If She is Black then like grey, there must be many shades of black...

[dogtag]

She doesn't look black. Nor does Vanessa Williams.
I find it funny how people take pride in being black
when they look more white than black.
She did look good though. Same with Williams.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...ied-sleep.html

[Allen]

Well, it use to be if a person had any black at all in them they were considered black.

Many kids today don't know what the hell they are.

[dryheat]

Beyounce. Looks white but is black and she says so. Of course, if you look close...well.. she looks like my dream baby. I don't mean maybe. Just lyrics. She's close to my next six girlfriends.

[Art]

Well, it use to be if a person had any black at all in them they were considered black.

Many kids today don't know what the hell they are.

It's called the "one drop rule."

70% at least of all black people in the United States have at least some white ancestry, some of those people look whiter than others.

In the Ante Bellum and Post Reconstruction (Jim Crow) south any black ancestry at all made you black. There was a very good black friend of ours who absolutely looked black, unfortunately now deceased, who had a cousin who was "black" but looked so white that during segregation in Louisiana she kept a birth certificate with her at all times to keep her black husband from being lynched and to get into black hotels and restaurants. Some black women entertainers seem to get whiter as they get more famous. Vanessa Williams is an example, don't believe me, look at her Miss America pictures. Beyonce is a classic example of what used to be called a "high yellow" black woman, Knowles parents, especially her father are definitely black. The gal in the song "The Yellow Rose of Texas" was too. In fact the original lyrics make that clear = "She's the sweetest rose of color this darky ever knew."

If you think Vanessa Williams or Beyonce look white just look back at vintage black women stars like Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge. In fact when I was growing up in Louisiana at the tail end of " Jim Crow" almost every pretty black woman was assumed to have white ancestry, yes that thinking had racist roots; heck no black looking woman could be pretty. It is pretty well documented that 30% of all white people have some black ancestry. The legacy of very light skinned descendants of black folks who at some time in the past "passed" for white, left their black friends and families behind and were subsequently absorbed into the white population. In fact their was a crooked politician in Louisiana named Leander Perez who, if you were born in his parish. crossed his palm with the right number of shekels and were a black person who wanted to "pass" and looked like you could get away with it would alter your birth certificate to make you "white."

Interestingly, white people who have black ancestry now generally have no problem admitting it. I had more than one student when I was a substitute teacher for 10 years in a predominately white district, who looked as white as anyone on this forum who had black ancestry and didn't mind admitting. 75 years ago in Texas you might know that but you'd never, ever dare admit it. Sort of like all those white folks who claim to be Cherokee or something now who, if they are, their grandparents would never have admitted it.

The fact is we're a nation of mutts.

[dryheat]

Unfortunately or otherwise? There's a xxxxxx in the woodpile. That's two subjects.
Well, OK, since I started; I have some connection with TX. It's a black story. I used to wonder what was wrong with him but he was my best friend.
Read the little paperback book about Davy Crocket, it touches on race denial. Actually, it's a good part of the paperback.

[Art]

Unfortunately or otherwise? There's a xxxxxx in the woodpile. That's two subjects.
Well, OK, since I started; I have some connection with TX. It's a black story. I used to wonder what was wrong with him but he was my best friend.
Read the little paperback book about Davy Crocket, it touches on race denial. Actually, it's a good part of the paperback.

Speaking of race, "the woodpile," Texas and the revolution that Crockett fought in.

"The Yellow Rose of Texas" was a free woman of color named Emily D. West, sometimes mistakenly called Emily Morgan. She was born in New Haven, Ct. In early 1836 she indentured herself to a fellow named Morgan in Texas. During the sweep east by the Mexican Army after defeating the Texians at The Alamo she was captured by Mexican cavalry and was in Santa Ana's camp at the time of the battle of San Jacinto. The legend grew that Santa Ana was distracted when the Texians attacked and defeated him because he was "dallying" with Miss West. There is no solid evidence at all by Miss West or anyone else that the story is true and if there was any "conubiation" it was as likely rape as consensual. After the battle Miss West went to the local Texas officials and told them she was a free woman but her "free papers" had been lost at San Jacinto. An officer vouched for her, she was given a Republic of Texas passport, which exists to this day, and got the hell out of Texas as fast as she could.

As "The Yellow Rose of Texas" she gradually acquired heroine status and there is actually a hotel in San Antonio named after her.

emily west.jpg

Statue commemorating Emily West, "The Yellow Rose," in San Antonio, Texas. The "Emily Morgan Hotel," named after her, is in the background.

[Art]

I'm going to make a last note on Emily West. Why you ask, would a woman of no particular accomplishment, who was from the bottom of the social scale, have such notariety. The answer is pretty simple. The story grew up that she was actually a spy for Sam Houston and was feeding him information on Santa Ana strength and location, sort of a Texian Mata Hari. There is no evidence for that at all, certainly no documentary evidence.

"When the truth becomes legend, print the legend."

[blackhawknj]

There is a cachet to having Indian/Native American ancestry while having black blood carries a stigma.
For those of us who have read Ayn Rand's essay "Racism", our answer is-so what ?

[Phloating Phlasher]

You should hear a Gen-U-Ine Amerind, discuss "Degrees of blackness" with a N.Y Shinnecock "Indian"! If I posted most of the comments made I'd be banned.

[blackhawknj]

In the 1960s MAD Magazine had a "Civil Rights Musical". In one panel Martin Luther King sang about Adam Clayon Powell to the tune of "It ain't ncessarily so":
"Now Adam is on the right track/But is he the one I should back ?/ When Negroes are light men they're passing for white men/But Adam is passing for black !"
Much of the failure of the Nation of Islam was due to its best known leaders-Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan-being of mixed blood.