They look white but say they're black: a tiny town in Ohio wrestles with race

[laylalex 7,284]

This is so, so interesting -- I watched a short video on this last night and I'm fascinated by the history.

Quote

 

The pale woman with frizzy grey-streaked hair commands her on-and-off partner of over 20 years, Jimmy – who is from one of the few white families in East Jackson – to fetch her purse. He plops it on to her lap; she struggles to get at an old piece of paper folded up in her wallet. She slowly unfolds it to present her birth certificate.

“Negro”, it reads, next to each of her parents’ names. She looks up triumphantly, victory in her periwinkle eyes. “It’s a legal document,” she says.

The last known full-blooded black person in her family was her great-great-grandfather Thomas Byrd, her parents told her. Photos of them, who both look white, adorn the wooden walls on either side of Shreck’s chair. Their stares follow her throughout their former home. They are the ones who told her she was black.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/25/race-east-jackson-ohio-appalachia-white-black

 

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

Indeed lineage and DNA are interesting, LARPing however is not. If one can't prove to be something they don't look like, through DNA, proof from one's lineage, they have no business putting it on official documents. One's race is also clearly the majority of what they are, not some McMenu of choices where one is 60% white, 30% hispanic, 5% black, and they put down black. They are white. 

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

1 hour ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

Indeed lineage and DNA are interesting, LARPing however is not. If one can't prove to be something they don't look like, through DNA, proof from one's lineage, they have no business putting it on official documents. One's race is also clearly the majority of what they are, not some McMenu of choices where one is 60% white, 30% hispanic, 5% black, and they put down black. They are white. 

What race is president Obama?

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

1 hour ago, CanAm1980 said:

What race is president Obama?

Whatever his official documents say. I can tell you it doesn't say Chinese, Asian, or Hispanic.

Edited September 13, 2020 by Burnt Reynolds

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

1 hour ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

Whatever his official documents say. I can tell you it doesn't say Chinese, Asian, or Hispanic.

What official documents are those? His birth certificate says his mother is caucasian and his father african.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

37 minutes ago, CanAm1980 said:

What official documents are those? His birth certificate says his mother is caucasian and his father african.

I doubt very seriously you've ever seen his birth certificate; rather, the reproduction thereof.

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

1 hour ago, CanAm1980 said:

What official documents are those? His birth certificate says his mother is caucasian and his father african.

I'm sure you can utilize search engines or your imagination to figure out which documentation would list his race.

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,370]

my only really close black friend who I trust with my life is white

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

4 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

I doubt very seriously you've ever seen his birth certificate; rather, the reproduction thereof.

So the PDF on the Whitehouse site is not a copy of the original?

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

3 minutes ago, CanAm1980 said:

So the PDF on the Whitehouse site is not a copy of the original?

Using my English to English translator, he's precisely saying it's a copy and not the original. 

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

4 hours ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

I'm sure you can utilize search engines or your imagination to figure out which documentation would list his race.

Using your formula:

what race would a person with a black mother and a white father be?

 

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

Just now, CanAm1980 said:

Using your formula:

what race would a person with a black mother and a white father be?

 

Whatever his official documents say. 

[Crtcl Rice Theory 2,432]

1 hour ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

Whatever his official documents say. 

I checked my birth certificate no race indicated.

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

1 minute ago, CanAm1980 said:

I checked my birth certificate no race indicated.

That's cool and all but I didn't say his birth certificate.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

6 minutes ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

That's cool and all but I didn't say his birth certificate.

Wurds meen fings.  Or so we were told growing up.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Voice of Reason