©Joan Ferrante, for instructional use
THE “LOGIC”: In the United States race is treated as categorical
1. American Indian or Alaskan Native (1.2%) 2. Asian (5.2%) 3. Black (13.2%) 4. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (.2%) 5. White (77.7%) 6. Other Race/Two or more races (2.4%) 6 Official “Legal” Racial Categories
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 316 million/7.2 billion American Indian or Alaskan Native Asian Black White Other
Blanco Negro Another way: a continuum of skin shades with black and white as endpoints
Categorical system is founded on a belief in racial purity
categorical system transforms many ethnic/cultural groups into one super-category Black - any person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa White - any person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North America, or the Middle East
Black - any person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa
White - any person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe North America Middle East
Categorical system Requires (and is supported by) laws to classify “problem cases”—e.g., those who do not fit into ONE racial category 316 million/7.2 billion
Our first “problem cases”
Enslaved peoples who were offspring of master and enslaved were the first “problem cases.”
Categorical system Laws to classify “problem cases” (the offspring): Offspring follow the condition of the mother rule Enslaved women forbidden to reveal name of father Biological parent and children/siblings can be different races
Another problem case
Frederick Douglass, the great orator and abolitionist is viewed as “black.” Yet in is autobiography he writes that he knew his father to be “white” and the “opinion was whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion I know nothing.” He could not know for sure because enslaved women were forbidden by law to name the father of their children
Another problem case
Booker T. Washington, an African-American leader and educator, was born into slavery in 1856 as the son of a white father and enslaved mother. In his autobiography, Washington wrote “I have heard reports to the effect that he was a white man who lived on one of the near-by plantations.”
Another problem case: the offspring of Thomas Jefferson
See notes section of this PowerPoint
See notes below
U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census enumerators were instructed to code race through OBSERVATION
Another problem case
TWINS
Cousins
Upon running away to freedom, where is the line that allows the best chance of escaping enslavement?