Somebody passed as white and became my ancestor. As a child I was told that my many great great great grandmother was Cherokee. 23andMe shows I have 0 native american DNA, but 3% Congolese. It's a sad indictment of American history that people had to pass as white or another race to gain opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have.
@BrianMax Articles have been written about how a lot of White families would claim Native heritage because certain features (darker skin) would be present, but they really had some African heritage.
@@EclecticDD Yeah, it's pretty typical. The 'Cherokee Princess' usually turned out to be someone with African ancestry from the antebellum period. I wish we could learn their true stories.
As a 56 year old white man who grew up in a mostly white high school, I *really really appreciate this kind of content. It helps me learn and grow!* I know you mean your content to reach out to the back community, but I want to let you know that as a side effect you are also educating white folks who really need to hear this as well!
My father was a mulatto. His mother was 12 years old when she gave birth to him. He was born in Tennessee in 1929. My father looked racially ambiguous but too dark to pass for white. He reinvented himself as an Arab. Gave himself an Arabic name and claimed to be from Iraq. My white mother thought he was Arab. Everyone i met who knew him believed him to be an Arab. I grew up believing i was mixed Arab and white. I was 52 years old when i took DNA test and discovered there was no Arab in my chart, but there was 25% west African. Mostly from Nigeria. He disowned his family and disowned his three children.. he lived the rest of his life as this character. The ancestry test linked me up to his side of the family and i met them. All black folks from Chicago. When i was younger most people thought i was a light skinned brother with green eyes and “good hair” as i got older and went bald people perceived me as white. So l have been on both sides of the color line.
@@Wtvrflotesurgoat i believe he had severe mental issues. He abandoned his brother and sister, then his children. His need to live his assumed life was stronger than his family connection.
@@1bebairieback in the day it was easier to something else rather than black. Many black people did this for self preservation and to insure a good life for their children. It is very common to believe it or not. They actually made movies about it.
9@@Tigerbrown44 that is sad. Why would you say he had mental problems it sounds to me he made a decision to a line himself to whiteness to make his life easier and to make the lives of his children easier. (Whether it did or not) Being black in America is not a nice thing. Back than or at present. It goes to show how whyte people or any other race of people for that matter will distance themselves from blackness. 200 years of maltreatment and forced interbreeding (I am being Conservative with using these words) will lead to many mixed race people (back than) if they can pass to pass for whyte or anything else but black. What a world we live in. Remember America had laws that disenfranchised black people. Maybe he just did not want to deal with or be treated like what black people in his time were/ still are treated 🤷
The adoption agency told my parents I'd be able to pass and gave me to a white family. My mom painstakingly straightened my hair every day. No one told me I was biracial until I was in my teens and then it was to be kept a secret. I told EVERYONE. I'm also not that old. I was born in the 70's. This crap is still going on.
@@angellover02171 I knew I was something other than white because I got so dark in the summers. My friends thought I was half black. I'm actually half afro-Caribbean.
I already knew I was multi-racial as my brothers are very dark so my parents are not much darker than me their birth certificate says colored on it and mine says negro. I am a Heinz 57 I knew that as well. I took a DNA test with 23 and me about 4 years ago and I was 29.9 percent sub-Saharan African, 12 percent Asiatic which means native American, there was English Irish Norwegian, Portuguese Sephardic Jew.
Well somewhere down the line the kids of European immigrants agreed they were all white and bashed others from the 50s onwards. They used to hate Irish and Italians but now everyone claims that ethnicity….
I had a friend who was Jewish, but told everyone she was Italian. She told me that as a Jewish child the hatred she experienced was too much. " I left that all behind, now I am respected" she said. I felt so sad for her!
My mother and the stepfather I grew up with are both of Eastern European Jewish descent. Both are opposed to organized religion. My stepfather passed away, but I was with my step uncle recently. He has the same rabid opposition to religion. He said when he was a child, he was at the temple preparing for his bar mitzvah. When the Polish rabbi threw him down the front steps, telling him he was a dirty Russian. This was in the 1950s as the Cold War was ramping up. And my stepfather and uncle were born in New York, by the way. So there were Jews discriminating against Jews, and the whole country discriminating against Russian Jewish immigrants who came to the United States fleeing persecution. They were here before the Russian revolution and the advent of socialism.
It's absolutely awful I'm a Catholic from Northern Ireland, and we are still treated as second-class citizens in our own country. Burned from our homes. Murdered raped by police officers just because of our religion, we all started off the same way, as newly conceived feotuses. Safe in our mothers bellies, not knowing how cruel the world really is. We have the same blood running through our veins until we are born.
My grandpa used to tell me to say I was Italian. He was on my dad side that's not Jewish only my moms side is Jewish. My grandparents lived in Missouri I am from California. He told me if I ever moved there I wouldn't fit in or be able to get a job unless I said I was Italian. I used to tell my grandpa it's not like that anymore don't worry. And now here we are in 2025 and there's soo much antisemitism its scary and people have to take off our star of david to feel safe.
My great great grandmother passed as white and married a white man. She went to great lengths to always present herself impeccably. My great grandmother knew her black cousins, but the interactions were careful. It was my mother's memory of one Easter Sunday that really hit home for me about what this meant. My grandparents and their children (my mother ws about 8 when this happened), had their Easter plans change and ended up making an unplanned trip to have Easter dinner with my great grandmother and great grandfather. They were sitting down to eat when there was a knock at the door and instead of my graat grandmother getting up to answer the door right away, she froze and an uncomfortable silence came over the table. My great grandmother broke out of it, hurridly getting up from the table and going to the door, but rather than welcoming the guest in, she instead went onto the porch, closing the door behind her and talking in a hushed urgent tone. While she was talking to the Easter Sunday visitor, my mother peeked out, she was concerned as this visitor was making her father angry and agitated. When she looked out onto the porch she saw a black woman in a beautiful Easter bonnet. My mother said it looked like she was the intended Easter Sunday dinner guest, but with my grandfather there, she wasn't allowed to join the dinner and instead turned away. This was around 1950 in Cape May New Jersey. My mother was extremely close to her great grandmother and spent a lot of time visiting with her, she said there were several times black women would come to visit, and my mother who was always curious, one day gathered up her courage to ask (children didn't ask personal questions then), but her great grandmother bushed it off and said "oh, just a cousin". Although her father knew his wife was not completely white, he wouldn't allow any talk of it or any acknowledgement of it. He would however refer to my great great grandmother as the black witch. It appears her family started out in Brazil, then to the Barbados, North Carolina and ending up in Long Island New York where my great, great great great grandparents were slaves owned by Raynor and Smith families. It's a fascinating, but sad story, I always feel my stomach and throat tighten up every time I tell it.
I went to school with a lovely darkskinned boy who’s sister was blonde and green eyed, his other sister was even darker than he was, all the same parents, you just never know, they were all 16 % Indonesian …., he was my best friend when I was little
**Black people**: This is how the one drop rule shaped blackness. Look at these white-passing people, they WANT to identify as black? Hell nah. Look at their white-passing skin color and physical features, they're clearly mostly white! **Also, black people**: look at these white-passing people, they DON'T want to identify as black!! Why would they disgrace their black ancestors, and be ashamed of identifying as black? They think they're better than us?
Creole American woman here from the south and this was refreshing and relatable. I am SO happy that you are spreading this. AS, it was TRULY a thing once upon a time. One love
Interesting. On my dad’s side some people disappeared because they could pass. The family never heard from them again. Sad. A lot of them stayed, proud to identify as black despite hardships.
I read a great book, The Sweeter the Juice”, the author’s family that chose to pass for white actually were LESS successful in life compared to the ones who chose to stay Black. The Black family became higher educated, more affluent and actually integrated social groups that they were previously denied. Seems as if the “struggle” made them more resilient👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Growing up watching the movies Immation of Life and Alex Haley's Queen it always broke my heart. As a biracial child I could never imagine denying either side of my identity. It is so sad this was the sacrafice so many had to make.
I’m a light skinned black female. My natural Afro hair tells all I am black but I didn’t know how much better I was treated being light skinned until I started hanging out with my dark skinned niece. Crazy. The world needs God’s Kingdom to fix this mess.
Johnny Cash’s wife! Vivian Liberto! He LOVED her! He was boycotted in the South for a year until her identity was established as White, but she’s Black, Irish, and Italian.
You know I took 1 look at her and i said she's poc in the story they never address that it would have added a interesting touch and explained aloe of things and his actions . America loved Johnny Cash but hated the love of his life because of the color of her skin.
My grandfather was mixed and could have passed for white, BUT REFUSED! HE STOOD UP AGAINST RACISIM IN KENTUCKY & MARRIED A foundational black American and had 7 sons ( one being my father). My father and mom had stories of racial hatred towards blacks but NEVER told me and my siblings "what they really experienced" until I was an adult. 😢
Your grandfather was probably HATED by the darker-skinned Black people and was SCARED to be who he really was! These are Mixed-race people who "PASS FOR BLACK," But aint! That's JUST AS BAD!
@@quix66hiya22…yes, some did do that. I have a whole side of non mixed relatives. I met some of them as an adult through DNA. I was so excited as l had only knew of this side of the family through conversations. Once l met some of them it was painfully obvious our diverse differences. I left early the next morning and broke off all contact. 😢
Your grandpa sounds like my paternal grandpa who was born in 1906. He was Mixed & looked White. He married my dark skinned grandma & had my Dad, uncles, & aunt. My Dad married my Mixed Mom. I looked Mixed even at almost 50 years old as do most of my kids.
I’m black/creole Japanese. I believe I’m passing. Nobody believes I’m black until I show pictures or they meet my family. People assume I’m a pale Hispanic, Italian, or Filipino
@@deeMo81If people are getting you screwed up for something that you have no control over, then you are not passing. Especially if you're having to prove your identity in spite of their ignorance.
You’re not passing. You have to deliberately deny and claim a different racial identity and actively live in that. People use “ white passing” no as purely appearance when it’s actually an action of passing as a different race.
We just found out my “ Latin “ granny was Jamaican… She was mistreated by the American soldiers building the Panama Canal & became something else due to her trauma… She was strong , a survivor & inspiring, I love my granny & miss her so .
Yes, it's the Human Race. Science shows us that there is no difference, only physical adjustments to the areas we all migrated from, which is Central Africa to various locations on the earth in search of food. If we mate with only those that look like us, we fall into the trap of being genetically too similar to the mate, hence the diseases inherent in the DNA surface. Examples are some of the monarchies of Spain and England. Even seen in some lineages of the Pharaohs of Egypt. Being mixed is a good thing.
Your channel and content is amazing.......helps with the missing parts to the black identity. The butter pecan ice-cream explained why my momdukss loves that flavor 😅
Thank you, very interestiing story. My mother grew up in New Orleans, and was considered Creole. She told a story of losing a job, after cutting her hand and being taken to hospital and going on colored side. The lady she worked with told her she was on wrong side of hospital my mother told her no I am colored (around 1940), needless to say she loss that job because woman went back and told the boss my mother was black.
I am a mixed race English woman with no "British" blood at all. My Parents had told me only of my European heritage. Although i am white i have facial features from Africa. An Uncle suspected my heritage and performed something (-i am Christian so do not get involved in!-)which came back positive, which i fully do believe. As a grown woman my Grandad did show me photos of "long lost Family" who i had never seen or been told of before! These people appeared to be African, in black and white photos. Finally a DNA test confirmed i had heritage from Africa, although two different countries were named (apparently people had travelled so it was impossible to tell which of the two. My Grandad died many years back now. The rest of the Family avoid giving me answers, and i see their silence as loud. I never did find out what happened to that photo album. Myself and an Uncle (not the one mentioned) have the most continental features (he has darker skin), my Beautiful Children have darker skin and my facial features). All my Family come from at least three continents. For me being mixed race did not attract many white men, however i had a better opportunity - most of my ex Boyfriends came from Africa and Asia. I actually had the chance to move abroad but i chose to stay with my Beloved Mam who became terminally ill. Three lessons from my story : 1. Your Family could be hiding your heritage from you. 2. Culture may instill "cultural norms", however "human nature" prevails in all of us. 3. The most important one, God created every one of us equal, to love Him first, and to be kind to all of His Creations! Thank you for reading, God Bless! Pauline xxxxx
I guess because I’ve seen so many mixed and biracial people I can tell if they are mixed . I don’t think a lot of those people passed during that time period, I think I just think a lot of people were oblivious to multiracial and biracial so they really didn’t know what it looked like so they assumed it was white .
Good point .......what I've noticed is black people tend to think they look white "or pass" whereas white people don't think they look white and know they have a black grandparent / great grandparent if they have thought about it at all are and are not that interested or bothered one way or other .....I have friends one black (man) and the other Scottish they have six kids and all look different 3 are as dark as the dad the others are tan with one having a yellow cast to his complexion.......he thinks people are watching him thinking he has stolen a white child....the little boy doesn't look white he look like what he is a child who has a white parent and a black parent.......
You're giving them too much credit, they were literally triggered by black skin, period, nothing else registered socially until the zeitgeist said otherwise
being bi-racial black father and white mother myself- I know exactly what you’re saying I usually can spot people that are mixed race I’ve seen a lot of people.
@@davyrockxx1563…that’s not always true. When people have more European blood for two or more generations, what part of African are you referring to? What is mixed? I just watched an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine was dating a guy who Jerry thought was a lightskin Black man. At the end of the show the man was dating Elaine because he thought she was Spanish. The actor playing the role is of Russian heritage.
I appreciate this podcast. Many Africans Americans who were able to pass did so due to psychological abuse of constantly being verbally abused by their own families and the community. Light skinned women often met with assault and verbal insults. Often these women were targeted for sexual exploitation by both black and white men. Light skinned women had to bear the burden of being put on a pedestal due to internalized hatred of melanated skin. This also caused isolated and a sense of not belonging.
Do you think light skinned blacks had children with dark skinned blacks ;so their children would be blacker and would not endure discrimination from the black community. In the past many black discriminated light skinned blacks ;they associated light skinned blacks with whites . Also why some light skinned blacks left the community ?
The social hierarchy went on . Even in black neighborhoods;the light skinned blacks were higher in the ladder:they were the shop owners and looked down on dark skinned blacks. I think this where dark skinned blacks ,looked at light skinned blacks as "whites " .
**Black people**: This is how the one drop rule shaped blackness. Look at these white-passing people, they WANT to identify as black? Hell nah. Look at their white-passing skin color and physical features, they're clearly mostly white! **Also, black people**: look at these white-passing people, they DON'T want to identify as black!! Why would they disgrace their black ancestors, and be ashamed of identifying as black? They think they're better than us?
I always felt that the my Louisiana Creole maternal grandfather and his entire family had the best of both worlds. As well as my mother and my baby sister .They all could easily pass for White. Whether in public spaces. Or social and professional circles. In every instance White people had no clue.But they heartily embraced the greatness of Black culture passed down by the elders. And that is to have love in one's heart and to be humble and wise.The only time my maternal grandfather and my mother used their appearance was to secure better housing for their families. It even affected how they were treated by doctors and law enforcement. So if people think race and one's appearance in America does not matter in every single you do,they have no clue. Because the fact of the matter is as soon as any one of us walks out that door. Judgements are automatic. Good for some.And bad for others.One time I asked my Pop Pop(Grandfather) how did it feel being around White people who had no clue that he was a Black man. He said something really powerful. He said it wasn't always about them saying hateful things about Black people. It was about the exchange of information. The best housing. The best schools.Job openings. That who you know within the White world counts just as much as what you know. Meaning when it comes to Blacks with a lot of White people it is a don't ask don't tell type of attitude. They are not going to share the same type of information with a Black person that they would share with a White person. My late mother and even my sister at the present time have had the same experiences. So when your comments about your African American grandfather means so many things on so many levels. Because it is the brutal truth. Because when you interact with the people who have always had the institutional power it can provide the keys to the kingdom.
ما هذا المرور الذي تتحدًثون عنه ؟ كيف لمجتمع فيه نخبة من المثقّفين أن يدع هذا العبث في المعاملات و العنصرية في العقول بين الناس .. جميع البشر من آدم عليه السّلام و آدم من تراب ! .. نقطة
My Daddy Refused to Pass ! He Was From Louisiana and Looked So Damn yt . He WENT To A Texas Jail,He Was put with the yt population. He Told the authorities I'm Black ! And at first they refused to Move Him. He Was Adamant Only then did they move Him.
My uncle passed as white. He moved to a small town in high school during the 1940's and had a job during his last school years, had a job, and rented an apartment. He said he had no family. He was wildly handsome. My aunt pursued him and he tried to stay uninvolved but ended up marrying her. He absconded twice while she had each of their children but came back after he heard how both of them looked. He had a good job with the state patrol (which he could not have had as a black man) and moved up the ranks. He died and no one knew until my cousin grew interested in genealogy and found out her grandparents were alive and well and went to meet them.
@@BayouBarbie504…😂😂😂😂 that’s not true. Some of you want to believe the lie that a European can be visually seen as an African. Stop gaslighting yourself.
Walter F. White was my Great-great Uncle. 💙 Unlike some who were "Black-passing-White", our Uncle Walter was doing what he did occasionally to infiltrate the most evil KKK for his beloved NAACP... Other than that, he loved his Blackness & his Black family!!!❤️ Most Blacks who knew him, knew this about him. R.I.P.: ```°•.🕊️.🌹•💙°🕊️Uncle Walter🕊️°💙•🌹.🕊️ .•°```
Most of these people are light or brown and MIXED-RACE and would have been TREATED BADLY by the darker-skinned Blacks anyway! Why should they want to identify with their enemies! You have the reversed going on nowadays: Extremely Mixed-race people "PASSING" as Black. It's shameful~!
Thank God for your Uncle Walter White! I read years ago about how he risked his life to expose lynchings and other atrocities against Blacks. He could have lived comfortably in a White world, unbothered by the violence & injustice faced by Blacks, but he cared and he stood up!!
Thank you for responding. Mr. White is one of my heroes. He sacrificed his safety and life for his race so that Blacks may have life, liberty, and happiness. His sacrifices benefitted the entire human race in America A few comments before this one, a commenter stated Mr. Walter White married a white woman. Is this true? I look forward to your family setting the record straight
NACCP, what good is that organization when you see the failures of black neighborhoods and black cities. In my sanctuary city, they gave millions to the hispanic illegals so they could have enterprise, community village. But nothing for the black neighborhoods.
That's not a portrait of Sally Hemings; it's a modern artist's conception. There are no contemporary portraits of Hemings, but she was described as 'near-white', looking very much like her half-sister, and was counted in a later census as white.
Great doccumentary. Watching from Jamaica 2024 .🇯🇲. Since 1970 I have chosen to work, live and love within a Jamaican family culture I still have close contact with my white brother and select blood family..on my terms😊 I was born white and will die with the same label but being comfortable in my cultural environment is paramount.
Thank you for your video. My father was definitely not white. As Americans would Describe him as an adult as Creole. But as a baby he was extremely light skinned, blue grey eyed and had blonde curly hair, so he had a white birth certificate. Until I worked on his side of the family genealogy, after having medical testing that led to genetic testing that led to numerous questions, I didn’t have any idea that without knowing he was passing. My guess is he might’ve thought about his dark skin, but being in the north that didn’t matter. His best friend was Irish and Indigenous, so they looked similar in summer, had similar height and builds. As an adult, He was as dark as Victorian walnut stained furniture in the summer, and dark maple in the winter. He had extremely unusual green eyes, and hair of boot black brown. When he married my mother, he had to produce his birth certificate. Yet, apparently his grand parents were “”German”, and “Irish”. Whereas, my genetic testing said something else, as did my gold skin that was never even close to white Europeans. But I was born a dark red head, not a Scottish one, so there forever I must be an Irish one. My mother was definitely a fully European woman, with skin that burned, freckles, and a red tint in her hair. Her mother was Jewish, but she took after her 1st Gen Irish father. The scientific genetic testing: European Jewish, Irish (both sides), North African, Spanish, French (the kingdom of Occitan sprawled over both Northern Spain, South Western France), Central Asian Jewish heritage, southern U.S. Creole haplo types (my family on both sides were from both north and South, depending upon timeline), 8.5 % African American, and yes, German. The most genetic history I have is Jewish, from the European, Central Asian, Spanish, and North African Ancestry. But no, we are definitely not as Anglo European as claimed. Having found some articles about Central Asians slipping into Northern German where people looked a variety of ways, then proclaimed themselves “German” on the first census, apparently as the family prospered they took on all the trappings of northern Franco Germans, except a lot of their diet was Mediterranean based due to food allergies. Many people coming to the American colonies as free or indentured servants did the same thing. Except those enslaved or indigenous had no choice in the matter. The other side of my family did likewise. Strange how not just light skinned African Americans, but persons from Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa did the same thing. But considering they were Jews and Irish, who also were discriminated groups, not surprising. I’m so glad we can talk about these issues openly in this day and age. What do I identify as ? A Multi racial Jew. That is my place of home, comfort, food, and culture. But all my food allergies come from my ancestors of what is now the meeting points of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hindu Kush. That is also where the unusual eyes come from. I met a gentleman who looked so much like my father that it threw me into shock, as he’s been deceased for a long time. This person identified as a Mountain Jew of Khazikstan, the other county that adjoins where my ancient genetics come from. To find someone like myself on a congregation full of German and European Jews was just a blessing.
Your genetics are so very interesting! How fun to try and research those different lines (but maybe frustrating too because of many dead ends you might find in the records). Our family lore on my fathers side always said we had cherokee (like so many) from ancestors who were born and raised in Appalachia since the late 1600’s. We even have a book showing that particular gggrandfather who married a native woman. Well, low and behold had our dna tested about 10 years ago and 0% native of ANY TRIBE! Neither did my sons or any of those cousins who contacted me through Ancestry saying they had zero as well. We were told all our lives about what percentage we were. Instead, we’re very boring UK and related Northern European ancestry. My DIL, who is so white she glows in the dark has 2% Congo and Senegal, and also has the Cherokee and her family is on the rolls. We can chuckle about it now, but I wish we were a bit more diverse! LOL
Thomas Jefferson knew my Washingtons and Tayloes. My mother could pass for white and many of her relatives; yet, DNA has proven many actually passed for white on my mother’s maternal and paternal sides. We are descended by the Fullers from the Mayflower line and the Washingtons, Balls, and Bushrods from Mount Vernon, Virginia. Jenny Fuller Washington was Mulatto and was owned and the child of John Fuller Jr. and at ten in 1794 she was owned by John Tayloe III a rich Maryland planter and in July 1799 was purchased by William Augustine Washington. Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington impregnated Jenny and she gave birth to William Washington in 1803. He became a well known prestigious barber of politicians in Washington DC and worked at the famed Gadsby Hotel. DNA from my mother, myself, two great aunts, and numerous cousins have confirmed the secrets and a few of other Bushrod’s children sold to Louisiana.
I am the son of a black woman and a white man I don't know my biological father and my mother never talked about him I'm sure he was a trick ! She married a Black man his name is on my birth certificate ! He and my mother raised me but I can easily pass for white ! My Mother her sisters and her mother were all beautiful yellow Black women my grandfather was a Brown skinned Black man I have never identified as white I even used to try to fight anyone who called me white boy I grew up in the hood and had to do some crazy things before my people understood I was not to be fucked with !!!! Now I'm a old head easily mistaken for a old white man but I'm still in the hood married a few Beautiful Black women got a gang of beautiful Black children and grandchildren and I've always been a Black man !!!!!
“My mother never talked about him I’m sure he was a trick!”. Just a thought, but your white father might not have been your mother’s “trick”, he might have been her rapist. Even in recent history, biracial children born to black girls and women have frequently been the result of rape or otherwise unequal/exploitative unions.
J.edger Hoover also passed as a White man. He kept his hair cut short because it was extremely curly. One day in the early 90th or mid 90th a black woman came on the Oprah Winfrey show claiming J.edger Hoover was her cousin and he threatened his black family if they say anything about his true identity that he would kill them his mother was pregnant with him when she married his step father Hoover she was a white woman that was carrying a black man child. Shortly after Oprah show J.edger was dug up they ran a test on his body and the black family he was passing for white
Many years ago I was out and about when I was working and one afternoon an angry black woman confronted me and screamed angrily at me that I had a hell of a lot of nerve passing for white. She was very confrontational. At the time I did not know that I was anything other than predominately white and I have frequently been mistaken for Asian, and for being. of Sub Saharan African descent with mixed white European even if I did not know it at the time. I have also been asked if I am Indian by people who actually are and I find that fascinating in I am frequently told my features don't belong on a white person. I have relatives that have had mixed race marriage and are all the Human Race
@@LorrieMiller-qm9pz My Mother-in-law's story. She had no idea her "Cherokee" great grandfather was at least part black until my sister in-law found the 1830 census which described him as "Mulatto, free person of color." We have never been able to trace whom his parents were. The census record said he was born in Virgnia. Was he Melungeon? or the son of a white planter who gave him his freedom? We don't know but we assume he left Virgina because at that time a free person of color was not allowed to live there. Anyway, my mother-in-law was a great beauty when young. she had blond hair, gray-green eyes and tanned easily with a nice round bootie which you know white girls rarely have. if her eyes had been blue, she would have been what most women wanted to be. blond hair, blue eyes, and olive complexion. Anyway, her DNA test she took in 2016 showed 6% African total between Nigerian and Cameroon. Her blond hair she found out came from her also being 35% Scandinavian. What is really interesting to me is her ancestor's surname was Drew. Was his father's surname Andrews or possibly his father given name was Andrew? I just wonder why he took the surname Drew.
I guess coming from a culture and family where auch things are common I find this conversation rather mundane. Such things happened. For many it was a survival skill.
I understand why somebody would pass as white. I’m even related to people who made the choice to pass as white………. But I just can’t respect somebody who forsakes their family and blackness.
I think that if you didn't use it to help the black community, then you might as well as be a Stephen/Stephanie(django reference) that can pass whereas Stephen could not...That being said, you might as well have been a racist white person if that is what you did! I also realize that they were undercover. So, I realize that these people could not be activists, but they could have secretly used their privilege to help instead of ignoring their race once they moved on up...I mean, your husband had to work and probably had a maid(easy living for these wives); the man had even more freedom and made the money...
😮@@southernladybrown5092yes because you can see that they were not all White. The pictures that they show on this video these people you can tell that they are not White. They only show few pictures of actual people that were White passing. That's supposed to represent Sally hemings the girl slave that were forced to sleep with Jefferson she was not White passing, you can see that she was mixed blood, young white looking man that went undercover he was White passing. Because he was mostly White. That was a real picture of white person that could pass as a 100% white person. He probably had less than 25% African blood in him.
@@pattrell5257sis, you couldn’t support black people AND be treated kindly unless you were wealthy. Most white passers, light skins born by two darker parents, would have to create huge lies of why they ran away, and don’t have a birth certificate. Remember, before 1960 your birth certificate had to say your race. These people had to make new names and ABIDE by a white accent. Most white passers were killed, because you can’t just run away from YOURSELF- they were still black. And that proved to be fatal.
My grandmother grew up in Alabama would tell me about her family members who lived their lives as white passing. She too looked white passing. She had blue eyes and was VERY fair skinned.
My first cousin is currently living life as a white man, joined a white frat, and works as a white man in business.... was a black boy his whole life. None of his associates know he's black.
I had a roomie in college who was white, she always kept her hair in a ponytail. One day she taken her hair out of a ponytail her hair was sooo kinky but straight kinky. She was talking about how she hates her hair and doesn’t know what to do with it. One day she was showing me pictures of her family white parents, blonde hair blue eye sister, but her brother looked like a mixed brutha. I asked bluntly yall have the same parents she said yes. Then I thought about her hair too, I was like someone passed for white in your family and their genes showed up lol. I even met these two brothers, one worked with me who was white and extremely gingered. He wanted to introduce me to his older brother, his brother looked like a pale skin black man with extremely ginger hair like his brother. I am not going to lie my coworker was cute, but his brother was fine.
There was a story like this about a man that you described. He did a DNA test and found out he had a white passing grandparent. He even married a black woman so he said he knew he knew it was something about him lol
People still pass. Former mayors of New Orleans Moon and his son Mitch Landrieu both pass. Mitch wrote a book not that long ago about being a white mayor of a black majority city. It was rather ironic since everybody in New Orleans knows that the Landrieu’s pass. His grandmother was a black woman from Mississippi who had children with a Frenchman named Maurice Landrieu. She became a very successful businesswoman. The crazy thing is New Orleans has a long history of creole culture and it’s no big deal here. So why?
@@Mimi-ht6xr Nope, Mitch’s great grandfather was a Frenchman named Maurice Landrieu who had children with a black woman from Mississippi named Crynthia. They were French Creole not Cajun or Acadians from Nova Scotia. You can Google the whole thing. Census records and all.
This is so fascinating. So was it people who were actually genetically mainly white ( like Sally Hemings) that were passing or actual light skinned black folk?
Both. Some mixed people who were half black/half white could pass. They didn't necessarily have mostly white blood as in two mixed race parents that look white. Or mixed race mother/white father. Many had full black mothers and white fathers, some of their offsprings could pass as white.
My mother was born in 1916 in Wisconsin and migrated to Austin, TX as a child. She had me very late in her life and always reminded me that she was "1/4 white". She was a chef and a caterer who migrated to California from racist Austin, passed for white, and catered parties in Hollywood years before she had me... oh how proud she was of herself! 💜U Mommy💜
@@hwgray All I know is what she told me and what my daddy said. She died when I was 12 but I remember her to be very beautiful and VERY light with freckles and stringy hair and she used a skin bleaching cream every day.
🙂Many moons back, during my first year at an all-girls, Catholic boarding secondary school in darkest Africa, there was a beautiful fragile-looking white girl. She had to cut grass with the rest of us junior girls on labour days. That was certainly new to me, but somehow, her palms blistered terribly! Only a few senior girls would take pity on her and let her sit it out in the shade. I longed to be friends with her, but I was too shy.😊 It wasn't till the second year when my fun-loving big sister transfered to our school that we all got to know her. She was black! 😁 (She always said she was, but no one believed her, till we met her dad.)🌹✝️
My previous co-workers passed for white....one was very evil towards us black folk....he tried ultra hard to prove that he was not us....but deep down I could see his inner torment😢😢😢
No one can blame those whom passed as another to survive, but you got to get to a point where you get tired of running and hiding from a person, government and people that’s inferior in themselves
I love the content. However, I disagree with Sally Hemmings children passing as white. They were white. I believe she was a quadroon. The one drop rule isn’t scientific. It was just a way to make whiteness pure. I wouldn’t consider someone with so much white blood black.
The law said you are whoever your mother was. This thing you're doing with semantics is about you not fully understanding the time period. It was illegal for them to live as white people. Them living and working in white spaces was illegal. People had different dishes for their black servants (black people who worked as domestic servants after slavery). Black people, whatever their shade, were considered 3/5ths human, part animal and disgusting until 1965. Hemmings was an Octoroon, 1/8th black. I agree the one drop rule isn't scientific, but it was used to determine the value of a slave. An octoroon, was worth three times that of a black presenting woman. You should watch Queen and see what happened when a white man found out he was courting a black woman. Passing is the correct turn. Please don't dismiss our history.
@@Calvin.rx1l…the second and third generation enslaved women who were mixed were having children for white men (think Meghan Markle, Mariah Carey, Zendaya) and their children were more genetically white than black. We are talking generations here. It’s the same today. My husband and l are both mixed race. We have five kids and all of them look more mixed race than we do. One of my grandsons inherited the auburn hair color and gray eyes that dominate my dad’s Creole side. They just had a daughter four months ago and she now has deeper gray eyes than her brother. We are Black American and this is our legacy 🎉
My 3x great-grandfather was a free man of color from Virginia, born in 1839. After his mother died in the 1870s, he moved to San Francisco and passed as a white man. He was essentially written out of the family tree and it wasn’t until I had my Ancestry DNA done that I discovered the family secret. His son (and my ancestor I directly descend from) was a twin who eventually followed his father to San Francisco and also passed as white. His twin stayed behind in Virginia and had a family who were always listed as black. It becomes harder to trace people the closer you get to modern times. Would these black cousins accept the redheaded white person that is me? I would love to connect with them and listen to their story someday. ❤
You can only try; I was recently contacted by the same type of “cousin” that is in the same position as you are and I am very much interested in linking the fabric of the quilting pattern back together to cover up my Family Tree from the damage caused by the wind blowing in the storm that was Prejudice…
Most likely. Virginian colored population were so miscegenated by the 1920s that the Governor couldn’t tell Who was what, so he implemented the Racial Integrity Act in 1924. My family is from VA, and many could pass for white and did so when it suited them, but they lived as “colored”. Other people, like President Dwight Eisenhower’s mother (Orange, Va), lived as white-passing. If you contact your relatives, they probably won’t be surprised. People leaving the community to pass wasn’t uncommon. They probably know of your ancestors’ existence but not their fate.
BTW: My grandmother and her sisters had moved to Pennsylvania and married a dark-skinned man. I used to play in their backyard in that small town. Once, the ball went over the stone wall and into the neighbor’s yard. When I went to retrieve it, the blonde lady yelled at me to stay out of her yard. She had a husband and three children who were older than I - red-headed freckled twin boys and a girl with brown hair. The kids never played with the brown kids in the neighborhood-they just glared, never spoke. I was surprised to find out years later that the white lady was my grandmother’s niece Katherine (my second cousin). Her brother Henry was one of my dad’s best friends growing up. Everybody knew who she was, but she wanted to be white, and everyone respected her wishes and left her and her white family alone. They never spoke. It must be awful to live among your relatives while pretending you are not closely related. About 40 years later, she started coming to the family reunions, but her children never did. SMH. It would have been fine if the did.
@@JustB-cuz That makes me really sad for your family. To care so much about that stuff and miss out on so many amazing people is just really sad. I hope that her grandchildren have more tolerance and a different perspective today. When I was 8 (mid 1980’s), my father lost his job and we moved from Oregon to Exton, PA. Everyone was white and Catholic. My youngest siblings were adopted from India and Korea, we were also Protestant. People assumed my Indian sister was the half black (illegitimate) child of my eldest sister. My parents were unable to get appropriate medical care for my sister and we moved back to Oregon, leaving my father in PA for months until he could find a job there. This really stood out to me as a young child to have my siblings “othered”. I appreciate things like this video that make us all reflect on our experiences and have respectful dialogue.
But this is exactly the point - that the one-drop rule which was supposed to “protect” whiteness like the holy grail was devious nonsense! All those laws which prohibited any kind of sexual contact, affairs, marriage between whites & Blacks & other POCs - invented by white men & broken by them!
You need a black history class. Millions of blacks passed passed for not only as white but for Jews, Italian, Indian, East Asian and etc. People from other groups passed, too. There chances of successful passing wasn't greater.
@@janedoe1229 In order for a " black " person to successfully pass as a non-black person.. that " black " person has to have sufficient non-black ancestry and DNA. My learning and experiences go way beyond a " black history class " especially if that class includes some biased teachings as well. (Yes, such ' black history classes ' aren't exempt from human biases either)
Appreciate the information for those who do not know, it is no different today, not just for (white people), but also blacks, can you see it in marriage rate, of all black athletes that make more than 2 million dollars in a year, it is seen in Black culture, who they will pick out a crowd, and say she, is pretty.
I am Louisiana born #Creole My Ancestors passed my Gma is 75 % French European my Gma looks like a white woman well basically she is.. She told us stories of her people first cousins etc etc how they moved away from Louisiana scattered around the world and never looked back never heard from them again
I just saw a story about a white man that fell in love with a black women and changed his whole life to be with her -He was also famous in the 1800's so of course the white folks talking about the story (today) couldn't understand why he would give up his white life style "previlage" to become black. We are the human race people and this man fell in love instantly he wanted this woman and no one-not even a life and a career as a celibrated white man was going to keep him from love. He was happy, he moved to brooklyn and had children and didn't look back he never told his family who he really was cause he didn't want to be found out. That's GUTS AND LOVE.
My maternal grandmother was a 'grade A' baby as they called them in Australia. Snatched. Trauma DOES matter. One of my earliest memories is seeing a police car and wanting to run, I was 5.
So sad what happened to all family members on my Moms side never knew them ,saw them 1 time.Never knew any ov my fathers ppl.😢Never had any family reunions like other families didnt know them.
I truly don’t think that a lot of the white passing were actually white passing just looking at the biracial people that we have walking around today. I simply think they would just turn a blind eye to it because they were attracted to them.
There was the "paper bag test" in earlier times. If you were lighter than the paper bag, then you could pass for white or mulatto. If you became darker during summer, people looked the other way. However, if you were darker than the paper bag, then you were classified as black. In South Africa (and some other countries) they had the "pencil test". If you stuck a pencil in your hair and it didn't fall off because it was wavy/ curly/ kinky, then you didn't pass the test for whiteness. You were either "coloured" or black. Coloured has a different connotation in South Africa than in the USA.
Neither of my grandfathers were Black in Louisiana but BOTH passed as Black to be with their nonwhite women. Since miscegenation could get you seriously harmed, no one cared who white passing and lightskin “black”people married as long as the partner wasn’t white. We never tell these stories but they exist as well. When l was a teen a white passing older cousin took me to a Jewish enclave for a weekend. I had a good time. I even had a young man who wanted to be my beau. When l got home, l told mama all. She was outraged! I never saw or heard from that cousin again. Many years later mama explained the stain of ethnic cleansing and race passing. 😔
Mr. Ziegler from my hometown in Arkansas did the same thing: pass for black. The black community kept it on the down low for obvious reasons. Pearl Bailey's husband passed for black when they were performing in the South.
I have a DNA cousin whose white great grandmother passed as "light" the family never knew until she found records of this woman's parents. anyway, this woman was my grandmother's first cousin, so she is my 3rd cousin once removed. Oh, this was 1920's Mississippi so no shocker this woman passed to protect her husband. anyway, she wanted to know if I had ever heard any stories but of course I would not have. The family would not have told that. Now my grandma once told me a story of a "neighbor" who married a man she thought was white but after their baby was born, he started looking part black, once he got about 6 months old. He admitted he was actually Creole, and they got an annulment, and he took the baby to his mother. Now the Jim Crow south they would have had no choice once the whit family noticed how the baby looked, but I wonder if maybe my grandma was telling about her cousin in veiled terms, and she had second thoughts about losing her little family and found them and passed as light? It would have been easy enough to be believable if several of his family looked white.
I find it hard to believe that a white person would want to pass as white. Even today, whites don't want to live in black neighborhoods or. They seem to want to live either in white or mixed neighborhoods. The educated interracial couples will live in the suburbs. While the other will live in working class racially mixed neighborhoods.
@@celticmulato2609….do you live in America? Shemar Moore, Davon Franklin, Michael Ealy, the late Prince, Beyoncé, Zendaya, Montell Williams, Halle Berry, Mariah Carey, Phylicia Rashad, Dwayne Johnson, Smokey Robinson, Raven Simone, etc are ALL considered Black, regardless of their ethnic makeup.
I was always told about how my young dark-skinned grandmother was treated badly when she went to visit her family out of state. I finally saw photos of some of my elders. They looked like pure lily white folks. I understand both sides, but I have to take the side of my dark-skinned grandmother who was an innocent girl who could do nothing but love the skin she was in.
@2:25 the distant cousin married a white man while passing for white. If I were in that situation I would have been concerned that one or more of my children may have been darker than what is the norm for two white parents. Now the next generation may very well have had some melanated children.
Don't fall for the "black throwback baby" myth. That doesn't happen. If it were true, white-identified Puerto Ricans would be spawning "black babies" all the time.
@@AF-tf6px "The Human Stain" is a racist film (and a racist book) promoting the myth of white racial purity. There is no such thing as a "black" person "passing" for white.
You can actually breed out a bloodline. It’s happened in my family and l’m sure many others. For example: lightskin Chas Barkley married a ww. His white passing daughter married a white man. Their child is white. Another example: Megan Markle is biracial. Married a white man. Their children are white.
My Great Grandmother was Native and Caucasian Married a Black Man and we been black ever since. I took an ancestry test and the truth was there my the roots showed up but Grandma was brave she could've passed but carried her lil Black babies and was proud and said F racism
u LYING ABOUT IT ALL. U NEVER TOOK A ANCESTRY TEST.If U did it would prove how false the claims about your G Grandmother was. Tell us what the genetic break down was on the test. U wont cuz first off, U dont know zip about how any of this works.
There are three movies that you should check out that talk about this subject. Lost boundaries, i passed for white, the feast of all saints . Plus the documentary about a black boy who passed for white and later on discovered that he was black because his father was black .
You’re not going to talk about how Walter White left his black wife and married a white women, which tarnished his legacy. His children didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
Is this true? I never heard of this or I forgot this history. I still make mention of Mr. White to this very day. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought he would marry a white woman. I feel this way because of the work he did. He saw first hand what a white woman was capable of.
@janedoe1229 The man was White with only an admixture of Black ancestry. His phenotype is European and that White woman look just like him which is White! SMH
@@janedoe1229Just because one White woman does something doesn't mean another one will. Please, let's not judge anybody by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I take people on their own merit, not as a group. I understand that we all may be wary of certain groups based on previous negative experiences. Profiling is how we protect ourselves when we have to make immediate quick decisions for safety. But I would consider judging by the color of a person's skin otherwise, to be racist.
@@janedoe1229It's true unfortunately, he actually had an affair with her for almost 20 years before leaving his wife for her. He was worried that he wouldn't be able to continue in leadership with the NAACP if he left his wife for her but he ultimately did.
Inaccurate video Passing was undertaken not by black people but mixed race people a n d multiracial people. For some reason, the whole aspect of racial passing is presented falsely as Black people giving up.their ancestry when in fact this is not and could never be the case.
Black Jazz singers did it in the 1940-1960's. There was a large Muslim community among jazz singers and many would go abroad to learn Arabic to read the Quran and upon returning they would speak Arabic put on Turbans or thawb and dress as Arabs and be permitted into all whites-only facilities.
Blacks like to claim multiracials because the black inferiority complex makes blacks desire to "improve" their racial stock with the DNA of their hated but adored "enemy."
Most blk Americans have some European ancestry, due to rampant sexual abuse of female slaves by slave owners and overseers; basically we’re all some percentage multiracial, some more than others
They were called black because back in Jim Crow times having black ancestry meant you were black. Like the girl in the picture with the black boy. They were both considered black because she was enslaved.
My mothers mom was biracial. My mother was very fair and my father was dark skin. All my cousins from my mothers side a much lighter skin than me or my siblings. When I was around my cousins I didnt realized that I was different and were treated differently by other black adults and even other kids.
I think because of the past like these I think that’s why black ppl have a hard time calling mixed ppl black. But I do agree they should be called mixed, which they are.
First story reminded me of this Indian-American student shaving his head and passing for black to get into college as asians are now not considered underprivileged.
@lapetitefleur3482 that was Mindy Kaling's, brother. The truth is he wasn't a great student an that's why he wasn't accepted to most medical schools he applied to. He randomly decided shave his hair and cut his eyelashes short to appear Black. Who knows if it helped at all.
@@PersianCatMeow…Halsey is a biracial in the purest sense and she knows it. The fair skin, straight hair, and sharp facial features elevates her to a unique standing. 🙄
Ariana Grande is Italian American , not Latina and not Black . When I did my dna through Ancestry , discovered I have 7% Sub Saharan dna . I started searching for my African ancestors . More African slaves were taken into Mexico , than the United States. My 5th great grandfather born in 1770 was listed as mulato and I found a whole branch of my fathers family descended from him - including me . But since those slaves we quickly absorbed into the mestizo population , most descendants are unaware .
Yes, my aunt’s husband is Mexican and from what I hear pretty anti-Black. He got his ancestry test back and guess what? He had African ancestry 😂😂😂 I haven’t seen any Mexican DNA tests that don’t have African, Indigenous and European ancestry. They have less African than the other two, but still. I don’t think we’re getting the complete story on Blacks in Mexico. How they got there? How big their community was.
Ariana Grande did do her DNA test and found out she was of middle-eastern descent, complained about her family living a lie on Twitter and then removed the tweet!
@@MaryLou913 This information is out here. Blacks have been in Mexico since 1519. Also Africans arrived there as enslaved people. There was more slaves in South America and in the islands than there was the US. You also had blacks that fled to Mexico in the 1830's after Mexico outlawed slavery. I hope this helps.
During the 19th c, as the US seized the remaining Indian states/homelands in the Southeast & force-marched those peoples to Indian Territory, the laws became changed so that anyone not officially recognized as Native could not claim that ancestry. They had to be signed up as either Black or merely because oc the US under federal law. Since quite a few indians from these nations did not sign the US rolls durng Forced Removal but rather fled or lived in caves till they could flee or come out without being imprisoned or shot. It's a very complicated history & it varies from one native nation to another, but many natives who didn't sign up with the US government during & just after Forced Removal were forced to pass as either Black or white, while also being legally forced by the US to register as white or Black, not Am. Indian. These escapees from the Forced Removal period in the Southeast also had to pass as white or black outside their small, usually rural communities. My own ancestors did this. Family history gets very confused re native ancestry among people whose ancestors escaped rather than being force-marched to Indian Territory. Hundreds if not thousands of rural communities formed during the Removal period, with the founders forced to sign up as black or white. The laws vary from one native nation to another, but a good many natives did escape forced removal & consequently were forced to pass as white or black. Claiming native ancestry was illegal for these people for most of the 19th c. through the 20th. Tracing legal records of ancestry in the US is very confusing, as most natives who escaped the Forced Removals were not allowed to claim their native ancestry. Your 19th-into-20th c ancestors might be listed as white or black merely because your ancestors didn't follow the US Forced Removal programs.
When my great great grandmother who was mulatto and worked in the slaveholder's house, had twins by someone at a Thomas Jefferson gala, when she was around 11. They were taken to Judge Mcgehee's plantation in Wilkinson countty Mississippi. From there, they passed as white.
@@J.A.G.618the born and raised is correct. Not the become a citizen. How do we keep getting this wrong! Given all the public and academic commentary that followed Jesse Jackson's press release.
Some years back I was acquainted with someone whose family had "Cherokee" ancestry. His family was racist against black people, and he fought against the prejudices but as he got older started to take them on. Come to find out a DNA ancestry test unearthed that he was about 20-25% black, I can't remember the exact amount now but it was a notable amount of recent admixture. Over time he came to reject his previous prejudices and embrace his mixed ancestry. It was an interesting journey to watch over about 15 years of this man's life
They looked part black…some of you folk have challenges with using the word part? Why? They do not look like black subsaharan people. There is a difference, how do you not see it ? Bizarre
@@PsychicMedium4747 According to American racial codes part black is FULL BLACK. There were a lot of white passing PART black in this country. It’s like admitting the weakness of white genetics. Racial codes made it more beneficial for them to abandon any acknowledgment of black ancestry. No one has a problem with part black except non-black people.
Somebody passed as white and became my ancestor. As a child I was told that my many great great great grandmother was Cherokee. 23andMe shows I have 0 native american DNA, but 3% Congolese. It's a sad indictment of American history that people had to pass as white or another race to gain opportunities they otherwise wouldn't have.
I wish that someday white people would learn to love people like Jesus told them
@@juliebryant6718 DON'T hold your breath
@BrianMax Articles have been written about how a lot of White families would claim Native heritage because certain features (darker skin) would be present, but they really had some African heritage.
@@EclecticDD Yeah, it's pretty typical. The 'Cherokee Princess' usually turned out to be someone with African ancestry from the antebellum period. I wish we could learn their true stories.
The same here. I'm Senegal and gambian. Less than a percent.
As a 56 year old white man who grew up in a mostly white high school, I *really really appreciate this kind of content. It helps me learn and grow!*
I know you mean your content to reach out to the back community, but I want to let you know that as a side effect you are also educating white folks who really need to hear this as well!
💜💞💜
Now, Bro. History is history and it benefits us all. ❤
@@goyoelburro back or BLACK Community 🤔🤔🤔🤔
True knowledge is for all. Keep learning and being curious. I’m a 69 yr old black woman
As a side effect? Oh you're such a do-gooder.
My father was a mulatto. His mother was 12 years old when she gave birth to him. He was born in Tennessee in 1929. My father looked racially ambiguous but too dark to pass for white. He reinvented himself as an Arab. Gave himself an Arabic name and claimed to be from Iraq. My white mother thought he was Arab. Everyone i met who knew him believed him to be an Arab. I grew up believing i was mixed Arab and white. I was 52 years old when i took DNA test and discovered there was no Arab in my chart, but there was 25% west African. Mostly from Nigeria. He disowned his family and disowned his three children.. he lived the rest of his life as this character. The ancestry test linked me up to his side of the family and i met them. All black folks from Chicago. When i was younger most people thought i was a light skinned brother with green eyes and “good hair” as i got older and went bald people perceived me as white. So l have been on both sides of the color line.
Wow that’s wild. Why did he disown his children?
@@Wtvrflotesurgoat i believe he had severe mental issues. He abandoned his brother and sister, then his children. His need to live his assumed life was stronger than his family connection.
People are beautifully created. Why do they hate themselves
@@1bebairieback in the day it was easier to something else rather than black. Many black people did this for self preservation and to insure a good life for their children. It is very common to believe it or not. They actually made movies about it.
9@@Tigerbrown44 that is sad. Why would you say he had mental problems it sounds to me he made a decision to a line himself to whiteness to make his life easier and to make the lives of his children easier. (Whether it did or not) Being black in America is not a nice thing. Back than or at present. It goes to show how whyte people or any other race of people for that matter will distance themselves from blackness. 200 years of maltreatment and forced interbreeding (I am being Conservative with using these words) will lead to many mixed race people (back than) if they can pass to pass for whyte or anything else but black. What a world we live in. Remember America had laws that disenfranchised black people. Maybe he just did not want to deal with or be treated like what black people in his time were/ still are treated 🤷
The adoption agency told my parents I'd be able to pass and gave me to a white family. My mom painstakingly straightened my hair every day. No one told me I was biracial until I was in my teens and then it was to be kept a secret.
I told EVERYONE.
I'm also not that old. I was born in the 70's. This crap is still going on.
😮
Did you read Georgina Lawton's book Raceless?
Did you think you were Black?
@@angellover02171 I knew I was something other than white because I got so dark in the summers. My friends thought I was half black. I'm actually half afro-Caribbean.
كيف لإنسان لا يعرف حقيقة أصله ؟ هذا كذب و ظلم و اعتداء على حقّ الغير
A lot of "White" people are not as white as they think they are. America is mixed and we should embrace it. ❤
I already knew I was multi-racial as my brothers are very dark so my parents are not much darker than me their birth certificate says colored on it and mine says negro. I am a Heinz 57 I knew that as well. I took a DNA test with 23 and me about 4 years ago and I was 29.9 percent sub-Saharan African, 12 percent Asiatic which means native American, there was English Irish Norwegian, Portuguese Sephardic Jew.
a lot of black people are not as black as they think they
are!
I want to pass as black. Can you give me n-word pass?
I ain’t embracing shii!
Well somewhere down the line the kids of European immigrants agreed they were all white and bashed others from the 50s onwards. They used to hate Irish and Italians but now everyone claims that ethnicity….
I had a friend who was Jewish, but told everyone she was Italian. She told me that as a Jewish child the hatred she experienced was too much. " I left that all behind, now I am respected" she said. I felt so sad for her!
My mother and the stepfather I grew up with are both of Eastern European Jewish descent. Both are opposed to organized religion. My stepfather passed away, but I was with my step uncle recently. He has the same rabid opposition to religion. He said when he was a child, he was at the temple preparing for his bar mitzvah. When the Polish rabbi threw him down the front steps, telling him he was a dirty Russian. This was in the 1950s as the Cold War was ramping up. And my stepfather and uncle were born in New York, by the way. So there were Jews discriminating against Jews, and the whole country discriminating against Russian Jewish immigrants who came to the United States fleeing persecution. They were here before the Russian revolution and the advent of socialism.
It's absolutely awful I'm a Catholic from Northern Ireland, and we are still treated as second-class citizens in our own country. Burned from our homes. Murdered raped by police officers just because of our religion, we all started off the same way, as newly conceived feotuses. Safe in our mothers bellies, not knowing how cruel the world really is. We have the same blood running through our veins until we are born.
Makes sense, considering their history and misbehavior
Aww boo hoo!
My grandpa used to tell me to say I was Italian. He was on my dad side that's not Jewish only my moms side is Jewish. My grandparents lived in Missouri I am from California. He told me if I ever moved there I wouldn't fit in or be able to get a job unless I said I was Italian. I used to tell my grandpa it's not like that anymore don't worry. And now here we are in 2025 and there's soo much antisemitism its scary and people have to take off our star of david to feel safe.
My great great grandmother passed as white and married a white man. She went to great lengths to always present herself impeccably. My great grandmother knew her black cousins, but the interactions were careful. It was my mother's memory of one Easter Sunday that really hit home for me about what this meant. My grandparents and their children (my mother ws about 8 when this happened), had their Easter plans change and ended up making an unplanned trip to have Easter dinner with my great grandmother and great grandfather. They were sitting down to eat when there was a knock at the door and instead of my graat grandmother getting up to answer the door right away, she froze and an uncomfortable silence came over the table. My great grandmother broke out of it, hurridly getting up from the table and going to the door, but rather than welcoming the guest in, she instead went onto the porch, closing the door behind her and talking in a hushed urgent tone. While she was talking to the Easter Sunday visitor, my mother peeked out, she was concerned as this visitor was making her father angry and agitated. When she looked out onto the porch she saw a black woman in a beautiful Easter bonnet. My mother said it looked like she was the intended Easter Sunday dinner guest, but with my grandfather there, she wasn't allowed to join the dinner and instead turned away. This was around 1950 in Cape May New Jersey.
My mother was extremely close to her great grandmother and spent a lot of time visiting with her, she said there were several times black women would come to visit, and my mother who was always curious, one day gathered up her courage to ask (children didn't ask personal questions then), but her great grandmother bushed it off and said "oh, just a cousin". Although her father knew his wife was not completely white, he wouldn't allow any talk of it or any acknowledgement of it. He would however refer to my great great grandmother as the black witch. It appears her family started out in Brazil, then to the Barbados, North Carolina and ending up in Long Island New York where my great, great great great grandparents were slaves owned by Raynor and Smith families. It's a fascinating, but sad story, I always feel my stomach and throat tighten up every time I tell it.
This is a great movie!
Ooh no! 1950 is not too long ago.
😢
I went to school with a lovely darkskinned boy who’s sister was blonde and green eyed, his other sister was even darker than he was, all the same parents, you just never know, they were all 16 % Indonesian …., he was my best friend when I was little
The sweetness of your friendship and your love for your little friend come through in your single sentence. What a very beautiful statement.
Boy did this hit home for me. My family has "passers" who wouldn't acknowledge us in the street, but would call to see how the family was doing.
Wow
How is there mental stability….having to lie??
That must have been heartbreaking for everyone
People did what they had to do for economic opportunities. Many who did so quietly supported their darker complextion family members.
😮😢
**Black people**: This is how the one drop rule shaped blackness. Look at these white-passing people, they WANT to identify as black? Hell nah. Look at their white-passing skin color and physical features, they're clearly mostly white!
**Also, black people**: look at these white-passing people, they DON'T want to identify as black!! Why would they disgrace their black ancestors, and be ashamed of identifying as black? They think they're better than us?
Creole American woman here from the south and this was refreshing and relatable. I am SO happy that you are spreading this. AS, it was TRULY a thing once upon a time. One love
It still is 😏
Creole Caribbean woman here as well!
Interesting. On my dad’s side some people disappeared because they could pass. The family never heard from them again. Sad. A lot of them stayed, proud to identify as black despite hardships.
They lose so much to gain so little.
My Great-father! chose to be a Blackman he could’ve passed as white easily!
I read a great book, The Sweeter the Juice”, the author’s family that chose to pass for white actually were LESS successful in life compared to the ones who chose to stay Black.
The Black family became higher educated, more affluent and actually integrated social groups that they were previously denied.
Seems as if the “struggle” made them more resilient👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Believe oral genealogy ❤
Like Sally Hemming's kids who were lighter... they just disappeared into obscurity
Growing up watching the movies Immation of Life and Alex Haley's Queen it always broke my heart. As a biracial child I could never imagine denying either side of my identity. It is so sad this was the sacrafice so many had to make.
They did what they felt they had to do. We, who live in the 21st century, have no standing to judge.
I’m a light skinned black female. My natural Afro hair tells all I am black but I didn’t know how much better I was treated being light skinned until I started hanging out with my dark skinned niece. Crazy. The world needs God’s Kingdom to fix this mess.
I’m not black or white but Hispanic so trust me ik how u feel.. wait did your niece treat you differently?
Johnny Cash’s wife! Vivian Liberto! He LOVED her! He was boycotted in the South for a year until her identity was established as White, but she’s Black, Irish, and Italian.
lol... she looked black too.
You know I took 1 look at her and i said she's poc in the story they never address that it would have added a interesting touch and explained aloe of things and his actions . America loved Johnny Cash but hated the love of his life because of the color of her skin.
@Meeshee57 and that's why he moved her to the hills gave her a gun for protection end quote
She is already validated by the Universe. Man is so petty.
She did look black!
My grandfather was mixed and could have passed for white, BUT REFUSED! HE STOOD UP AGAINST RACISIM IN KENTUCKY & MARRIED A foundational black American and had 7 sons ( one being my father). My father and mom had stories of racial hatred towards blacks but NEVER told me and my siblings "what they really experienced" until I was an adult. 😢
Your grandfather was probably HATED by the darker-skinned Black people
and was SCARED to be who he really was!
These are Mixed-race people who "PASS FOR BLACK," But aint!
That's JUST AS BAD!
Real one
My grandmother in Louisiana too! Her father was actually a White man but she married a very dark Black man.
@@quix66hiya22…yes, some did do that. I have a whole side of non mixed relatives. I met some of them as an adult through DNA. I was so excited as l had only knew of this side of the family through conversations. Once l met some of them it was painfully obvious our diverse differences. I left early the next morning and broke off all contact. 😢
Your grandpa sounds like my paternal grandpa who was born in 1906. He was Mixed & looked White. He married my dark skinned grandma & had my Dad, uncles, & aunt. My Dad married my Mixed Mom. I looked Mixed even at almost 50 years old as do most of my kids.
I’m black/creole Japanese. I believe I’m passing. Nobody believes I’m black until I show pictures or they meet my family. People assume I’m a pale Hispanic, Italian, or Filipino
But I’m quick to let people know.
@@deeMo81If people are getting you screwed up for something that you have no control over, then you are not passing. Especially if you're having to prove your identity in spite of their ignorance.
You’re not passing. You have to deliberately deny and claim a different racial identity and actively live in that. People use “ white passing” no as purely appearance when it’s actually an action of passing as a different race.
That’s why the color thing is ridiculous. We all came from the same origin.
@@deniseberman8633Exactly! We're all the human race!
Here in Puerto Rico is very common seeing people neglecting african heritage because of white passing, but check their parents or grandparents
Very common among the hispanic community!
Y tu agüela, ¿a’onde ehtá?
We just found out my “ Latin “ granny was Jamaican… She was mistreated by the American soldiers building the Panama Canal & became something else due to her trauma… She was strong , a survivor & inspiring, I love my granny & miss her so .
A person could be Italian-Jamaican tho. Jamaicans come in many ethnicities, just like Americans, Canadians, Europeans, etc.
@ yes , true , there are white Jamaicans but my grandmother was dark skinned with a coarse afro… we just thought she was Afro Latina before .
💔 I'm from a biracial family. At 70 i can't believe it is still happening and racist continues to this day 😭 Aren't we the Human Race...
Not to those who think they are superior
Exactly! This should not be problematic
Yes, it's the Human Race. Science shows us that there is no difference, only physical adjustments to the areas we all migrated from, which is Central Africa to various locations on the earth in search of food. If we mate with only those that look like us, we fall into the trap of being genetically too similar to the mate, hence the diseases inherent in the DNA surface. Examples are some of the monarchies of Spain and England. Even seen in some lineages of the Pharaohs of Egypt. Being mixed is a good thing.
Exactly all should matter is that we are humans
Does it still happen today?
Your channel and content is amazing.......helps with the missing parts to the black identity. The butter pecan ice-cream explained why my momdukss loves that flavor 😅
Thank you, very interestiing story. My mother grew up in New Orleans, and was considered Creole. She told a story of losing a job, after cutting her hand and being taken to hospital and going on colored side. The lady she worked with told her she was on wrong side of hospital my mother told her no I am colored (around 1940), needless to say she loss that job because woman went back and told the boss my mother was black.
I am a mixed race English woman with no "British" blood at all. My Parents had told me only of my European heritage. Although i am white i have facial features from Africa. An Uncle suspected my heritage and performed something (-i am Christian so do not get involved in!-)which came back positive, which i fully do believe. As a grown woman my Grandad did show me photos of "long lost Family" who i had never seen or been told of before! These people appeared to be African, in black and white photos. Finally a DNA test confirmed i had heritage from Africa, although two different countries were named (apparently people had travelled so it was impossible to tell which of the two. My Grandad died many years back now. The rest of the Family avoid giving me answers, and i see their silence as loud. I never did find out what happened to that photo album. Myself and an Uncle (not the one mentioned) have the most continental features (he has darker skin), my Beautiful Children have darker skin and my facial features). All my Family come from at least three continents. For me being mixed race did not attract many white men, however i had a better opportunity - most of my ex Boyfriends came from Africa and Asia. I actually had the chance to move abroad but i chose to stay with my Beloved Mam who became terminally ill. Three lessons from my story : 1. Your Family could be hiding your heritage from you. 2. Culture may instill "cultural norms", however "human nature" prevails in all of us. 3. The most important one, God created every one of us equal, to love Him first, and to be kind to all of His Creations! Thank you for reading, God Bless! Pauline xxxxx
I guess because I’ve seen so many mixed and biracial people I can tell if they are mixed . I don’t think a lot of those people passed during that time period, I think I just think a lot of people were oblivious to multiracial and biracial so they really didn’t know what it looked like so they assumed it was white .
Doesn’t all of humanity have the same origin? Isn’t that what the Bible says? Heaven help us!
Good point .......what I've noticed is black people tend to think they look white "or pass" whereas white people don't think they look white and know they have a black grandparent / great grandparent if they have thought about it at all are and are not that interested or bothered one way or other .....I have friends one black (man) and the other Scottish they have six kids and all look different 3 are as dark as the dad the others are tan with one having a yellow cast to his complexion.......he thinks people are watching him thinking he has stolen a white child....the little boy doesn't look white he look like what he is a child who has a white parent and a black parent.......
You're giving them too much credit, they were literally triggered by black skin, period, nothing else registered socially until the zeitgeist said otherwise
being bi-racial black father and white mother myself- I know exactly what you’re saying I usually can spot people that are mixed race I’ve seen a lot of people.
@@davyrockxx1563…that’s not always true. When people have more European blood for two or more generations, what part of African are you referring to? What is mixed? I just watched an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine was dating a guy who Jerry thought was a lightskin Black man. At the end of the show the man was dating Elaine because he thought she was Spanish. The actor playing the role is of Russian heritage.
We have a family member that passed and went and to fight on the Union side. His family has stayed in touch with our family until this day 🥰
I appreciate this podcast. Many Africans Americans who were able to pass did so due to psychological abuse of constantly being verbally abused by their own families and the community. Light skinned women often met with assault and verbal insults. Often these women were targeted for sexual exploitation by both black and white men. Light skinned women had to bear the burden of being put on a pedestal due to internalized hatred of melanated skin. This also caused isolated and a sense of not belonging.
Do you think light skinned blacks had children with dark skinned blacks ;so their children would be blacker and would not endure discrimination from the black community. In the past many black discriminated light skinned blacks ;they associated light skinned blacks with whites . Also why some light skinned blacks left the community ?
The social hierarchy went on . Even in black neighborhoods;the light skinned blacks were higher in the ladder:they were the shop owners and looked down on dark skinned blacks. I think this where dark skinned blacks ,looked at light skinned blacks as "whites " .
لا ثقة لهن في أنفسهن لهذه الدرجة ؟
أنا التي أزهو بجمال خَلق الله لي و صنعه البديع جل. و علا و لا أدع أحدا يكون قاضيا في حياتي أبدا ..أبدا
**Black people**: This is how the one drop rule shaped blackness. Look at these white-passing people, they WANT to identify as black? Hell nah. Look at their white-passing skin color and physical features, they're clearly mostly white!
**Also, black people**: look at these white-passing people, they DON'T want to identify as black!! Why would they disgrace their black ancestors, and be ashamed of identifying as black? They think they're better than us?
You obviously never lived in the USA in those days @norama3998
Thank you. Liked and shared publicly.
My African American grandfather used to always says “just be glad you can pass.” 😢
💔
I always felt that the my Louisiana Creole maternal grandfather and his entire family had the best of both worlds. As well as my mother and my baby sister .They all could easily pass for White. Whether in public spaces. Or social and professional circles. In every instance White people had no clue.But they heartily embraced the greatness of Black culture passed down by the elders. And that is to have love in one's heart and to be humble and wise.The only time my maternal grandfather and my mother used their appearance was to secure better housing for their families. It even affected how they were treated by doctors and law enforcement. So if people think race and one's appearance in America does not matter in every single you do,they have no clue. Because the fact of the matter is as soon as any one of us walks out that door. Judgements are automatic. Good for some.And bad for others.One time I asked my Pop Pop(Grandfather) how did it feel being around White people who had no clue that he was a Black man. He said something really powerful. He said it wasn't always about them saying hateful things about Black people. It was about the exchange of information. The best housing. The best schools.Job openings. That who you know within the White world counts just as much as what you know. Meaning when it comes to Blacks with a lot of White people it is a don't ask don't tell type of attitude. They are not going to share the same type of information with a Black person that they would share with a White person. My late mother and even my sister at the present time have had the same experiences. So when your comments about your African American grandfather means so many things on so many levels. Because it is the brutal truth. Because when you interact with the people who have always had the institutional power it can provide the keys to the kingdom.
wow 😮
ما هذا المرور الذي تتحدًثون عنه ؟ كيف لمجتمع فيه نخبة من المثقّفين أن يدع هذا العبث في المعاملات و العنصرية في العقول بين الناس .. جميع البشر من آدم عليه السّلام و آدم من تراب ! .. نقطة
@@norama3998 I wish I could read this, but I can’t read Arabic. Fun fact, I am studying Arabic right now but I only know the basics. Thank you.
My Daddy Refused to Pass ! He Was From Louisiana and Looked So Damn yt . He WENT To A Texas Jail,He Was put with the yt population. He Told the authorities I'm Black ! And at first they refused to Move Him. He Was Adamant Only then did they move Him.
He was smart not " proud" it's better he told them than they found out.
I tell people the same thing but still think I'm mixed it's annoying to deal with. I always tell people I'm black even though I'm light skin.
@@pink1237480Black people can be lightskin.
@@IsaywhatIpleasebut black american are mixed not 100 % african
@@akhesa8135 so what?
My uncle passed as white. He moved to a small town in high school during the 1940's and had a job during his last school years, had a job, and rented an apartment. He said he had no family. He was wildly handsome. My aunt pursued him and he tried to stay uninvolved but ended up marrying her. He absconded twice while she had each of their children but came back after he heard how both of them looked. He had a good job with the state patrol (which he could not have had as a black man) and moved up the ranks. He died and no one knew until my cousin grew interested in genealogy and found out her grandparents were alive and well and went to meet them.
Thank you for sharing, this needs to get out there. I went to a school that taught this but I don’t think many do now and that needs to change.
My great grandma passedas white. Being from New Orleans this is super common thing.
I’m from New Orleans and can always tell a black person no matter how light/white looking they are.
@@BayouBarbie504…😂😂😂😂 that’s not true. Some of you want to believe the lie that a European can be visually seen as an African. Stop gaslighting yourself.
@@BayouBarbie504 ….stop with the gaslighting. I’m Cajun and Creole ⚜️ Y’all don’t know unless we tell you 😏
Absolutely
@BayouBarbie504 Me too. However, with some, you know. Some you're suspicious of, and some can get away with it.
Walter F. White was my Great-great Uncle. 💙
Unlike some who were "Black-passing-White", our Uncle Walter was doing what he did occasionally to infiltrate the most evil KKK for his beloved NAACP...
Other than that, he loved his Blackness & his Black family!!!❤️
Most Blacks who knew him, knew this about him.
R.I.P.:
```°•.🕊️.🌹•💙°🕊️Uncle Walter🕊️°💙•🌹.🕊️ .•°```
Most of these people are light or brown and MIXED-RACE and would have been TREATED BADLY
by the darker-skinned Blacks anyway!
Why should they want to identify with their enemies!
You have the reversed going on nowadays: Extremely Mixed-race people
"PASSING" as Black.
It's shameful~!
Thank God for your Uncle Walter White! I read years ago about how he risked his life to expose lynchings and other atrocities against Blacks. He could have lived comfortably in a White world, unbothered by the violence & injustice faced by Blacks, but he cared and he stood up!!
Thank you for responding. Mr. White is one of my heroes. He sacrificed his safety and life for his race so that Blacks may have life, liberty, and happiness. His sacrifices benefitted the entire human race in America
A few comments before this one, a commenter stated Mr. Walter White married a white woman. Is this true? I look forward to your family setting the record straight
NACCP, what good is that organization when you see the failures of black neighborhoods and black cities. In my sanctuary city, they gave millions to the hispanic illegals so they could have enterprise, community village. But nothing for the black neighborhoods.
👀 folks in the comments say he left his black family for a white woman
That's not a portrait of Sally Hemings; it's a modern artist's conception. There are no contemporary portraits of Hemings, but she was described as 'near-white', looking very much like her half-sister, and was counted in a later census as white.
Great doccumentary. Watching from Jamaica 2024 .🇯🇲. Since 1970 I have chosen to work, live and love within a Jamaican family culture I still have close contact with my white brother and select blood family..on my terms😊
I was born white and will die with the same label but being comfortable in my cultural environment is paramount.
Great video. I appreciate you posting it.
There’s long and unpleasant history of racism and discrimination😡
As everybody stop blaming white today for crap that has nothing do with them . I never seen any be mean to black people.
Thank you for your video. My father was definitely not white. As Americans would Describe him as an adult as Creole. But as a baby he was extremely light skinned, blue grey eyed and had blonde curly hair, so he had a white birth certificate. Until I worked on his side of the family genealogy, after having medical testing that led to genetic testing that led to numerous questions, I didn’t have any idea that without knowing he was passing. My guess is he might’ve thought about his dark skin, but being in the north that didn’t matter. His best friend was Irish and Indigenous, so they looked similar in summer, had similar height and builds.
As an adult, He was as dark as Victorian walnut stained furniture in the summer, and dark maple in the winter. He had extremely unusual green eyes, and hair of boot black brown. When he married my mother, he had to produce his birth certificate.
Yet, apparently his grand parents were “”German”, and “Irish”. Whereas, my genetic testing said something else, as did my gold skin that was never even close to white Europeans. But I was born a dark red head, not a Scottish one, so there forever I must be an Irish one. My mother was definitely a fully European woman, with skin that burned, freckles, and a red tint in her hair. Her mother was Jewish, but she took after her 1st Gen Irish father.
The scientific genetic testing: European Jewish, Irish (both sides), North African, Spanish, French (the kingdom of Occitan sprawled over both Northern Spain, South Western France), Central Asian Jewish heritage, southern U.S. Creole haplo types (my family on both sides were from both north and South, depending upon timeline), 8.5 % African American, and yes, German. The most genetic history I have is Jewish, from the European, Central Asian, Spanish, and North African Ancestry. But no, we are definitely not as Anglo European as claimed. Having found some articles about Central Asians slipping into Northern German where people looked a variety of ways, then proclaimed themselves “German” on the first census, apparently as the family prospered they took on all the trappings of northern Franco Germans, except a lot of their diet was Mediterranean based due to food allergies.
Many people coming to the American colonies as free or indentured servants did the same thing. Except those enslaved or indigenous had no choice in the matter. The other side of my family did likewise. Strange how not just light skinned African Americans, but persons from Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa did the same thing. But considering they were Jews and Irish, who also were discriminated groups, not surprising.
I’m so glad we can talk about these issues openly in this day and age.
What do I identify as ? A Multi racial Jew. That is my place of home, comfort, food, and culture. But all my food allergies come from my ancestors of what is now the meeting points of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hindu Kush. That is also where the unusual eyes come from. I met a gentleman who looked so much like my father that it threw me into shock, as he’s been deceased for a long time. This person identified as a Mountain Jew of Khazikstan, the other county that adjoins where my ancient genetics come from.
To find someone like myself on a congregation full of German and European Jews was just a blessing.
Your genetics are so very interesting! How fun to try and research those different lines (but maybe frustrating too because of many dead ends you might find in the records). Our family lore on my fathers side always said we had cherokee (like so many) from ancestors who were born and raised in Appalachia since the late 1600’s. We even have a book showing that particular gggrandfather who married a native woman. Well, low and behold had our dna tested about 10 years ago and 0% native of ANY TRIBE! Neither did my sons or any of those cousins who contacted me through Ancestry saying they had zero as well. We were told all our lives about what percentage we were. Instead, we’re very boring UK and related Northern European ancestry. My DIL, who is so white she glows in the dark has 2% Congo and Senegal, and also has the Cherokee and her family is on the rolls. We can chuckle about it now, but I wish we were a bit more diverse! LOL
Sally’s brother was my 6 great grandfather, Robert Hemings 🤍
Thomas Jefferson knew my Washingtons and Tayloes. My mother could pass for white and many of her relatives; yet, DNA has proven many actually passed for white on my mother’s maternal and paternal sides. We are descended by the Fullers from the Mayflower line and the Washingtons, Balls, and Bushrods from Mount Vernon, Virginia. Jenny Fuller Washington was Mulatto and was owned and the child of John Fuller Jr. and at ten in 1794 she was owned by John Tayloe III a rich Maryland planter and in July 1799 was purchased by William Augustine Washington. Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington impregnated Jenny and she gave birth to William Washington in 1803. He became a well known prestigious barber of politicians in Washington DC and worked at the famed Gadsby Hotel. DNA from my mother, myself, two great aunts, and numerous cousins have confirmed the secrets and a few of other Bushrod’s children sold to Louisiana.
Shalom excellent video ❤❤❤❤
My mom had aunts who passed. The family knew and always welcomed them during summer breaks in the 50s
Yeah the family welcomed them because they looked white..
I am the son of a black woman and a white man I don't know my biological father and my mother never talked about him I'm sure he was a trick ! She married a Black man his name is on my birth certificate ! He and my mother raised me but I can easily pass for white ! My Mother her sisters and her mother were all beautiful yellow Black women my grandfather was a Brown skinned Black man I have never identified as white I even used to try to fight anyone who called me white boy I grew up in the hood and had to do some crazy things before my people understood I was not to be fucked with !!!! Now I'm a old head easily mistaken for a old white man but I'm still in the hood married a few Beautiful Black women got a gang of beautiful Black children and grandchildren and I've always been a Black man !!!!!
Make it a movie 😢 🍿
God bless you 💚
“My mother never talked about him I’m sure he was a trick!”. Just a thought, but your white father might not have been your mother’s “trick”, he might have been her rapist. Even in recent history, biracial children born to black girls and women have frequently been the result of rape or otherwise unequal/exploitative unions.
I love this sir! Props to you!🎉
J.edger Hoover also passed as a White man. He kept his hair cut short because it was extremely curly. One day in the early 90th or mid 90th a black woman came on the Oprah Winfrey show claiming J.edger Hoover was her cousin and he threatened his black family if they say anything about his true identity that he would kill them his mother was pregnant with him when she married his step father Hoover she was a white woman that was carrying a black man child. Shortly after Oprah show J.edger was dug up they ran a test on his body and the black family he was passing for white
Many years ago I was out and about when I was working and one afternoon an angry black woman confronted me and screamed angrily at me that I had a hell of a lot of nerve passing for white. She was very confrontational. At the time I did not know that I was anything other than predominately white and I have frequently been mistaken for Asian, and for being. of Sub Saharan African descent with mixed white European even if I did not know it at the time. I have also been asked if I am Indian by people who actually are and I find that fascinating in I am frequently told my features don't belong on a white person. I have relatives that have had mixed race marriage and are all the Human Race
Yes I remembered that.
@@LorrieMiller-qm9pza simple DNA will resolve this issue for you. Why not take the test. Are you afraid of the finding
@@LorrieMiller-qm9pz My Mother-in-law's story. She had no idea her "Cherokee" great grandfather was at least part black until my sister in-law found the 1830 census which described him as "Mulatto, free person of color." We have never been able to trace whom his parents were. The census record said he was born in Virgnia. Was he Melungeon? or the son of a white planter who gave him his freedom? We don't know but we assume he left Virgina because at that time a free person of color was not allowed to live there. Anyway, my mother-in-law was a great beauty when young. she had blond hair, gray-green eyes and tanned easily with a nice round bootie which you know white girls rarely have. if her eyes had been blue, she would have been what most women wanted to be. blond hair, blue eyes, and olive complexion. Anyway, her DNA test she took in 2016 showed 6% African total between Nigerian and Cameroon. Her blond hair she found out came from her also being 35% Scandinavian. What is really interesting to me is her ancestor's surname was Drew. Was his father's surname Andrews or possibly his father given name was Andrew? I just wonder why he took the surname Drew.
I think he was more afraid of being discovered also as being gay and black
Thanks for sharing this info.
Excellent documentary thank you.
I guess coming from a culture and family where auch things are common I find this conversation rather mundane. Such things happened. For many it was a survival skill.
A means for survival I’m sure but must have been a scary experience of possibly being discovered.
I understand why somebody would pass as white. I’m even related to people who made the choice to pass as white………. But I just can’t respect somebody who forsakes their family and blackness.
Back then I don’t blame the atleast the got treated like human beings
Nonetheless Even light were treated like dark skinned people Don’t be misled❤❤❤
I think that if you didn't use it to help the black community, then you might as well as be a Stephen/Stephanie(django reference) that can pass whereas Stephen could not...That being said, you might as well have been a racist white person if that is what you did! I also realize that they were undercover. So, I realize that these people could not be activists, but they could have secretly used their privilege to help instead of ignoring their race once they moved on up...I mean, your husband had to work and probably had a maid(easy living for these wives); the man had even more freedom and made the money...
😮@@southernladybrown5092yes because you can see that they were not all White. The pictures that they show on this video these people you can tell that they are not White. They only show few pictures of actual people that were White passing. That's supposed to represent Sally hemings the girl slave that were forced to sleep with Jefferson she was not White passing, you can see that she was mixed blood, young white looking man that went undercover he was White passing. Because he was mostly White. That was a real picture of white person that could pass as a 100% white person. He probably had less than 25% African blood in him.
@@pattrell5257sis, you couldn’t support black people AND be treated kindly unless you were wealthy. Most white passers, light skins born by two darker parents, would have to create huge lies of why they ran away, and don’t have a birth certificate. Remember, before 1960 your birth certificate had to say your race. These people had to make new names and ABIDE by a white accent. Most white passers were killed, because you can’t just run away from YOURSELF- they were still black. And that proved to be fatal.
My grandmother grew up in Alabama would tell me about her family members who lived their lives as white passing. She too looked white passing. She had blue eyes and was VERY fair skinned.
She was a blue eyed devil😮
Thank you for this.
Oh, the tears of the heart. One, cannot choose without giving up, something dear.
My first cousin is currently living life as a white man, joined a white frat, and works as a white man in business.... was a black boy his whole life. None of his associates know he's black.
There is a great novel called did you hear about Kitty Carr. It's a must read.
Ty!
I had a roomie in college who was white, she always kept her hair in a ponytail. One day she taken her hair out of a ponytail her hair was sooo kinky but straight kinky. She was talking about how she hates her hair and doesn’t know what to do with it. One day she was showing me pictures of her family white parents, blonde hair blue eye sister, but her brother looked like a mixed brutha. I asked bluntly yall have the same parents she said yes. Then I thought about her hair too, I was like someone passed for white in your family and their genes showed up lol. I even met these two brothers, one worked with me who was white and extremely gingered. He wanted to introduce me to his older brother, his brother looked like a pale skin black man with extremely ginger hair like his brother. I am not going to lie my coworker was cute, but his brother was fine.
There was a story like this about a man that you described. He did a DNA test and found out he had a white passing grandparent. He even married a black woman so he said he knew he knew it was something about him lol
People still pass. Former mayors of New Orleans Moon and his son Mitch Landrieu both pass. Mitch wrote a book not that long ago about being a white mayor of a black majority city. It was rather ironic since everybody in New Orleans knows that the Landrieu’s pass. His grandmother was a black woman from Mississippi who had children with a Frenchman named Maurice Landrieu. She became a very successful businesswoman. The crazy thing is New Orleans has a long history of creole culture and it’s no big deal here. So why?
😂😂😂l think you have the wrong Landrieu because they’re Cajun. ⚜️
@@Mimi-ht6xr Nope, Mitch’s great grandfather was a Frenchman named Maurice Landrieu who had children with a black woman from Mississippi named Crynthia. They were French Creole not Cajun or Acadians from Nova Scotia. You can Google the whole thing. Census records and all.
This is so fascinating. So was it people who were actually genetically mainly white ( like Sally Hemings) that were passing or actual light skinned black folk?
Both. Some mixed people who were half black/half white could pass. They didn't necessarily have mostly white blood as in two mixed race parents that look white. Or mixed race mother/white father. Many had full black mothers and white fathers, some of their offsprings could pass as white.
Why would you use Arianna Grande's pic? She's not mixed with black. She's a white woman of Italian descent.
He was talking about white people who have pretended to be racially ambiguous.
She has middle-eastern roots, she did her DNA test. She talked about it years ago...
My mother was born in 1916 in Wisconsin and migrated to Austin, TX as a child. She had me very late in her life and always reminded me that she was "1/4 white". She was a chef and a caterer who migrated to California from racist Austin, passed for white, and catered parties in Hollywood years before she had me... oh how proud she was of herself! 💜U Mommy💜
"1/4 white" Don't you mean "3/4 white"? I'm 1/4 white and ain't no way I'm passing.
@@hwgray All I know is what she told me and what my daddy said. She died when I was 12 but I remember her to be very beautiful and VERY light with freckles and stringy hair and she used a skin bleaching cream every day.
@@numonesweethrtyou can only pass for white if you are at least 3/4white otherwise forget it
@@aksamhuda7 why tell her about her mom. Shes only passing down the story. Go argue with her momma ghost lol
🙂Many moons back, during my first year at an all-girls, Catholic boarding secondary school in darkest Africa, there was a beautiful fragile-looking white girl. She had to cut grass with the rest of us junior girls on labour days. That was certainly new to me, but somehow, her palms blistered terribly! Only a few senior girls would take pity on her and let her sit it out in the shade. I longed to be friends with her, but I was too shy.😊 It wasn't till the second year when my fun-loving big sister transfered to our school that we all got to know her. She was black! 😁 (She always said she was, but no one believed her, till we met her dad.)🌹✝️
Was she an albino?
Until a Black child is born, then there are real issues. My paternal grandmother and her sisters passed. Folks must have been blind.
My previous co-workers passed for white....one was very evil towards us black folk....he tried ultra hard to prove that he was not us....but deep down I could see his inner torment😢😢😢
No one can blame those whom passed as another to survive, but you got to get to a point where you get tired of running and hiding from a person, government and people that’s inferior in themselves
I love the content. However, I disagree with Sally Hemmings children passing as white. They were white. I believe she was a quadroon. The one drop rule isn’t scientific. It was just a way to make whiteness pure. I wouldn’t consider someone with so much white blood black.
According to my math, Sally's children were 1/16th black. Are kidding? Passing is not the correct term.
This is what I query. It seems like a lot ‘white passing’ is just people embracing their dominant white genetics.
In that case yes, but in many cases the mothers were fully black and had kids with a white man who passed as white.
The law said you are whoever your mother was. This thing you're doing with semantics is about you not fully understanding the time period. It was illegal for them to live as white people. Them living and working in white spaces was illegal. People had different dishes for their black servants (black people who worked as domestic servants after slavery). Black people, whatever their shade, were considered 3/5ths human, part animal and disgusting until 1965.
Hemmings was an Octoroon, 1/8th black. I agree the one drop rule isn't scientific, but it was used to determine the value of a slave. An octoroon, was worth three times that of a black presenting woman. You should watch Queen and see what happened when a white man found out he was courting a black woman.
Passing is the correct turn. Please don't dismiss our history.
@@Calvin.rx1l…the second and third generation enslaved women who were mixed were having children for white men (think Meghan Markle, Mariah Carey, Zendaya) and their children were more genetically white than black. We are talking generations here. It’s the same today. My husband and l are both mixed race. We have five kids and all of them look more mixed race than we do. One of my grandsons inherited the auburn hair color and gray eyes that dominate my dad’s Creole side. They just had a daughter four months ago and she now has deeper gray eyes than her brother. We are Black American and this is our legacy 🎉
My 3x great-grandfather was a free man of color from Virginia, born in 1839. After his mother died in the 1870s, he moved to San Francisco and passed as a white man. He was essentially written out of the family tree and it wasn’t until I had my Ancestry DNA done that I discovered the family secret. His son (and my ancestor I directly descend from) was a twin who eventually followed his father to San Francisco and also passed as white. His twin stayed behind in Virginia and had a family who were always listed as black. It becomes harder to trace people the closer you get to modern times. Would these black cousins accept the redheaded white person that is me? I would love to connect with them and listen to their story someday. ❤
You can only try; I was recently contacted by the same type of “cousin” that is in the same position as you are and I am very much interested in linking the fabric of the quilting pattern back together to cover up my Family Tree from the damage caused by the wind blowing in the storm that was Prejudice…
@@danawashington318 Your thoughtful comment gives me hope. Thank you, Dana. I appreciate you. 🤍
Most likely. Virginian colored population were so miscegenated by the 1920s that the Governor couldn’t tell Who was what, so he implemented the Racial Integrity Act in 1924. My family is from VA, and many could pass for white and did so when it suited them, but they lived as “colored”. Other people, like President Dwight Eisenhower’s mother (Orange, Va), lived as white-passing.
If you contact your relatives, they probably won’t be surprised. People leaving the community to pass wasn’t uncommon. They probably know of your ancestors’ existence but not their fate.
BTW: My grandmother and her sisters had moved to Pennsylvania and married a dark-skinned man. I used to play in their backyard in that small town. Once, the ball went over the stone wall and into the neighbor’s yard. When I went to retrieve it, the blonde lady yelled at me to stay out of her yard. She had a husband and three children who were older than I - red-headed freckled twin boys and a girl with brown hair. The kids never played with the brown kids in the neighborhood-they just glared, never spoke. I was surprised to find out years later that the white lady was my grandmother’s niece Katherine (my second cousin). Her brother Henry was one of my dad’s best friends growing up. Everybody knew who she was, but she wanted to be white, and everyone respected her wishes and left her and her white family alone. They never spoke. It must be awful to live among your relatives while pretending you are not closely related. About 40 years later, she started coming to the family reunions, but her children never did. SMH. It would have been fine if the did.
@@JustB-cuz That makes me really sad for your family. To care so much about that stuff and miss out on so many amazing people is just really sad. I hope that her grandchildren have more tolerance and a different perspective today. When I was 8 (mid 1980’s), my father lost his job and we moved from Oregon to Exton, PA. Everyone was white and Catholic. My youngest siblings were adopted from India and Korea, we were also Protestant. People assumed my Indian sister was the half black (illegitimate) child of my eldest sister. My parents were unable to get appropriate medical care for my sister and we moved back to Oregon, leaving my father in PA for months until he could find a job there. This really stood out to me as a young child to have my siblings “othered”. I appreciate things like this video that make us all reflect on our experiences and have respectful dialogue.
So sad, so sad
I couldn't even imagine having to go through all of that evil
Obviously it was much easier for " black " people with majority non-black ancestry & DNA to ' pass ' as white.
But this is exactly the point - that the one-drop rule which was supposed to “protect” whiteness like the holy grail was devious nonsense! All those laws which prohibited any kind of sexual contact, affairs, marriage between whites & Blacks & other POCs - invented by white men & broken by them!
You need a black history class. Millions of blacks passed passed for not only as white but for Jews, Italian, Indian, East Asian and etc. People from other groups passed, too. There chances of successful passing wasn't greater.
@@janedoe1229 In order for a " black " person to successfully pass as a non-black person.. that " black " person has to have sufficient non-black ancestry and DNA. My learning and experiences go way beyond a " black history class " especially if that class includes some biased teachings as well. (Yes, such ' black history classes ' aren't exempt from human biases either)
Appreciate the information for those who do not know, it is no different today, not just for (white people), but also blacks, can you see it in marriage rate, of all black athletes that make more than 2 million dollars in a year, it is seen in Black culture, who they will pick out a crowd, and say she, is pretty.
I am Louisiana born #Creole My Ancestors passed my Gma is 75 % French European my Gma looks like a white woman well basically she is.. She told us stories of her people first cousins etc etc how they moved away from Louisiana scattered around the world and never looked back never heard from them again
Even the term mulatto is derogatory, meaning mule, which ws also used for Native-Americans
I remember first hearing about the story of Korla Pandit - facinating.
I just saw a story about a white man that fell in love with a black women and changed his whole life to be with her -He was also famous in the 1800's so of course the white folks talking about the story (today) couldn't understand why he would give up his white life style "previlage" to become black. We are the human race people and this man fell in love instantly he wanted this woman and no one-not even a life and a career as a celibrated white man was going to keep him from love. He was happy, he moved to brooklyn and had children and didn't look back he never told his family who he really was cause he didn't want to be found out. That's GUTS AND LOVE.
My maternal grandmother was a 'grade A' baby as they called them in Australia.
Snatched.
Trauma DOES matter. One of my earliest memories is seeing a police car and wanting to run, I was 5.
These families are still around today. These families where strict about letting darker skin people enter the family.
❤❤very true
especially though creole people. I not even 40 and I went to college with some and they are sooo colorist.
So sad what happened to all family members on my Moms side never knew them ,saw them 1 time.Never knew any ov my fathers ppl.😢Never had any family reunions like other families didnt know them.
I truly don’t think that a lot of the white passing were actually white passing just looking at the biracial people that we have walking around today. I simply think they would just turn a blind eye to it because they were attracted to them.
There was the "paper bag test" in earlier times. If you were lighter than the paper bag, then you could pass for white or mulatto. If you became darker during summer, people looked the other way.
However, if you were darker than the paper bag, then you were classified as black.
In South Africa (and some other countries) they had the "pencil test". If you stuck a pencil in your hair and it didn't fall off because it was wavy/ curly/ kinky, then you didn't pass the test for whiteness. You were either "coloured" or black. Coloured has a different connotation in South Africa than in the USA.
Neither of my grandfathers were Black in Louisiana but BOTH passed as Black to be with their nonwhite women. Since miscegenation could get you seriously harmed, no one cared who white passing and lightskin “black”people married as long as the partner wasn’t white. We never tell these stories but they exist as well.
When l was a teen a white passing older cousin took me to a Jewish enclave for a weekend. I had a good time. I even had a young man who wanted to be my beau. When l got home, l told mama all. She was outraged! I never saw or heard from that cousin again. Many years later mama explained the stain of ethnic cleansing and race passing. 😔
Mr. Ziegler from my hometown in Arkansas did the same thing: pass for black. The black community kept it on the down low for obvious reasons. Pearl Bailey's husband passed for black when they were performing in the South.
I have a DNA cousin whose white great grandmother passed as "light" the family never knew until she found records of this woman's parents. anyway, this woman was my grandmother's first cousin, so she is my 3rd cousin once removed. Oh, this was 1920's Mississippi so no shocker this woman passed to protect her husband. anyway, she wanted to know if I had ever heard any stories but of course I would not have. The family would not have told that. Now my grandma once told me a story of a "neighbor" who married a man she thought was white but after their baby was born, he started looking part black, once he got about 6 months old. He admitted he was actually Creole, and they got an annulment, and he took the baby to his mother. Now the Jim Crow south they would have had no choice once the whit family noticed how the baby looked, but I wonder if maybe my grandma was telling about her cousin in veiled terms, and she had second thoughts about losing her little family and found them and passed as light? It would have been easy enough to be believable if several of his family looked white.
@@andreabrown4541How can one pass as Black when Sub Saharan African phenotype is very different from European phenotype!??
I find it hard to believe that a white person would want to pass as white. Even today, whites don't want to live in black neighborhoods or. They seem to want to live either in white or mixed neighborhoods. The educated interracial couples will live in the suburbs. While the other will live in working class racially mixed neighborhoods.
@@celticmulato2609….do you live in America? Shemar Moore, Davon Franklin, Michael Ealy, the late Prince, Beyoncé, Zendaya, Montell Williams, Halle Berry, Mariah Carey, Phylicia Rashad, Dwayne Johnson, Smokey Robinson, Raven Simone, etc are ALL considered Black, regardless of their ethnic makeup.
I was always told about how my young dark-skinned grandmother was treated badly when she went to visit her family out of state. I finally saw photos of some of my elders. They looked like pure lily white folks. I understand both sides, but I have to take the side of my dark-skinned grandmother who was an innocent girl who could do nothing but love the skin she was in.
I’m sorry to hear this. 😢
@2:25 the distant cousin married a white man while passing for white. If I were in that situation I would have been concerned that one or more of my children may have been darker than what is the norm for two white parents. Now the next generation may very well have had some melanated children.
Watch the movie called the human stain. About a light-skinned black man passing for white.
Don't fall for the "black throwback baby" myth. That doesn't happen. If it were true, white-identified Puerto Ricans would be spawning "black babies" all the time.
@@AF-tf6px "The Human Stain" is a racist film (and a racist book) promoting the myth of white racial purity. There is no such thing as a "black" person "passing" for white.
You can actually breed out a bloodline. It’s happened in my family and l’m sure many others. For example: lightskin Chas Barkley married a ww. His white passing daughter married a white man. Their child is white. Another example: Megan Markle is biracial. Married a white man. Their children are white.
That’s not always the case. You can breed out the family bloodline in as little as two generations.
My Great Grandmother was Native and Caucasian Married a Black Man and we been black ever since. I took an ancestry test and the truth was there my the roots showed up but Grandma was brave she could've passed but carried her lil Black babies and was proud and said F racism
u LYING ABOUT IT ALL. U NEVER TOOK A ANCESTRY TEST.If U did it would prove how false the claims about your G Grandmother was. Tell us what the genetic break down was on the test. U wont cuz first off, U dont know zip about how any of this works.
Eartha Kit talked about not being dark enough for African Americans during her childhood. There's probably plenty of problems either way.
Those people must have never stepped out of their bubble. I would never confuse a Indian Sikh with a Creole man.
There are three movies that you should check out that talk about this subject. Lost boundaries, i passed for white, the feast of all saints . Plus the documentary about a black boy who passed for white and later on discovered that he was black because his father was black .
9:46 "A Jazz Man's Blues" is also good movie depicting this.
Thank you, I'm going to look this movie up and watch. 🙏🏽
@@LeTriceStephen
It's on Netflix
Another exceptional movie was "Imitation of Life" my grandmother made all us of watch it over and over.
@@sharonpreston2420 Oh.... Thank you for the recommendation.
You’re not going to talk about how Walter White left his black wife and married a white women, which tarnished his legacy. His children didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
Is this true? I never heard of this or I forgot this history. I still make mention of Mr. White to this very day. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought he would marry a white woman. I feel this way because of the work he did. He saw first hand what a white woman was capable of.
@janedoe1229 The man was White with only an admixture of Black ancestry. His phenotype is European and that White woman look just like him which is White! SMH
@@janedoe1229Just because one White woman does something doesn't mean another one will. Please, let's not judge anybody by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I take people on their own merit, not as a group. I understand that we all may be wary of certain groups based on previous negative experiences. Profiling is how we protect ourselves when we have to make immediate quick decisions for safety. But I would consider judging by the color of a person's skin otherwise, to be racist.
@@janedoe1229It's true unfortunately, he actually had an affair with her for almost 20 years before leaving his wife for her. He was worried that he wouldn't be able to continue in leadership with the NAACP if he left his wife for her but he ultimately did.
"You’re not going to talk about..." because it has nothing to do with passing.
Inaccurate video
Passing was undertaken not by black people but mixed race people a n d multiracial people.
For some reason, the whole aspect of racial passing is presented falsely as Black people giving up.their ancestry when in fact this is not and could never be the case.
Black Jazz singers did it in the 1940-1960's. There was a large Muslim community among jazz singers and many would go abroad to learn Arabic to read the Quran and upon returning they would speak Arabic put on Turbans or thawb and dress as Arabs and be permitted into all whites-only facilities.
Blacks like to claim multiracials because the black inferiority complex makes blacks desire to "improve" their racial stock with the DNA of their hated but adored "enemy."
Most blk Americans have some European ancestry, due to rampant sexual abuse of female slaves by slave owners and overseers; basically we’re all some percentage multiracial, some more than others
This. It’s not “passing” if it’s who you actually are. It’s just mixed people choosing their obvious and dominant ancestry 🤷🏻♀️. I’ve done the same.
They were called black because back in Jim Crow times having black ancestry meant you were black. Like the girl in the picture with the black boy. They were both considered black because she was enslaved.
Thank you for the video. Just want to point out Arianna Grande isn't white passing, she's a pale Italian who's black fishing.
My mothers mom was biracial. My mother was very fair and my father was dark skin. All my cousins from my mothers side a much lighter skin than me or my siblings. When I was around my cousins I didnt realized that I was different and were treated differently by other black adults and even other kids.
I think because of the past like these I think that’s why black ppl have a hard time calling mixed ppl black. But I do agree they should be called mixed, which they are.
First story reminded me of this Indian-American student shaving his head and passing for black to get into college as asians are now not considered underprivileged.
@lapetitefleur3482 that was Mindy Kaling's, brother. The truth is he wasn't a great student an that's why he wasn't accepted to most medical schools he applied to. He randomly decided shave his hair and cut his eyelashes short to appear Black. Who knows if it helped at all.
@@angellover02171 holy crap I need to look into to this!
I'm Mexican American, but both parents born in Mexico, I'm so white /w green eyes. My mom always told me to try to pass as white to avoid racism.
Mexicans have mostly european genes so they are pretty much white
Sounds like you are White. There are many " White " Mexicans, Spaniards hello.
It happened in South Africa all the time during Apartheid. Very sad. 😢
You should have used Halsey's picture not Ariana Grande.
Because she is Hispanic some of her relatives are dark brown
Wth
Halsey doesn't pass or pretend to be. She is open about her racial identity and the fact that she doesnt look black when she is.
What about cash Warren and him Jessica alone kids
@@PersianCatMeow…Halsey is a biracial in the purest sense and she knows it. The fair skin, straight hair, and sharp facial features elevates her to a unique standing. 🙄
Watch the movie “imitation of life”! It makes you appreciate the skin you’re in!!
Ariana Grande is Italian American , not Latina and not Black . When I did my dna through Ancestry , discovered I have 7% Sub Saharan dna . I started searching for my African ancestors . More African slaves were taken into Mexico , than the United States. My 5th great grandfather born in 1770 was listed as mulato and I found a whole branch of my fathers family descended from him - including me . But since those slaves we quickly absorbed into the mestizo population , most descendants are unaware .
Yes, my aunt’s husband is Mexican and from what I hear pretty anti-Black. He got his ancestry test back and guess what? He had African ancestry 😂😂😂 I haven’t seen any Mexican DNA tests that don’t have African, Indigenous and European ancestry. They have less African than the other two, but still. I don’t think we’re getting the complete story on Blacks in Mexico. How they got there? How big their community was.
Ariana Grande did do her DNA test and found out she was of middle-eastern descent, complained about her family living a lie on Twitter and then removed the tweet!
@@MaryLou913 This information is out here. Blacks have been in Mexico since 1519. Also Africans arrived there as enslaved people. There was more slaves in South America and in the islands than there was the US. You also had blacks that fled to Mexico in the 1830's after Mexico outlawed slavery. I hope this helps.
Italians are Latin they literally speak a Latin language lol she's not Hispanic is what you mean
During the 19th c, as the US seized the remaining Indian states/homelands in the Southeast & force-marched those peoples to Indian Territory, the laws became changed so that anyone not officially recognized as Native could not claim that ancestry. They had to be signed up as either Black or merely because oc the US under federal law. Since quite a few indians from these nations did not sign the US rolls durng Forced Removal but rather fled or lived in caves till they could flee or come out without being imprisoned or shot.
It's a very complicated history & it varies from one native nation to another, but many natives who didn't sign up with the US government during & just after Forced Removal were forced to pass as either Black or white, while also being legally forced by the US to register as white or Black, not Am. Indian.
These escapees from the Forced Removal period in the Southeast also had to pass as white or black outside their small, usually rural communities. My own ancestors did this.
Family history gets very confused re native ancestry among people whose ancestors escaped rather than being force-marched to Indian Territory. Hundreds if not thousands of rural communities formed during the Removal period, with the founders forced to sign up as black or white. The laws vary from one native nation to another, but a good many natives did escape forced removal & consequently were forced to pass as white or black. Claiming native ancestry was illegal for these people for most of the 19th c. through the 20th.
Tracing legal records of ancestry in the US is very confusing, as most natives who escaped the Forced Removals were not allowed to claim their native ancestry.
Your 19th-into-20th c ancestors might be listed as white or black merely because your ancestors didn't follow the US Forced Removal programs.
When my great great grandmother who was mulatto and worked in the slaveholder's house, had twins by someone at a Thomas Jefferson gala, when she was around 11. They were taken to Judge Mcgehee's plantation in Wilkinson countty Mississippi. From there, they passed as white.
The Rock acknowledges his African american side
Rocky Johnson was from Canada. The Rock's father was Canadian he's not African American; but I see your point he acknowledges his Black side.
What is African American
@@robertmarley8852😮 people that is a mostly African descent in their blood born and raised in America. Or become a citizen,
@@J.A.G.618the born and raised is correct. Not the become a citizen. How do we keep getting this wrong! Given all the public and academic commentary that followed Jesse Jackson's press release.
@@J.A.G.618actually a person with African DNA who was born in America. Doesn’t have to be mostly African.
Some years back I was acquainted with someone whose family had "Cherokee" ancestry. His family was racist against black people, and he fought against the prejudices but as he got older started to take them on. Come to find out a DNA ancestry test unearthed that he was about 20-25% black, I can't remember the exact amount now but it was a notable amount of recent admixture. Over time he came to reject his previous prejudices and embrace his mixed ancestry. It was an interesting journey to watch over about 15 years of this man's life
A few actors in old Hollywood always looked black to me.
Clark Gable always looked biracial to me.
@ So did Elvis and Richard Chandler
Rebecca Hall, Annalynne McCord!
They looked part black…some of you folk have challenges with using the word part? Why? They do not look like black subsaharan people. There is a difference, how do you not see it ? Bizarre
@@PsychicMedium4747 According to American racial codes part black is FULL BLACK. There were a lot of white passing PART black in this country. It’s like admitting the weakness of white genetics. Racial codes made it more beneficial for them to abandon any acknowledgment of black ancestry.
No one has a problem with part black except non-black people.
I am proud of whom I'm and I am proud to be myself 😊🎉❤. God bless me daily ♥️.
I saw Ariana grande in the lineup and am confused, as she is full Italian and talks about her Italian family.