{"id":10714,"date":"2010-12-11T23:48:49","date_gmt":"2010-12-11T23:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=10714"},"modified":"2013-09-01T03:02:23","modified_gmt":"2013-09-01T03:02:23","slug":"biracial-americans-the-advantages-of-white-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=10714","title":{"rendered":"Biracial Americans: The Advantages of White Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biracial Americans: The Advantages of White Blood<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chapter 8 of An Historical Analysis of Skin Color Discrimination in America<\/a><\/em>
\nSpringer
\n2010
\n200 pages
\nHardcover ISBN: 978-1-4419-5504-3<\/p>\n

Chapter: pages 109-126
\nDOI: 10.1007\/978-1-4419-5505-0_8<\/a><\/p>\n

Ronald E. Hall<\/a><\/strong>, Professor of Social Work
\nMichigan State University<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Similar to that of Native Americans, the genesis of victim-group discrimination for biracial Americans is rooted in traditions of slavery and the antebellum<\/a> South. Biracial Americans during the antebellum period more often than not were the sons and daughters of the slave master class and having light skin on occasion may also have been of Native American ancestry. Whether biracial Americans were mixed blood by having white or Native ancestry their phenotype, light skin set them apart from the darker-skinned African-American populations whose bloodline had not yet been mixed.<\/p>\n

Life for biracial Americans during the antebellum was both privileged in some respects and oppressive, in other ways similar to unadulterated dark-skinned blacks. Due to the one-drop theory of racial identity, whites made no distinctions between blacks and biracial Americans, despite the fact that, by genetic proportion, some biracial Americans were more white than black.<\/strong> In the interest of maintaining slavery and the myth of white supremacy, any known African ancestry defined even those who were characterized by blond hair and blue eyes as black. Defined as black, they were subject to discrimination, could be enslaved, relegated to second-class citizenship, and have no more legal access to the institutions of government than any other black person. Some resented being defined solely as black and in numerous ways discriminated against blacks, which included separating themselves from the black community, often friends and family members. During the antebellum, biracial Americans temporarily passed<\/a> for white when seeking employment and permanently passed when considering marriage to a white fiance. Permanent passing was a critical form of victim-group discrimination that required that they never again acquaint themselves directly or indirectly with those to whom they were related by blood.<\/strong> Biracial Americans who could not withstand the emotional turmoil associated with their conflicting physical characteristics were designated as \u201cmulatto<\/a>.\u201d Mulatto was the antebellum term applied to mixed-race or biracial African-Americans who, but for a trace of black blood, were otherwise considered white. Their tragedy was inspired by the contradiction in who they wanted to be\u2014white\u2014and who society required they be\u2014black- Subsequently, they occupied a mid-level racial status, which constantly challenged their quest for identity and group acceptance. However, despite their being defined as black, being of light skin and often having white features accorded many biracial Americans who were…<\/p>\n

Read or purchase the chapter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biracial Americans: The Advantages of White Blood Chapter 8 of An Historical Analysis of Skin Color Discrimination in America Springer 2010 200 pages Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4419-5504-3 Chapter: pages 109-126 DOI: 10.1007\/978-1-4419-5505-0_8 Ronald E. Hall, Professor of Social Work Michigan State University Similar to that of Native Americans, the genesis of victim-group discrimination for biracial Americans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1933,459,8,20],"tags":[1179,4522,4690],"class_list":["post-10714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-bookchapter","category-history","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-ronald-e-hall","tag-ronald-hall","tag-springer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}