In my venturing onto the internet, I came across an article that very quickly escalated into a Meghan Markle black or not black conversation.
Being a white girl from West Virginia, I know I am not the fount of all knowledge.
there were some who said that because Megan has a black mother and a white father that she is not black, she is only biracial. other people say because she looks mainly white that she is white and not black...
I frankly fine this whole discussion ridiculous. I responded to that post with the following long-winded slowly roundabout reasoning of why people will not give Meghan a break.
I am the first to say that I am not nuanced in black history nor the black experience...
I can, however, say that what follows below is historically accurate. I look things up read articles, did a lot more stuff than a normal person would do when making a post on a message board. But I wanted to make sure that what I said was true and not another lie passed down from generations before me.
The debate started with someone saying that black people should stop trying to claim Meghan as their own, because clearly Megan doesn't consider herself black.
And below is my long-winded roundabout response to society and the stupid question of race and treatment of a human being because of their race...
As someone from the US, if a rich white man has an affair with a black (or bi-racial, or any blood period) woman, that child would be considered black.
That's how the slave trade went on so long. Men would cheat on their wives with slaves, the bi-product (baby) would be considered a black slave, and all continuing offspring would be black slaves until they could finally pass for white, get their freedom and move far away from ppl who know their pedigree.
That's why we had classifications of quadroon, octaroon, sacatra, mustefino (1/16th African), Quintroon, and hexadecaroon for ppl... Never let black ppl forget they're black.
Hell, half of Thomas Jefferson's slaves were his direct descendents.
Directing it back toward Britain, most black slaves were not "freed" until 1834, when the newly freed slaves magically converted to indentured servants with a a 12 year term. The Queen refused to apologize to one of the first black members of Parliament for slavery in as late as 1993!h Which means that black people were still oppressed, and people in this lifetime have family who were slaves.
So... Coming back to the point again. I'm sure for Royalty, as well as a good number of British subjects, 1 drop of African makes you Black...
Which leads to how the press in the UK, and according to yourselves, posts about Meghan turn into racist arguments, the one drop off blood makes you Black no matter what "color" you are.
That seems to be the pre-occupation... Who does Meghan think she is? A black woman, with black relatives, coming into the Royal Family & changing everything. Nevermind that all new members to a family make their own contribution to the family, bring in New ideas & customs... But the vitriol directed toward Meghan seems crazy.
Meghan might not consider herself Black, but noone will let her forget it.
