The One-Drop Rule Essay -- Racial Issues

The growth in the multiracial population in the United States of America since the 1970s has greatly increased and is continue to increase. Although the number of biracial and multiracial Americans is relatively small to the total population at 5 million, the multiracial population is growing at a come in of ten times faster than that of the White population (Stuckey 2008). These facts werent officially known until the United States governments verdict to allow individuals to claim three-fold races on the 2000 US census. Along with these aspects, the increased exposure of multiracial public figures and celebrities such as Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, and Barack Obama, has caused the focus of public discussion and scholarly concern on multiracial people to increase greatly. Much of this discussion focuses on racial identity. Racial personal identity is put to question in censuses and other polls, applications, and in personal meetings. When it comes to answering in these situations I believe most biracial White-Black people internally identify as Black, and describe how both Blacks and Whites see them as Black. I argue that the one-drop rule still shapes racial identity. Blacks and Whites first began mixing significantly in America in the 17th and 18th centuries, between African slaves and the European indentured servants. Fearing that these interracial relationships would tarnish the purity of the White race, states passed laws in the 1660s to prohibit interracial marriage. Despite these strict anti miscegenation laws, the relationships continued, sometimes with consent and other times through force, as White slave owners often raped their Black female slaves. As a result, many multiracial children were born as the circumstance of bru... ...h to Understanding the Racial Identification of Multiracial adolescents. Conference PapersAmerican Sociological Association, 1-22Pearlmann, J. and Mary Waters. 2002. The New Race interview How the Census Counts Multirac ial Individuals. New York Russell Sage Foundation.Qian, Zhenchao. 2004. Options Racial/Ethnic Identification of Children of Intermarried Couples. Social Science Quarterly 8574665.Rockquemore, Kerry Ann, and David L. Brunsma. 2002a. Beyond Black Biracial Identity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications.Roth, W. 2005. The End of the One-Drop rule? Labeling of Multiracial children in Black Inermarriages. Sociological Forum, 20(1), 35-67Stuckey, M. (2008, May 28). Multiracial americans surge in number, voice. Retrieved from http//www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24542138/ns/us_news-gut_check/t/multiracial-americans-surge-number-voice/