Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 06:45:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: vera king (famo1962@aol.com)
Subject: Letter to the Editor
I’ve read some posts, and it seems a lot of people are annoyed that “black” people still adhere to the “one-drop” rule. We cannot change a mindset of over 400 years in a few days. I’m sure anyone who saw a “black” person walking down the street could not tell if the person is “black”, bi-racial, or multiracial. I respect anyone who wants to claim all of their cultures. I believe we “black” Americans know we are not pure, but a lot of us were not accepted nor acknowledged by our relatives of other colors. It’s nice that families are proud to claim their different races today. Maybe if we were accepted in the past, we would have never hung on to the “one-drop” rule. Also in reference to AD Powell’s April 12th message – “Why isn’t Mr. Sigh considered Black?” Please the man is of Indian descent. I hope he was being funny. A lot of Black people don’t consider Tiger Woods black (me included).
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 15:30:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: ron
Subject: Letter to the Editor
I’m responding to Vera King. She says that she doesnt consider Tiger Woods black????? Hello . Tiger is black and Asian, Tiger woods is a black man. Tiger wants to be something else other than black,that’s the reason why he is dating that white girl. alot of mixed people have issue, real bad and tiger is one of those people
Tue, 30 May 2000 08:22:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kevin Nixon
Subject: Letter to the Editor
Re: “Ron’s” post of May 17, 20000
Vera…don’t listen to Ron. Ron, not Tiger Woods, is the one with problems!!! Tiger Woods and any other individual on this earth has the RIGHT to define themselves, and not be told by anyone else (like Ron) who and what they are.
I’m Canadian and was born of a Dutch woman and a Cantonese man. I was, however, raised from birth by a French-Canadian woman and a Scottish-Canadian man. I am NOT Asian. Despite the fact that part of my biology comes from Canton, I am not Asian because:
1) “Asian”, “Black”, and “White” are socially constructed labels. They are meaningless as a way of telling the world who we are and what we’re all about;
2) I have absolutely NO cultural connections whatsoever with that part of the world. To be blunt, I don’t feel or identify with with anything “Cantonese”; and
3) There is no such thing as an “Asian”. That part of the world has all kinds of people in it, for example Japanese and Thai people…and I can guarantee you that they are as distinct and different from each other as Sicilians are different from Icelanders. Lumping them into a single socially constructed category is, to say the least, insulting!
I think Ron is just being posessive in a “racialist” way and feels the need to claim famous people in order to bolster his own sense of self-esteem. Come on Ron, don’t buy into the racialist paradigm that has been responsible for 500 years of opression!!!!!
Sun, 4 Jun 2000 20:56:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Richard “Warbird” Miller
Subject: Letter to the Editor
Ron says, “Tiger is black and Asian, Tiger woods is a black man.” Great Ron, what next, 1+2 no longer equals 3? It equals 2? Did his mother not have anything to do with his birth? By saying that he is Caublinasian, is he as equally ashamed of his Asian side as his black side (he doesn’t really have a black “side” – he only claims to be 1/4 black). Since the man is 1/2 Asian, 1/4 black, 1/8 white, and 1/8 Native American, then logic dictates that he should identify as Asian if he wants to, because that’s what he is, predominantly. What angers you so much is that he refused to be an asset to blacks, when really, he shouldn’t have to be. Sure, he became the champ, but when you force blackness upon him like that, you’re doing nothing more than saying that real blacks can’t achieve anything unless they have non-black blood to boost their intelligence and ability to do it.