept that embracing an ethnic identity other than "Black" does NOT always equal a rejection of Blackness.

Love your post.

I was saddened to read your post, not because you don't want to be called black (I understand that in the context of Dominican history) but because of the pain you and your family have experienced because of what I would call internalized racism. You certainly have a right to name yourself. I hope you will not be insulted if I, as a descendant of Africans, Europeans and indigenous people who grew up in the US, tend to see your experiences as part of the larger narrative of the social construction of race.

The complexity of the experiences of people of African descent are a study in and of themselves, as I am sure you know. "Black" is a subjective category that is defined differently depending on where you are. Piper Kendriix Williams is one of a number of scholars who have mapped these shifts in social categories as one moves around the globe. She notes that in her own experience, she grew up in the US thinking of herself as black, but because of her light skin color, she was seen as mixed race when she traveled to Zimbabwe as an exchange student. Being Black in Britain may mean that you are Arab or South Asian. In Brazil, I'm told there is an expression that money can make you white.

When I think of the Dominican experience and the notion of "blackness," I am reminded of the tortured history between Dominicans and Haitians, and the ways in which racial language has historically been deployed to talk about conflict with Haiti and within Haiti itself. In a very real sense, understanding the ways in which those categories have been developed and deployed on the island of Hispanola has implications for the ways "black" and "not black" are understood worldwide.

Thanks for adding your voice to that conversation.

Unfortunately for u, it was declared long ago by White society that one drop of Black blood makes u Black! No matter how far back. U speak Spanish on because the same boat that stopped in Charleston also stopped in Santo Domingo to deliver slave. So there might have been diffence of experience there is a commonality of orgin.

I'm Peruvian of European, Japanese and Inca ancestry. As someone who has been chided her whole life by some stranger or another for not being Latina enough or Asian enough, I thank you for having the courage to write this post.

The Japanese community never gave me a second look growing up in Asia-Pacific, but many outside of it made a big deal of the fact that I don't speak Japanese. God knows I tried.

As for not being "Latina" enough -- I don't even know what “Latina” is. I don’t just feel like an alien when I go to Latino Pride events in this country because I look white-ish. I feel like an alien because I don’t really understand the dialects and don’t recognize the food or music. I am not a fan of a lot of Central and North American Latin food. It’s not that I’m not proud of being Latina -- it’s that we don’t eat that in Peru. Are others less Latino because they don’t crave papa a la huancaina, pulpo al olivo or tiradito con aji? Who decided what makes something “Latino” anyway?

Despite the fact that ethnic groups have been mixing for centuries now, we refuse to accept that people aren’t just one race. Everyone must fit into our boxes: Latina, Asian, Black, White. You’re screwed if you appear to be one thing and act another, even if you have no ties to the thing you appear to be. To appear to be something by look or name and not act like whatever has been decided that thing should be is to have no pride. And if you’re a mixture of many things, well, you’re screwed. You’re a marginal person. You have no pride and no place.

When are people going to stop forcing people to do this or that based on what they appear to be? We’re not just a color that needs to align itself with other like colors. We’re the product of blood and history, shaped by our experience in cultures that may not be completely like either one of our parents’. We don’t have to align with any one of them. We are all of them. And we will manifest this rich history however we see fit.

I'm a proud African American. What you call yourself is of no concern to me. It doesn't have anything to do with me.

In writing this blog post, you are revealing your ignorance.

"Racists have called me Black in feeble attempts to hurt me." Is calling someone black slander?

I wish people would stop imposing their racial identity on me based on the genetic makeup of my ancestors

"African-American blood runs through my veins". No it doesn't... Are you aware that your ancestors were African, NOT African American.

Being black and latina aren't mutually exclusive. If someone is describing you solely by skin color, you are black. Your ethnicity and nationality are two different things altogether. It is unfortunate that you are upset to be labeled as black- it comes off to me as self hate. There is no ethnicity attached to skin color. I am Russian (white) and Nigerian (black). I don't walk around telling people that I am only half black so somehow that makes me okay. It seems you are afraid of the classification, but honestly you would be better suited to embrace it.

There exists a large community of people not unlike you... you should watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tT7_oQzDYMw&noredirect=1#!

Your racial identity only matters to ignorant people with too much time on their hands. At the end of the day, it is your choice on which group with whom you choose to identify. Thanks for posting.

This is interesting. I'm white American, so speaking from an outsider's perspective, I've always found the relationship between blacks and Caribbean Latinos fascinating. I know a Dominican girl who got really mad at me when I said she looked part black. In retrospect, I realize I should have said "partly of African descent," or not said anything at all, because it was really none of my business. But I've noticed that there's a lot of ambivalence among Caribbean Hispanics to associate themselves with African heritage. Like I know another Dominican girl whose mom is pretty dark-skinned and whose dad is light-skinned. "My mom chose well," she said, basically saying that light skin is preferable to dark skin. Of course, this isn't true of all Caribbean Latinos.

It's interesting how people seem to all want to categorise each other...and how much skin colour defines culture in America. I think it even comes to play in your own wording and mind-mapping of ethnicities. For example, "African-American" is a modern term and denotes modern black people in the USA. Black people here in Britain aren't called African-American ;) Your own biological make-up would simply have African roots, similar to most of the population of places like Brazil. Anyway, don't sweat it...some people will always be ignorant and close-minded.

I am sorry the title of this post suggests that you do have a problem being called black. You could have titled this . . .I am Latina. Why Do You Care and made the same point. As a biracial women who identifies herself as Black . . well because I am. . if I want to make a point of my identity it would be entitled as such . .. I am Black instead of not do not call me that race.