I found a link to this messageboard on another site and was interested about what people would be talking about. My observations are as follows:
1. A lot of people seem to claim on this board that black people try to make everyone "black". I see the opposite happening on here. The mixed people on this board try to claim every black identifying person as "mixed" despite what they may personally identify as and because of any distant or miniscule white ancestry. By you all's standards i shouldn't call myself black because some great great great ancestor was white.
2. Black people are made out to be the enemy of mixed people on this board. The sentiment seems to be that if it wasn't for black people "forcing" mixed people to identify as black then they could be seen as mixed and therefore not the inferior group and closer to white. Not all black people believe in the "one drop rule". I personally believe people should identify racially and/or culturally with anything they want no matter what they look like or who their parents are or their distant ancestry.
I am not objecting to the existence of the website at all; I just wanted to state my opinions of the tone and sentiment of a lot of members of the site based on several posts that i read.
fwsweet wrote:
thenderson wrote:
I found a link to this messageboard on another site and was interested about what people would be talking about. My observations are as follows...
Thank you for your observations. I am not sure what is your intent in posting them.
If you are complaining about a specific message, please provide the message number, as called for in The Rules paragraph 4.1
If you are proposing a rules change, please be specific.
If you simply object to the existence of this website, why bother to join it?
I just wanted to state my opinions of the tone and sentiment of a lot of members of the site based on several posts that i read.
Again, please cite the specific posts. Unless you can back up your opinions with facts, you should keep such opinions to yourself.
This is not a share-your-feelings support site nor an open-dialogue-speak-freely site. This site's goal is narrow--to inform and to become informed about U.S. racialism, nothing more. We have strict rules against discussing the “racial” or ethnic self-identity of other members (rule 2.5,1), against criticizing anyone’s choice of ethnic or “racial” self-identity (2.6) and against generalizing to a U.S. “racial” or ethnic group in the political advocacy forums (2.7). If you have seen violations of these rules, please point them out and either a moderator or I (administration) will deal with the violation. On the other hand, if you cannot back up your opinion with specifics, then there is nothing anyone can do about your observations, so your posting them serves no useful purpose, and so you should keep them to yourself.
I found a link to this messageboard on another site and was interested about what people would be talking about. My observations are as follows:
1. A lot of people seem to claim on this board that black people try to make everyone "black". I see the opposite happening on here. The mixed people on this board try to claim every black identifying person as "mixed" despite what they may personally identify as and because of any distant or miniscule white ancestry. By you all's standards i shouldn't call myself black because some great great great ancestor was white.
Hi, thenderson. Are you sure you've looked through enough posts over here to make these sorts of assessments? I'm asking because you seem to be referring to the expressions of a few members as if "A lot of people seem to claim that black people try to make everyone "black". I mean, I can think of maybe four members who consistently express that stand. And, we've got LOTS more than four members.
As for our "standards", again, I don't think you've read enough posts to realize that most of us here, ESPECIALLY us mixed folks, are all for self-identification. You should call yourself "black" if that is what makes sense for you. I'm pretty sure we have some mixed members who ID as black and some who ID as white.
As for "claiming" people, if someone's biography states that their grandfather was white, then they are mixed, regardless of how they self-identify. Usually, when a member posts about such things, they are referring to genetics and ancestry and NOT infringing upon that person's right to self-identify. In fact, as Frank has stated, we have rules against such things and, if you look around some more, you will see members who break those rules being called on it within that thread.
thenderson wrote:
2. Black people are made out to be the enemy of mixed people on this board. The sentiment seems to be that if it wasn't for black people "forcing" mixed people to identify as black then they could be seen as mixed and therefore not the inferior group and closer to white. Not all black people believe in the "one drop rule". I personally believe people should identify racially and/or culturally with anything they want no matter what they look like or who their parents are or their distant ancestry.
The part I put in bold is, quite frankly, preposterous. We have members who are black and members who are mixed with black. Shucks, some of our moderators have black ancestry, which we fully embrace. Now, do you really think we're all on here talking about blacks as the enemy of mixed folks? Come on, now, be serious. That is absurd. Blacks are our family and friends. I think that you are making broad generalizations, which is always dangerous. The problem is not with blacks, it is with blacks, and anyone else, who continue to enforce the one drop rule. After all, this is onedroprule.org.
I think if you stick around and read some more threads, you'll see that most of us agree with you that "people should identify racially and/or culturally with anything they want no matter what they look like or who their parents are or their distant ancestry".
Here's the content of one of the rules Frank referred you to:
Quote:
2.6 Do not criticize anyone’s choice of ethnic or “racial” self-identity. — If you disagree with someone’s choice of ethnic or “racial” self-identity, keep it to yourself. This applies whether they are individuals or groups, and whether they are site members or not.
I am not objecting to the existence of the website at all; I just wanted to state my opinions of the tone and sentiment of a lot of members of the site based on several posts that i read.
That's your perception, from the inside and as a moderator here, the strongest sentiment is that people should identify as they choose.
I don't know what your actually looking at when you say we are making anyone with a drop of white blood mixed. Because that is far from the truth.
You probably don't understand our meaning of what mixed is.
If I say Will Smith is mixed, I'm not talking about how he identifies, I'm just dealing with genetics from a visual standpoint. So we have certain definitions set so we can understand each other. If you just look at us from a glance with a chip on your shoulder and purple shades on your going to see things filtered through what you choose to see.
Can you give some ODR site examples of this?
fwsweet wrote:
thenderson wrote:
I found a link to this messageboard on another site and was interested about what people would be talking about. My observations are as follows...
Thank you for your observations. I am not sure what is your intent in posting them.
If you are complaining about a specific message, please provide the message number, as called for in The Rules paragraph 4.1
If you are proposing a rules change, please be specific.
If you simply object to the existence of this website, why bother to join it?
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Come on, now, be serious. That is absurd. Blacks are our family and friends. I think that you are making broad generalizations, which is always dangerous. The problem is not with blacks, it is with blacks, and anyone else, who continue to enforce the one drop rule. After all, this