If Your Black Card is Revoked, Can You Still Go to the Cookout?
After being Black on both sides for 55 years, I never thought I’d see the day I’d have to ask this question, but here we are. I know times are changing and we’re no longer beholden to the rules of the past, but sometimes we can take things a little too far. Imagine my shock when I was told by someone I’ve known for more than half my life that I’m now considered “mixed” and not Black.
My Credentials
My Black card is older than some of you reading this. And my family’s history in America also goes back to the very beginning of this country’s formation. I am proudly American *CHOSSA through and through. On my mother’s side, one of my ancestors, Patsy, was forced to walk from Ohio to Mississippi after being sold away from her children. On my father’s side of the family, one of my possible ancestors, Egya, was enslaved inside of George Washington’s labor camp (because that’s what plantations really were). There are others that I know of, but I present these two just as examples.
If calculations are correct, I have close to or more than 1,000 formerly enslaved ancestors… and even more than that who lived on the African continent before transatlantic slavery began. All that they were, lives inside of me. I can not tell you the name of a single non-African person in my lineage on either side of my family.
So, why have I had to defend my Blackness? Because I don’t look like someone else’s idea of what an African woman is supposed to look like. And, apparently, I’m not alone.
Is This a New Trend?
About a year ago, while reading about the Real Housewives of Potomac, I stumbled upon disturbing comments that one of the show’s cast members, Robyn Dixon, is no longer accepted as Black. Apparently, she shared the results of her DNA testing online and while I don’t recall what the commenter said Robyn’s scoring was, according to this person, she didn’t meet the African genetic threshold for calling herself Black. After a little back and forth with others in the comments, the consensus seemed to be that, despite having two Black parents, Robyn’s Black card has been revoked. Someone needs to let her know.
Apparently, there are a lot of people whose Black cards have been snatched. Beyonce and everybody who looks like her is now considered MGM. Don’t worry, I had to look that one up, too. It means multigenerational mixed, not to ever be confused with Black.
New Rules of Blackness
So, if I’m getting this right, one can be “mixed” and not even know it. Like, literally not know of a single non-Black ancestor, but based on phenotype, alone, new rules suggest that one’s Black Card is deactivated just like that?
Oh and the one-drop rule is no longer effective in qualifying who’s Black and who isn’t. As old school as I am, I’m working to accept that, but can we slow down just a minute? Are we really going to require people to change how they identify based on the discovery that one’s DNA is not purely African? And are we really going to act like rape and breeding weren’t really a thing in Colonial America? That children born of either weren’t automatically enslaved forever?
According to the new rules of Blackness Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, August Wilson, Bob Marley and others known to be of mixed heritage are no longer Black. Imagine that? Some of the the most influential Black people of their time are ousted just like that. We haven’t had a Black president yet, either. Obama’s mama disqualified him from that recognition.
May I Speak to a Supervisor?
Who crafted these new guidelines? Were they even Black themselves or is this another trick of the devil who is always looking for new ways to divide and conquer us? Is there a special department handling these things or am I just supposed to show up at the Cookout and hope my card isn’t snatched on sight?
I have questions galore, but while I’m waiting I’ll just continue being what and who I’ve always been… and anyone who doesn’t like it can make a formal complaint to my Creator.
*CHOSSA means Children of Stolen & Sold Africans
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