Friday, February 16, 2018

The One-Drop Rule revisited

The One-Drop Rule revisited
"In the post-Reconstruction era of the late 19th century, a disgusting and disgraceful practice was put into place in the American South as a key component of the Jim Crow anti-black laws.  
The practice was the "One-Drop Rule."  
See the source imageTo wit, if a person's genetic heritage contained just a trace of black ancestry ("one drop of black blood"), the person would be legally considered black and subject to the harshly restrictive "Jim Crow" discriminatory laws.
Recent developments in technology and the availability of DNA testing for the general public have thrown a wrench into racial and ethnic classifications, which presents a quandary for professional diversity and affirmative action advocates, government organizations, and employers.  
The argument could and should be made that since the One-Drop Rule penalized and oppressed individuals with trace amounts of minority ancestry, it should now work in favor of those who discover they have even trace amounts of such ancestry.  
DNA technology provides a high-tech strategy for civil disobedience.  
For example, if a person's DNA results indicate even a trace of ancestry from the "Iberian peninsula" (Spain), he can check the "Latino/Hispanic" box under application of the one-drop rule.  
The federal government defines Hispanic or Latino as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."
The "white" racial category was solidified in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the implementation of affirmative action practices that followed.  
"White" was therefore defined as "not Hispanic or Latino" – in other words, a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa..."
Read on!!

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