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Re: race in america
By:hannabanana
Date: 10/24/08 11:48am
In Response To: race in america (m0n1ca)

There are no laws in any US state requiring or preventing any racial designation on birth certificates. That's gone long ago. During a census you can answer anyway you want regarding 'race', from a number of choices, or refuse to designate any race. That's what I do. There are some political problems, though, when various lawsuits claim minority underrepresentation. This is the reason some organizations urge people of mixed race to indicate "Black", even if they are whiter than me (about 3/4). The old 'one drop' laws, or 1/16 regulations, go back mostly to previous eras. In places like Jamaica, 'white status' was assumed in law for the child of a white person with someone less than 1/8 Black. This was an 18th Century Jamaican law. Also within the old English colonies, one had to be at least half white to own slaves, and usually 7/8 white to give sworn testimony in court. Many US states and European colonies made slavery illegal for persons with a high percentage of white ancestry. These laws changed over time and place. Perhaps the most backward in this respect was Virginia, which forbade marriage between blacks and whites well into the 1960s.

In Canada and in parts of the US, including Hawaii and Alaska, tribal rights to land, etc.,are often determined by ancestry and residence, but some of this is getting very murky in a shrinking and increasingly intermixed world.

Messages In This Thread

race in america -- m0n1ca -- 10/23/08 10:09pm
Re: race in america -- Jenny Shreve -- 10/24/08 9:36am
Re: race in america -- hannabanana -- 10/24/08 11:48am
thank you hannabanana -- m0n1ca -- 10/24/08 3:45pm
Re: thank you hannabanana -- Roger -- 10/24/08 4:01pm
Re: thank you hannabanana -- m0n1ca -- 10/24/08 5:16pm
This is going to an unpopular answer but -- oldtimer -- 10/24/08 5:59am