Serious Question on Race

[Darran]

I was watching an episode of Inside the World's Toughest Prisons on Netflix just now and the presenter Raphael Rowe goes into Brandvlei Correctional Centre in South Africa for seven days where nearly all the prisoners are black gang members.
They aren’t particularly nice to him when he goes and when of them says something to him about being white,he replies with “I’m not white I’m black my father was black and my mother was white.”

I didn’t know that when he said it and I couldn’t help thinking how are so many people with one black parent and one white parent black?
Giggs once said he was proud to be black and Meghan is black even though her father is white.
Why aren’t they white?
How is the decision made?

This is him here.

 

[K23]

DNA and Biogeographic ancestry are extremely complex but society tries to rationalise and simplify everything into race and ethnicity. I don't think a 'decision' is made or even can be and more often than not it comes down to how someone self-identifies.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

“Why aren’t they white”?

Because society doesn’t treat people of mixed heritage as white. Simple as that really.

 

[Darran]

“Why aren’t they white”?

Because society doesn’t treat people of mixed heritage as white. Simple as that really.

It never used to treat them as black did it?
I just googled ‘half-caste’ and apparently that’s offensive now.
I didn’t know that either.

 

[K23]

“Why aren’t they white”?

Because society doesn’t treat people of mixed heritage as white. Simple as that really.

You're right, white society definitely doesn't and historically never has but black society might consider them white. As I mentioned before, in the end it probably comes down to self-identification and where/how you fit into the culture in which you live or were brought up.

 

[Itchysphincter]

It never used to treat them as black did it?
I just googled ‘half-caste’ and apparently that’s offensive now.
I didn’t know that either.

You didn't know that?! Yeah, right.

trolllollollolol :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Darran]

You didn't know that?! Yeah, right.

trolllollollolol :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I absolutely swear I never knew the term half-caste was now offensive.

 

[K23]

I absolutely swear I never knew the term half-caste was now offensive.

I was under the impression that it always was, even when I was a nipper many years ago.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

I absolutely swear I never knew the term half-caste was now offensive.

It was always offensive and fell out of common use at least 20 years ago if not more. So you’ve either been asleep since the 1980s or pretending.

 

[Darran]

It was always offensive and fell out of common use at least 20 years ago if not more. So you’ve either been asleep since the 1980s or pretending.

I’m not pretending.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

I’m not pretending.

The third option is obtuse.

 

[Darran]

The third option is obtuse.

What?

 

[J_B]

The third option is obtuse.

Definitely not acute.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

Definitely not acute.

The very opposite indeed. :lol:

 

[Londonlisa2001]

You're right, white society definitely doesn't and historically never has but black society might consider them white. As I mentioned before, in the end it probably comes down to self-identification and where/how you fit into the culture in which you live or were brought up.

A large part of U.K. society regards people as either white or not. Hence the BAME descriptor and why some find it offensive.

So while I agree that some parts of black society may not regard people of mixed heritage as ‘black’, the answer to Darran’s question remains. People who have mixed heritage will regard themselves as black as that’s what U.K. society at large does.