Dr. Yaba Blay says, “Identity is nuanced. It’s complicated. It’s hard to define. Sometimes it’s dangerous to define, depending on who’s doing the defining.” This reading lingers in that tension between how we are named and how we come to name ourselves.
One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race
Despite having the option, on the 2010 Census form, President Obama check only one box— “Black, African American or Negro.” Once, when asked publicly how he self-identifies, President Obama responded, “I self-identify as African American — that’s how I’m treated and that’s how I’m viewed. I’m proud of it.” Still, because he was born of a White, American mother of English and Irish descent and a Black, African father from Kenya, the technicalities of his racial identity are regularly noted. He is often referred to as “Biracial” or “Mixed,” and the idea that he is the nation’s first Black president has been publicly questioned if not outright rejected. President Obama says he’s Black. That should be enough, shouldn’t it?
…
In the United States, historically a Black person has come to be defined as any person with any known Black ancestry. Although this definition has been statutorily referred to as the “one Black ancestor rule,” the “traceable amount rule,” and the “hypodescent rule,” it is more popularly known as the “one-drop rule,” meaning that one single, solitary drop of Black blood is enough to render a person Black. Said differently, the one-drop rule holds that a person with any trace of Black ancestry, however small or (in)visible, cannot be considered White. Unless that person has other non-White ancestry they can claim — such as Native American, Asian, etc. — they must be considered Black.
…
What exactly is Blackness and what does it mean to be Black? Is Blackness a matter of biology or consciousness? Who determines who is Black and who is not — the state, the society, or the individual?
Who is Black, who is not, and who cares?
Retrieved from One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race by Dr. Yaba Blay, p. 140
Invitation: “…determines who you are.”
Dr. Yaba Blay is an award-winning scholar. She earned her MA and Ph.D (with distinction) in African American Studies and Women’s Studies. She also holds a MA of Education in Counseling Psychology from the University of New Orleans. She is the author of One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race, and a widely recognized public voice whose work appears across major media, universities, and global organizations. A noted social media activist and cultural producer, she has led viral campaigns, created the web series Professional Black Girl, contributed to CNN’s Who Is Black in America? and won the 2024 BlackStar Film Festival Shine Award for her debut film The Whites of Our Eyes.
Dr. Blay’s Website: https://www.yabablay.com/
Dr. Blay brought national attention to the treatment of Black children in American schools through her Instagram platform and her CNN commentary, “Tell a Brown Girl She’s Pretty, Dreadlocks and All.” In the video below is the story of Tiana, who was sent home from her predominantly Black charter school because her locs were deemed “unacceptable” under school policy.
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February Courageous Citizen
Welcome to our February Circles of Courageous Commons posts dedicated to courageous citizens and truth-telling that is not always loud, but more often it is steady like a heart beat, the flutter of the birds wing, or as steadfast as the moon and the sun.
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Dr. Yaba Blay says, “Identity is nuanced. It’s complicated. It’s hard to define. Sometimes it’s dangerous to define, depending on who’s doing the defining.”
I was a Census 2020 worker and visited people door to door -- and my experiences about how people choose to identify or not was profoundly informing to me -- with regard to race, ethnic identity, gender, etc.