A REVIEW OF CNN’S “WHO IS BLACK IN AMERICA?”

by Evelyn F. Altheimer-Fain

On December 9, 2012 Soledad O'Brien, the CNN anchor on the morning news program Starting Point , aired a documentary that explores Blackness in “Who is Black in America?”.The one hour documentary, brought together some of America’s young people and adults who share one common bond  ^___ they are all children of mixed races struggling to find their place in society that historical has define and unceremoniously rejected them for being neither pure of one race or another.

It is not surprising that many of people borne of mixed parentry interviewed on the show were not even Americans. Most people without Black ancestry cannot see persons of color beyond that surface of their skin. Therefore, if a person was born of one parent or ancestor was Black, then in the eyes of Whites in America that person was also Black. For decades, this line of thinking has been the cause of racial bias, out right hatred, confusion, pain, and unrest among Blacks in America. Since slavery, dark skinned black children watched as lighter skinned children (some that were within the same families) were afforded better opportunities for advantages than they were allowed. Even today without understanding the terms, dark skinned children feel that they fall under the abolished “One Drop” rule or the “Paper Bag” rule of the late 50s and 60s. 

In Soledad O'Brien’s “Who is Black in America?”, it is through discussion and poetry that the interviewees speak of their experiences as a mixed race and of the social pressure to choose, when in truth there is no need to choose what they are is often painful and sometimes violence.

Although, my heredity includes Native American, German, and Black, I can remember being told that because of my light skinned that I was white. When I grew older, I can remember a group of white youths shouting the then dreaded word “N” word as I was returning from school one afternoon. After both incidents, I questioned my mother on what was meant by those statement she being of dark skinned and my father white, had no answer except  “Don’t talk to those people because you are the better to two worlds”. Although elated by her explanation, it did not answer that quest of why there was so much anger in those white youths remark.

I , like many of people of lighted skinned color, was never taught the “One Drop” rule or the “Paper Bag” rule. I simply was not aware of it, and in spite of those two incidents, nothing brought home the meaning of Blackness than the Civil Rights Movement the swept through my hometown of Chicago and turned it inside out. 

Yet, there is an even sadder aspect to who is black in America. More recently, I learned to there was and probably a group of skinned persons in America known historically as the Blue Bloods. These individuals got their name because they so light skinned that their veins are visible through their skin. Although they have a black heredity with many “passing for whites,” they practiced and may still practice segregation of dark skinned black. This type of segregation the Blue Bloods has also added to the racial tension and feeling oppression among dark skinned Blacks in America. There shared a place among those ideas that shark black on black peer oppression and crime.

To add to confusion is the United States Census Bureau 2000 definition of race identity, which continues today.

• "White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Scottish, Italian, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish.

• "Black or African American. A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as 'Black, African Am.' or provide written entries such as Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian."   
•  "American Indian and Alaska Native. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment."

Under today’s Census Bureau classification, the birth of our son with my husband of 34-years, who is  white and of Welsh-Irish descent, makes our son Native American, German, Welsh-Irish and Black. Our son’s wife is Native American and Irish. Our granddaughter who looks all the world white is …. Well you get the picture, and in regard to all this racial diversity among us, we are all simply Americans (Family Ties).

“Who is Black in America?", states that mixed children were the product of rape. While this may be true in some incidents, it is not true in all. In some incident was a mutual arraignment between the white men and their black mistresses. Children from such unions when recognized by their white fathers were often gained more freedom, were educated, and gained more social status and advancements. Read the article “Blue Veins and Kinky Hair: Naming and Color Consciousness in African America” by author Obiagele Lake, and Pigmentocracy 
(Trudier Harris, J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English, Emerita, University of North Carolina, National Humanities Center Fellow)  .

Overall, in “Who is Black in America?” is an informative documentary that exposes the problems of racial identity, but doe not provide a solution for every person of mixed ancestry because for some “Black Experience” are good and some not, which bring into question of peer pressure. 

In conclusion, the right to choose what racial group should be respect like that of a person religious belief. It is a personal choice that should never be subverted to ease the minds of the bias whether White America or otherwise. 

                                                                

UPDATE: Soledad O'Brien’s “Who is Black in America?” was repeated at 2 a.m., Sunday, December 16, 2013 on CNN at 8 p.m. Future repeats unknown.