Have you found that whether it is Princess Megan or former US President Barack Obama, they originally have 50% black and white blood, and Megan's is even a little more, but without exception, they will be called "black princesses" and "African-American presidents", especially Megan, some media even want to dig up which cotton field her ancestors used to be slaves.
Megan's mother is also not 100% pure African blood, so Meghan's proportion of white blood is actually higher than that of black blood
In fact, not only in the United States, but also in other cultural circles, children born across ethnic groups are often tacitly classified as minority parties. For example, if you see a child of mixed Chinese and African descent at the Guangzhou Railway Station, the first thought must be that there is a black person here, and you should not take the initiative to classify this child as a yellow person, even if the child may only have 1/2 or even 1/4 of the black blood, but as long as you see his/her part of the African characteristics, you will naturally recognize him as black.
Of course, in our context, this is only an unintentional habit, and there is no discrimination; but in the Western world, especially the North American continent before the affirmative action movement, it once belonged to a racial policy with American characteristics, that is, the so-called "one-drop blood principle" ~ In the United States during that period, the legal judgment standard for black people was that with more than 1/32 of black blood, that is, black people, the full set of "apartheid policies" were applied.
The so-called "one-drop rule." Meaning, for example, a drop of ink mixed into the sea, even if the entire surface of the sea has not changed, but the essence has been "black". Therefore, for American citizens, they must go up as far as possible to their ancestors, even if this person looks completely white, even if he can inquire about the existence of a lost black blood, he will be defined as a "colored person", can not walk with white people, the same school, eat and live and work and fight with.......
Tuskegee pilots in World War II, a separate formation of black pilots in the U.S. military, whose exploits were later filmed in the anti-German drama "Red Tail"
According to this "one-drop blood principle", as long as one of your ancestors is black, you will be recognized as black for almost all generations, and you will live according to your black identity ~ even if it is likely, your skin color is much lighter than some white people.
For example, the famous "Plessy case".
On June 7, 1892, Homer A. Plessy, one-eighth black, boarded a white-only train on the East Louisiana Railroad and refused to transfer to a black car. After a period of stalemate, the train law enforcement officers arrested him directly under the Segregated Carriage Act.
Homer Plessy
From the appearance of characteristics, Plessy is a white gentleman," so he did not get in the car or take a seat without any obstruction or suspicion. After the train started, it was Placy who took the initiative to highlight his racial identity and provoke "right and wrong" - as a member of the "Citizens' Committee" of the Louisiana affirmative action organization, he wanted to deliberately challenge the "racial segregation laws" in the Southern United States.
In the end, Placy was convicted of violating Louisiana's Compartment Law and fined $25.
This "one-drop blood principle" was born in the era of slavery in the United States, and its original intention was still related to the interests of the privileged class.
Before the Civil War, the plantation economy of the North American continent was very dependent on black slaves, and even the Founding Fathers of the United States who wrote "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence, except for Franklin, were all big slave owners.
This extremely low-cost labor force makes American cotton, tobacco, and sugar extremely competitive in the international market.
By 1807, however, at the call of some conscientious members of Congress, the federal government halted the officially licensed slave trade.
This meant that, with the exception of a few black slaves who had entered the United States through illegal smuggling, the laborers on which the Southern plantations depended could only be made up of the existing blacks.
This led to many free blacks in the North being maliciously lured and kidnapped as "slaves" and sold to the South. For example, solomon, the black male protagonist in the movie "12 Years of Slavery".
Stills from "12 Years of Slavery"
Or, force black people to have more small slaves ~ some inhumane manor owners will allow white people to hire workers, family members, or even specially hire people to rape female slaves.
At the same time, there have long been countless cases of white slave owners having sex with black women in their own hands.
In this regard, many literary works and film and television dramas have been reflected.
Of course, it is not excluded that there are really white men who have feelings for African female slaves. For example, Thomas Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration of Independence and one of the founding fathers of the United States, the third president of the United States, developed a strong relationship with his slave girl, Cyrel Hemmings, and even lived like a normal couple until death, and Jefferson, the widower of the "Masons Old Five", did not remarry.
And this Cyril is the dowry slave of Jefferson's wife Martha, black and white, educated, and ladylike. According to later speculations, Cyril was supposed to be Martha's half-sister, Jefferson's sister-in-law.
The American film "Jefferson's Love" that plays this story
After Martha's death, Cyril became the nanny of Jefferson's children, getting closer and closer to the host.
Cerrie gave birth to six children (two of whom died prematurely), all of whom were of mixed race. According to the estate's records, Jefferson, who traveled frequently, stayed at home every time Cyril gave birth — which was very telling.
In 1835, after Cerlie's death, Jefferson's daughter, in accordance with her father's will, gave Cyril's four children freedom and a substantial living allowance.
The reason why Jefferson did not personally give Saire freedom was because, at this time, Virginia law required slaves released by their masters to leave the state, (in order to restrict the enlightened slave owners from voluntarily releasing black slaves, the master slaves continued to be together but changed to an employment relationship), and could not return for life- which jefferson and Cyrel were obviously unwilling to do.
Stills from Jefferson's Love
By 1998, by comparing the Y chromosomes of the descendants of Cyril's younger son with those of the Jefferson family's descendants, it was revealed that the Y chromosome of the offspring of Cyrley's younger son did indeed come from the Jefferson family. The test report was published in the authoritative journal Nature and caused a huge sensation at the time.
After this, about fifty or sixty black people with different surnames popped up, claiming that they were all descendants of Jefferson....
The reason why a large part of Jefferson and Cyrley's descendants are darker than the skin color of their ancestors Cyrley, and more like African Americans (Cyrley only has 1/2 or 1/4 of black blood), to a large extent, is related to this "one-drop blood principle".
According to the "one-drop blood principle", as long as you can be traced back to 1/32 of the black blood, you are a proper black person, and you will be discriminated against and isolated all your life.
Moreover, before the Civil War, the mixed-race children born to white and black slaves belonged to proper slaves and could only use their mother's surname. Most of them, who would continue to serve on dad's plantations as laborers, were segregated from the white community, and the people they came into contact with and married were almost all blacks and mixed blacks.
In this way, for generations, the white blood of Jefferson and Cyrel's descendants was diluted little by little.
One of Jefferson and Cyrie's descendants
After the Civil War, slavery was abolished in the United States, and from then on, the "one-drop blood principle" began to be used again with the absurd idea of "isolation but equality.".
The so-called "segregation but equality" means that in practice, the so-called "equality" can only be equality between whites and whites, and between blacks and blacks, rather than equality between different skin colors.
Then, this "drop of blood" determines which "category" you enjoy "equality" belongs to.
For example, the prototype of the movie "Hidden People" is the brilliant female mathematician Catherine Johnson, who once worked with her colleagues on 1/2 of a white salary to act as a "colored computers" that manually calculate space orbits.
In NASA, where elite intellectuals gather, black employees and whites also work "together" in isolation, with bathrooms and coffee pots being used separately.
In fact, if you look at the photos, Catherine's African descent is not high, but according to the "one-drop blood principle", she is a proper black person.
Catherine Johnson at work
Her exploits were buried for a long time, and it was not until the 21st century, because of a documentary, that the United States rediscovered the existence of these female calculators, especially african-American researchers, to the space industry.
In 2015, more than thirty years after Catherine's retirement, she finally received her honor , the Oba President Ma personally awarded catherine the Freedom Medal.
Catherine was later hailed as the "behind-the-scenes hero" of the Apollo moon landings.
In the film "Hidden People", which depicts Catherine's deeds, the heroine is obviously more "African-American" than the prototype Catherine.
"Hidden Character Stills"
However, it should be admitted that as early as the era of apartheid, the elite in the black community often provided a kind of exemplary power to the surrounding families, and being educated and honest and polite to others were recognized as good qualities;
After the affirmative action movement, the black elite mostly left their original communities and moved into middle and high-end areas. After that, the low-level people in the original black community began to let go of themselves, had no intention of working hard, and even felt that a black child studied well and loved science and engineering subjects, which deviated from the "characteristics" of their own race and belonged to "freaks".
Most of the black elites, on the other hand, had black skins and did not have much to do with their ethnicity when they grew up.
As a result, the current state of affairs, while there has been a dramatic improvement in social equity over the past, has shown no marked increase in the proportion of blacks in higher education; even with preferential policy preferences, the proportion of them enrolled in prestigious schools is often less than half a century ago in the era of apartheid.
However, although in today's Western world, relevant words and terms have long become a "minefield" that cannot be mentioned, the tradition of "one drop of blood" is still rooted in the bones of many white people ~ even if many people do not realize that, just like the "black princess" Meghan and "black president" Obama mentioned at the beginning, they obviously have at least half white blood? But in general, this classification is done automatically in people's brains, which is a subconscious reaction.
Finally, there is a very interesting phenomenon ~ there is also a group of Westerners who enthusiastically pursue "political correctness", and they are also desperately tracing the "African ancestry" of some historical celebrities.
For example, the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven is likely to be of black African descent.
The reason is that they consulted historical sources and found that when they appeared in public, Beethoven often threw white powder on his face.
They also speculated that Beethoven was likely to have 1/32 of his black ancestry, and that he was of African descent — just in time to meet the "bottom line" of the "one-drop blood principle."
However, you know, in the European high society at the end of the 18th century, throwing white powder on the face, wearing lace flower clothes, white stockings, high heels, these feminine outfits belong to the "standard" of successful men at that time - The thick white powder on Beethoven's face, which is to show his identity.
Moreover, even if Beethoven really has 1/32 of his black blood, will he have obvious black skin? Looking at the picture below, this is Pushkin's great-granddaughter, a fifth-generation black mixed-race — already completely white.
Another person who was "delighted" to trace his African ancestry was the English Regency era in the early 19th century, when King George III's wife, Sophie Vuitton from the German states, was born in the German state. Queen Charlotte – There are many "experts" who have argued that Although Charlotte is German, she has Portuguese ancestry, and this Portuguese blood is "likely" of black African origin.
Queen Charlotte
Even more powerful are the "surprised" Black Queen and Black Duke in the British drama "Bridgerton Family", and the severed queen created by the new version of "Anne Boleyn" ~ the "Black Anne" of the Boleyn family (below).
Although the drama was broadcast, it set a new record for the lowest rating of the British historical drama IMDB, but the major mainstream media in the West were full of praise for it.
The famous British media "The Guardian":
Allowing people of color to play this role can show a more substitutionary sense of prejudice against the door and religion in British politics at that time.
The Times, an established authoritative media outlet:
Having an African-American actor play Anne Boleyn "more perfectly highlights Anne Boleyn's ill-fated fate" and also reflect Anne Boleyn's "outsider sense" as a Protestant among Catholics, more clearly embodying "identity awareness".
Subsequently, the producers explained the audience's "bad reviews" - the casting is regardless of race or skin color, and the audience should be encouraged to "find something deeper in the role." ”
This is like saying that the low rating of the TV series is not the problem of the TV series, but that you are the audience, the level is too low!
However, when people are accustomed to the high and mighty Black Queen, Black Duke, and Black Prince in classical dramas, how will they understand the slave trade, the history of black slavery, and the unspeakable crimes committed by countries such as britain and the United States against African-American groups.