1. What Are You? The roots of the question people ask multiracials
Abstract
Intermixture and marriage amongst white Europeans and those of races they considered “non-white” created multiracial offspring who could not easily fit into either category. Professor Carter and I found an abundance of cases of mixed Americans fighting for free status. Since the colonial period, any combination of the following have been criteria to determine one’s status: parentage, terms of servitude, physical appearance, religion, social status, and way of life. Often inconsistent, these rules have advanced white political agendas and have echoed the contemporaneous understanding of race.
What Are the Questions? (2000s)
Today, the the government uses racial categories to ensure the civil right of all. The Census allows people to mark multiple racial and ethnic categories in any combination they choose. Still, racial inequality exists in our daily lives. Multiracial people often have to answer the question “What are you?” Ultimately these encounters show that white privilege is the standard of American identity.
What Were the Questions? (1600s)
During the colonial period, Englishmen subjugated other groups to preserve their dominance. Asking “Are you Indian?” and “Are you African?” helped distinguish the colonizers from the colonized.
Elizabeth Key Grinstead, Virginia, 1656
Grinstead won her freedom on the grounds that her father was an Englishman and that she had been baptized as a Christian. Her case would set the standard for later freedom suits to determine race by heredity, though a law passed in 1681 would identify race by matrilineal heritage instead of Grinstead’s patrilineal case.
Quock Walker,
Massachusetts, 1781
Walker won freedom from his master, William Jennison, on the grounds that “all men are equal and free” under the law of God and the Massachusetts
Constitution. This same logic would abolish slavery in Massachusetts completely just two years later.
START
START No
Is the father white?
Yes No
Does the person look white? No
Abda Duce, Connecticut, 1704
Duce and his lawyer, Richard Edwards, won his freedom on the grounds that Duce’s father was an Englishman and that slavery was “incompatible with Christianity.” While matrilineal inheritance had been adopted in Virginia by this time, Connecticut kept its patriarchal system in place.
Yes
Is the mother white?
Hannah Wright, Virginia, 1806
Wright secured her freedom on the grounds that her mother was reportedly Native American in a state where matrilineal heritage determined race and
Indian slavery had been illegal since 1705. No N O T F R E
Does the person have
two white parents? N O T W H I E
Yes
Yes
Do the terms of servitude
say the person is free? No
Does the person have
the status of a white
person? No
Yes
Does the person look
like a free person? No
Yes No
Does the person act
like a white person?
Yes
Conclusions No
Race is a social construct that has been present in North America since Europeans first arrived
Definitions of “whiteness” changed with time, but white always remained the superior race.
Those in power, namely white European male politicians, have decided how whiteness is determined.
Is the person Christian?
Yes
White!
Free!