Rule of Hypodescent
This letter is in response to Mary Bixler's rant posted Nov. 10 ("Why All The Race Talk?). It is clear that Ms. Bixler is filled with anger at Obama's decisive election victory, and her letter contains subtle racist undertones that need to be challenged.
She claims, "People are people, I don't care what color you are." But this statement follows a tirade about the alleged laziness of people of color who look for handouts: "People should stop looking at the color of their skin and step up to the plate and work and earn money instead of playing the welfare money game." Pardon me, but what does welfare have to do with the election results or the rest of her letter? This is clearly thinly-veiled racism.
Bixler then goes on to assert "Obama is black and white, so where does he come off saying he is a black man? Is he that confused on color..." No, Ms. Bixler, President-elect Obama is not "that confused on color," you are! Since colonial days, America has socially constructed race according to the one-drop rule of hypodescent, which uses any trace of African heritage to socially label a person as "black." Obama did not create the rule of hypodescent, nor did African Americans. The rule was devised by European slaveholders to ensure that children born to African slave mothers and European slavemaster fathers would be born into slave status. This rule of hypodescent has been the basis of racial classification in this country ever since, and was even upheld by the state of Louisiana in the famous Phipps case of the 1980s.
Instead of venting anger at people of color over matters of racial identity, why don't people like Mary Bixler actually take time to educate themselves on the history of race in America so they can understand why it plays the role it does in our society?
Justin Garcia
East Hempfield Township
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