Black Woman, Age 70, Finds Out She is White

[MonsterCrit]

Are you sure this isn't an Onion thing? 'cause this is one of those those stories too stupid to be anything but fake.

I mean 70 years. I simply, literally, don't believe her. She has to be lying for attention.

Yeah this comes up after that lady from the NAACP. But seriously. Lady. If you hung around blackpeople you knew there was a difference. I'm sorry, but unless you never looked in a mirror or looked at your own hands. Yeah. Sorry. If you black you know you black.

Not just that! All her government paper, all her applications, licences, social security, insurances, ALL of the paperwork acquired over a 70 year life time, it ALL said African American and no one ever asked questions? No police officer ever looked at her license picture and was like "Nope." The DMV issued her shit and never questioned? The census bureau just let her be?

Or alternatively, all her paperwork says Caucasian and she never looked at any of it.

Her story simply isn't believable.

Yeah the funny thing about African American... Plenty of White people in Africa. Seriously The dutch founded a colony there in the 1700's and they been living there since. Look up the Boers sometime. Or just ask Jeffery Warren.

Point is, it's ridiculous and I honestly have questioned the credibility of the store,. might well be a smokescreen story

 

[EvilRoy]

Well, she has some features that lean toward black, and if you're adopted by a couple, one of whom is black, and are never told you were adopted, then yeah... I can see her taking it at face value. I reckon it's gonna get pretty fucking awkward for her now though around whatever black friends she might have, especially in the current American climate.

You know, I was thinking about it and I just realized that I have never actually asked my parents if I'm white. Or, well Slavic or whatever other random nonsense got mixed in. This seems like one of those things where its like, unless your parents are east Asian and you have an Irish skintone and red hair, why would you ever assume you were any race but the product of your parents?

I can't watch the video in the OP but I notice that the blurb underneath says that she will continue to identify as black. I do wonder if this was a blow to her identity at all, considering she is 70 years old - well past being "too old for this shit" relative to nearly any type of shit.

 

[EternallyBored]

Are you sure this isn't an Onion thing? 'cause this is one of those those stories too stupid to be anything but fake.

I mean 70 years. I simply, literally, don't believe her. She has to be lying for attention.

Yeah this comes up after that lady from the NAACP. But seriously. Lady. If you hung around blackpeople you knew there was a difference. I'm sorry, but unless you never looked in a mirror or looked at your own hands. Yeah. Sorry. If you black you know you black.

Not just that! All her government paper, all her applications, licences, social security, insurances, ALL of the paperwork acquired over a 70 year life time, it ALL said African American and no one ever asked questions? No police officer ever looked at her license picture and was like "Nope." The DMV issued her shit and never questioned? The census bureau just let her be?

Or alternatively, all her paperwork says Caucasian and she never looked at any of it.

Her story simply isn't believable.

As a government employee, no one asked questions likely because on 99.9% of paperwork and documentation the ethnicity box is only there for census data and is entirely optional, so no one actually cares what it says, if they even look at it, it never changes anything, the only category the U.S. government cares about is if they are claiming tribal status as that can change things and generally needs to be documented and proven.

The census also doesn't care as they aren't there to prove the data they just organize and track it. They encourage people to tell the truth but they don't really do much in the way of investigation so they won't actually have any cause to go out and question someone reporting themselves as Black when they aren't, otherwise they'd be catching however many thousands of people were reporting themselves as Native American despite their only ancestry being one Native American great great great grandmother 150 years ago.

Her ethnicity isn't on her S.S. card, the card is just your legal name and issued number, I don't know about all states, but my driver's license doesn't have my ethnicity listed anywhere on it, a police officer isn't going to care because it's not on the license, and her ethnicity would only be reported if they were booking her and it wouldn't be pulled from her birth certificate they would record it in the station. Insurance information doesn't care about ethnicity either, my ethnicity isn't listed on my health or car insurance. Even if she listed it on applications, those places don't check.

That doesn't mean she is telling the truth in this case, but government documentation is not the obvious indicator you seem to be making it out to be, if she was self-reporting as African American, other than college applications and loans, there's little to no reason for a government worker to confirm or check her reported ethnicity, whenever you see ethnicity on government paperwork it's usually optional and only there so we can give it to the census bureau, as far as we are concerned you can report yourself as whatever ethnicity you want.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Are you sure this isn't an Onion thing? 'cause this is one of those those stories too stupid to be anything but fake.

I mean 70 years. I simply, literally, don't believe her. She has to be lying for attention.

Yeah this comes up after that lady from the NAACP. But seriously. Lady. If you hung around blackpeople you knew there was a difference. I'm sorry, but unless you never looked in a mirror or looked at your own hands. Yeah. Sorry. If you black you know you black.

Not just that! All her government paper, all her applications, licences, social security, insurances, ALL of the paperwork acquired over a 70 year life time, it ALL said African American and no one ever asked questions? No police officer ever looked at her license picture and was like "Nope." The DMV issued her shit and never questioned? The census bureau just let her be?

Or alternatively, all her paperwork says Caucasian and she never looked at any of it.

Her story simply isn't believable.

Yeah the funny thing about African American... Plenty of White people in Africa. Seriously The dutch founded a colony there in the 1700's and they been living there since. Look up the Boers sometime. Or just ask Jeffery Warren.

Point is, it's ridiculous and I honestly have questioned the credibility of the store,. might well be a smokescreen story

Back when I used to be in the Army and they'd make our sections fill out "diversity surveys", I used to mark myself as "African-American", and told them I was born in South Africa. Since they could never prove otherwise, they had to begrudgingly mark me down as African-American. Yeah diversity!

 

[Ryallen]

This story reminds me of this.


How could it not and how am I the only person who thought of this?

 

[lacktheknack]

I think this, more than anything else, shows why race is irrelevant nowadays.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I think this, more than anything else, shows why race is irrelevant nowadays.

Actually, in looking at the video and seeing some of the responses, I think it's more than relevant now.

The judgement levied against her. The assumptions based on recent events. There's a confusing amount of malice towards an adopted daughter turned woman looking for her roots and finding them, turning her self perception upside down.

I think a lot of people don't really understand even basic things about other races. So that's where these assumptions and comments show a distinct need for race intelligence.

This is a good start [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/13/one-drop-rule-black-identity-photos-yaba-blay_n_4775100.html], I think. A group of pictures of people who are considered black, and some who are born to black parents exclusively... And the variety of shades we can come in.

 

[GabeZhul]

I think this, more than anything else, shows why race is irrelevant nowadays.

Actually, in looking at the video and seeing some of the responses, I think it's more than relevant now.

The judgement levied against her. The assumptions based on recent events. There's a confusing amount of malice towards an adopted daughter turned woman looking for her roots and finding them, turning her self perception upside down.

I think a lot of people don't really understand even basic things about other races. So that's where these assumptions and comments show a distinct need for race intelligence.

This is a good start [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/13/one-drop-rule-black-identity-photos-yaba-blay_n_4775100.html], I think. A group of pictures of people who are considered black, and some who are born to black parents exclusively... And the variety of shades we can come in.

Where is the malice in this thread? People seem mostly baffled to me about a 70 years old person not realizing her own racial ethnicity until now. Being surprised and incredulous is not malice.

For your link, yeah, some of those were born to black parents. Probably the ones who look obviously black. The rest is either mixed heritage, genetic throwbacks (usually if there are grandparents or even great-grandparents of different race on both sides of the family tree) or just different degrees of albinism, and then we didn't even tackle some whom were obviously confusing racial ethnicity with cultural ethnicity (which is actually relevant to the OT, as while the old lady in question might be caucasian racially, growing up in a black family gives her all the right to identify with them culturally, no matter her skin pigmentation.)

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, apparently, she missed out on any discussion of genetic traits in class and...well...anywhere, as well as mirrors and her parents/relatives. Variations in skin color aside, you MIGHT consider there's a white person in there somewhere if only by looking. It's not impossible.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Where is the malice in this thread? People seem mostly baffled to me about a 70 years old person not realizing her own racial ethnicity until now. Being surprised and incredulous is not malice.

For your link, yeah, some of those were born to black parents. Probably the ones who look obviously black. The rest is either mixed heritage, genetic throwbacks (usually if there are grandparents or even great-grandparents of different race on both sides of the family tree) or just different degrees of albinism, and then we didn't even tackle some whom were obviously confusing racial ethnicity with cultural ethnicity (which is actually relevant to the OT, as while the old lady in question might be caucasian racially, growing up in a black family gives her all the right to identify with them culturally, no matter her skin pigmentation.)

If I were to bold, I think I would have emboldened "to me" in your second sentence. Because that's what is important, ironically enough, to me. As a person who is somewhat more in the boat of Verda Byrd's boat, having people sit there and be incredulous to what one claims as fact is vexing at the least, and demoralizing at the worst.

Remember. Everyone has the right to be incredulous. But that right does not act as a carte blanche (I swear, I didn't mean that pun) for freedom of response. Those subject to the incredulity have the same right to react to it as their feelings see fit.

To your last point, a.) I said "considered black". Most of society still has trouble with Mixed when the person looks more black than anything else. Tiger Woods (back when he was relevant) had to claim his asian side often, to which a majority of people just named him a black Athlete.

and b.) those three elderly people who looked white and was born to black parents? Those are the people that matter the most in this context because we're saying how she should have just looked in the mirror. The fact remains is people who "obviously appear white" to some people, can be still black.

You see, everything you're saying I already know. I had to know growing up in the culture. And you're right about the albinism. Also. Some people who are born from light skinned black people could pass. I won't bother explaining this to you, if you already know this much you know what that term is. To those who don't, it's exactly how it sounds. You look so light in skin complexion that you pretend that you are white for a better life.

But like I said. Those three pictures of elderly people who were born to just black parents? It's important to see that it actually might be impossible to just say "obviously white" without knowing all the hues the American Blacks are born with. Even if she knew she was adopted, it's very possible she was just born to very light skinned black people. That's all the link was about. Showing the different possible hues and the very real reason why Verda didn't have cause to question if she was truly black or not.

 

[DementedSheep]

Eh, if she was blond and blue eyed I might find it more weird but I had a teacher who had parents and a brother that were clearly black but he looked like a tanned white guy and he wasn't adopted. The reason he showed us this was because he was the biology teacher and was talking about genetics.

 

[Shiftygiant]

I kinda feel bad for her. I mean, she found an identity she was comfortable with through her parents, who she thought were her roots, and now at 70 she's being told everything she knew about herself is wrong. Yeah, she should of maybe sussed something out by now, but I can't help but feel bad for her. It isn't like that lady who actively lied about being black, it's just someone who grew up thinking they are something they're now being told their not.

 

[CrystalShadow]

To all of you who think this is 'obvious', have you ever seen the variations in skin colour that can happen in just a single family, for various reasons?

for instance:
http://justkhaotic.com/2012/03/true-stories/kian-and-remee-are-twins-one-black-one-white/

Twins with different skin colours. But since they are sisters with both parents the same, they are both mixed race, regardless of what their respective skin colours are. The girl on the right doesn't stop being 'black' because she doesn't look it.
She isn't adopted, and has 2 black parents. This stuff just gets so stupid if all you ever do is make superficial judgements.
And, if you DO go down that route, it becomes painfully obvious that 'race' stops being a thing that makes much sense anyway.

There's also plenty of examples in Africa itself of albino children who are in no way 'white' other than the blatantly obvious of having no melanin in their skin.
If the colour of someone's skin is literally the only thing that counts, then we might as well just admit that the whole thing doesn't really exist, because any examination of actual heritage would show that the colour of your skin alone can't establish your heritage.

 

[Maze1125]

Look at all the people who are "totally not racist" but, for some reason, really really care whether or not this woman is white.

 

[Erttheking]

She's obviously black? Uh. I can't see it. We can't be sliding into neat little categories, there's a lot of variety when it comes to race, especially with interracial marriages.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Who thinks that's obvious?

Like seriously, I can see how she made the mistake if her parents never broke the news to her. She doesn't look "that white." Or whatever some people seem to want to call it. Maybe that's just the whole living in a state that's about 37% black for most of my life, so I actually saw a lot of variation in skin tone all around.

Her skin tone is pretty close to a friend of mine who's fully black, for one thing.

 

[mecegirl]

I was expecting something else, but looking at her she's pretty racially ambiguous looking. Either way, this is an actual example of transracialism. That is, an example of the identity issues children who are adopted into families of a race different than their own deal with. And part of the reason why that Dolezal woman can fuck off. Transracial is an actual legitimate term as it relates to transracial/interacial adoption. People have long since been studying the effects, but now people are using transracial like its some new thing and using it to downplay transgenderism.

 

[mecegirl]

I was expecting something else, but looking at her she's pretty racially ambiguous looking. Either way, this is an actual example of transracialism. That is, an example of the identity issues children who are adopted into families of a race different than their own deal with. And part of the reason why that Dolezal woman can fuck off. Transracial is an actual legitimate term as it relates to transracial/interacial adoption. People have long since been studying the effects, but now people are using transracial like its some new thing and using it to downplay transgenderism.

Can we please not make transracial a thing?

It's bad enough everyone and their mother want to slap a specific label on their gender. Do we really need to throw some bullshit definition of race into the mix as well?

No. Transracial is already is a thing that refers to transracial/interacial adoption. It was a thing long before Dolezal. People are misappropriating the term because they didn't know that it already existed and were using it incorrectly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_adoption

Also, despite sharing the same prefix, actual transracialism and transgenderism don't work the same way.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

...
and b.) those three elderly people who looked white and was born to black parents? Those are the people that matter the most in this context because we're saying how she should have just looked in the mirror. The fact remains is people who "obviously appear white" to some people, can be still black.

That's not as clear cut as you make it seem, and only really applies if you take "black" to mean "descended from any number of ethnicities that are commonly dark skinned."

If someone has white skin, even if they have African heritage, can they truly be considered "black"? What about if someone of European descent has dark skin, are they really still "white"? It really depends on how you categorise "white" and "black".
I don't think this is really as self evident as people think, especially since "white" and "black" are somewhat arbitrary when you really think about it.