LTE: Kiva Support One-Drop Rule

Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000 16:20:25 -0800 (PST)
From: kiva renee
Subject: Letter to the Editor

I am Black. My family members are from many different nations in America, Europe and Africa. Many of the contributors to this site are still ashamed of their one drop of African lineage and have an inferiority complex.

Black is liberating. Despite popular views to the contrary. I don’t have to register for a tribal card or prove myself through social connections with Whites. It is the freedom to be and accept All that I am. No 2 Black families in America have an identical ethnic heritage! After all, we were BRED for hundreds of years. You seem to believe that being Black means that you are African and not simply of African lineage. This is demonstrated when you say I am Black AND— We Are a Muliticultural ethnic category.

So stop doing what our white ancesters did by diminishing the diversity within my great culture. I am African, Scottish, NDN and Black is a defiant and unifying expression of that. Rather face their brutal past, it is easier for Whites today to divide and conquer. It is uncomfortable to look into the faces of slaves who look just like you.

You should spend your time serfing the links which help to EXPLAIN the complex legal and social history. For example, African women were valued as breeders. They were rarely permitted to earn their freedom and their children were born into slavery. The vast majority of mulattos had white mothers. Their children married other free Blacks without a preference, until DOCUMENTED changes in laws. Your family albums tell this story.

Why not truly examine the seed of self hatred before passing it on to your children. Not attitutes, preference or selective researh. (I’d be happy to forward links).