Celeste Headlee, The Takeaway
Celeste Headlee, is a former co-host of The Takeaway.
"I feel like she's black. I'm black and I'm her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory."
- Halle Berry in 2010
“I don't think it should matter what the color of one’s skin is. I think it’s really important to me to be part of movies that reflect the modern society. In modern times we are mixing races and having families and loving each other. I’m of a mixed race family so it's very normal for me.”
- Halle Berry in 2008
You could argue that Halle Berry is not the ideal source for insightful academic discussions of race, identity and multiracial identity. But I would respond by reminding you that Halle Berry has lived as a mixed race woman for 44 years. Her father left when she was four and she was raised by her white mother, and Ms. Berry has often talked about the moment when she was forced to decide how to describe herself, as either black or white, and she says that she didn't "feel white."
In fact, based on the stats, Berry's racial background is probably less than half African-American. Since we don't have good information on her father's heritage, we don't know for sure, but almost 60 percent of African-Americans have at least one white great-grandparent. The truth is, most blacks are multi-racial.
So, why does this matter? Why do we care about Halle Berry's family tree? Because she's famous and so every controversial thing she says becomes front page news. And her latest now-widely-tweeted comment seems to justify her views on race by using a Jim Crow era rule that was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1960's.
I find it distasteful in the extreme to gossip about the someone's private business. But it's probably important to mention that Berry's comments come within the context of a bitter custody battle over her young daughter, and that she's accused the child's father of racism. He reportedly thinks of the toddler as white and becomes angered when the girl is described as black. So, that's the background on the top of which Halle Berry is painting her vision of race as conforming to the one drop rule.
But let's give Ms. Berry and her child the privacy they deserve and deal with this larger issue of racial identity and mixed race family. And to that end, let's consider how offended we would all be if some white male had announced that he thinks Mariah Carey is black because he believes in the one-drop rule? We would call him a racist, and worse. So is Halle Berry a racist?
We all know that a drop of black blood doesn't make you black, anymore than Michelle Obama's white great-great-great-grandfather makes her Caucasian. It was a controversial topic when Edna Ferber wrote "Showboat" back in 1926. A character in that novel is accused of miscegenation because his wife is part black; he cuts her hand, drinks some of her blood, and avoids arrest because he then has black blood inside him. Ridiculous, right? Absurd.
In the 1920's, the one drop rule was used by the prejudiced white majority to discriminate against and oppress the black minority. It caused a vicious identity crisis among African-Americans. If everyone with a drop of black blood was legally black, then a whole lot of African-Americans were trying to "pass." Now, perhaps the concept is being turned on its head. Is Halle Berry a more appropriate parent for her child because she is black, and her daughter is black?
We could tie ourselves in knots trying to untangle the many complexities of racial identity, so let me simply address this with pure science. There is no "race gene," it's a biological myth. That doesn't mean race isn't real, it means it is a lived experience, rather than something we are born into. As Larry Adelman, Executive Producer of "Race - The Power of an Illusion," so eloquently put it: "The factors that lead to differential outcomes between races live not in any 'racial' genes but in our social institutions and practices. It's easy to confuse the two. But doing so... displaces our attention from those discriminatory practices to the 'nature' of the victims. Blindness to the continuing impact of racism can be just as harmful as believing that race is biologically real. They both let society off the hook."
I'm multiracial because my life has been shaped and guided as much by the poultices and potato pancakes of my Jewish grandmother as by the spirituals, collard greens and "Brer Rabbit" stories of my black grandfather. My heart broke over the discrimination and injustices suffered by my beloved grandfather because of his brown skin. I punched a classmate in the eye in elementary school when he called me a nigger. But I also sipped kosher wine that tasted like cough syrup on Passover and celebrated the rebirth of Jesus at my other grandparents' Methodist church.
My sense of myself as a mixed-race intermingling of many cultures has nothing to do with blood or DNA or family trees, and everything to do with the way we spoke to each other when I was growing up, the way we celebrated, the way we mourned, the music we listened to, and the books we read.
There is no one drop rule. It doesn't work for the proverbial drop in the ocean, and it doesn't work for humans. Race is a lived experience, and Halle Berry's daughter hasn't had a chance to live it yet.
If you're of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself, and I think that's often hard for us to do.
- also Halle Berry
Celeste Headlee, is a former co-host of The Takeaway.
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Comments [18]
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There is actually no such thing as a so-called "Light-Skinned
Black" person ... but rather ... such individuals and groups
are actually people who are of a 'Multi-Generational
Multiracially-Mixed' (MGM-Mixed) Lineage that some may
have been pressured or encouraged to ignore or downplay.
.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4160
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People of Mixed-Race lineage should NOT feel pressured to
'identify' according to any standards other than one's own.
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4157
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The legal -application of the racist-'One-Drop Rule'
(ODR) was banned in the U.S. way back in 1967.
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4162
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http://www.facebook.com/groups/253286018082418/permalink/253341891410164
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4187
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http://www.facebook.com/groups/253286018082418/permalink/253341281410225
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Listed below are related Links of 'the facts' of the histories
of various Mixed-Race populations found within the U.S.:
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There is no proof that a 'color-based slave hierarchy'
(or that 'color-based social-networks') ever existed
as common entities -- within the continental U.S.
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4154
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4153
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It was the 'Rule of Matriliny (ROM) -- [a.k.a. 'The Rule of Partus'
(ROP)] -- and NOT the racist-'One-Drop Rule' (ODR) -- that was
used to 'create more enslaved people' on the continental U.S.
.
This is because the chattel-slavery system that was
once found on the antebellum-era, continental U.S.
was NOT "color-based" (i.e. "racial") -- but rather
-- it was actually "mother-based" (i.e. 'matrilineal').
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http://www.facebook.com/allpeople.gifts/posts/309460495741441
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There were many ways (and not solely the sexual assault
and sexual exploitation of the women-of-color) in which
'white' lineage entered the familial bloodlines of
enslaved-people found on the continental U.S.
.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4238
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4239
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4240
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An 'Ethnic' category is NOT the
same thing as a "Race" category:
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4236
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http://www.facebook.com/allpeople.gifts/posts/300777016632181
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Other Topics:
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https://www.facebook.com/allpeople.gifts/posts/279223868853420
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https://www.facebook.com/allpeople.gifts/posts/164203590359746
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http://www.facebook.com/notes/%C2%ADallpeople-gifts/the-facts-on-m%C2%ADixed-race/321878451159708
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great piece,celeste... you're on the money.
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There is absolutely NO SUCH THING as
a so-called 'Light-Skinned Black' person.
.
The term of 'Light-Skinned Black' is simply a racist
oxymoron that was created by racial supremacists
in an effort to deny people who are of a Mixed-Race
Lineage the right to embrace their full-Lineage and
to have said lineage publicly acknowledged as well.
.
The very term of 'Light-Skinned Black' is based
on the application of the 'black-lineage mocking',
non-scientific and racist 'One Drop Rule' (ODR).
.
In it’s decision in the 1967 "Loving" case, the U.S.
Supreme Court stated that the racist-'One-Drop Rule'
(ODR) was UN-Constitutional (i.e. illegal, outlawed,
banned, unenforceable, non-applicable, etc.) and in
this decision, the high court also described the vile
ODR by such terms as 'odious' and as 'repugnant'.
.
Here are a few 'Reference' Links for any
and everyone who refuses to accept vile
views of the racist-'One-Drop Rule' (ODR)
.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4162
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4187
.
http://parablemania.ektopos.com/archives/2011/09/scotus1drop.html
.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4160
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4157
.
http://www.facebook.com/allpeople.gifts/posts/300777016632181
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4186
.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4152
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/4153
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RELATED LINKS:
.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/3331
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1399
.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1034
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1032
.
Uuh,for the person who said that it is impossible to have an intelligent conversation while acknowledging race,is,in my opinion,not very bright indeed himself. Saying that,I believe in 'race' in two senses of the word. One being in the human race in which we all belong too,and that of our environmental shapings,which have lead to the second catagory of 'race'. In order to believe this,you must first acknowledge the evolutionary theory and its processes,as most obviously,you don't,and I believe that this alone is really what is holding us back as a species. Isn't this just like ignoring a giant bugger on your face,and saying,"No,my face is clean." Hahaha,yes,quite ridiculous indeed,people. Ignoring sensical things won't make them go away,and it won't make them less sensical,but you are all entitled to your own opinions as well as I. Peace.
This issue brings to light the most fundamental problem with 'racial identity' in the United States. Basically, people treat it as if its something that can be shaped. Halle talks about 'feeling' and 'believing,' but the issue is that race or ethnicity simply is, it doesn't depends on what people feel or believe in. For this reason, the issue with multiracial people is not whether they feel or believe to be one race or another, that was decided on the day they were conceived and is guarded in their DNA. The true issue here is whether she (and all multiracial people) love and respect themselves enough to accept themselves for what they truly are or they will continue living in denial. Denying one part of your ancestry, is denial and a disgrace. I'm multiracial and perfectly content with myself.
I myself am bi-racial (Puerto Rican & White) my sons father is African American. My family has never expessed concern neither has my sons paternal family members, but now at age 13 we are facing a paternity test. As my son is too light skinned. Fathers can do stupid things too.
I am a victim of divorce. My parents divorce was finalized 3 days after my 5th birthday, and these custody cases can get ugly. I have seen stories of 2 sided celebrities, where what you see in public is not how they are in private. This kid is mixed, it is neither black or white. I have 2 mixed cousins. I don't believe that Gabriel is a racist, the N-word accusation was just a low blow put out there by a desperate mother trying to hold on to custody of their kid. Remember when Denise Richards made the false claim that Charlie Sheen molested their kids? Desperate mothers, regardless of racial makeup, do these types of things in custody cases all the time.
Touche....well said!
It seems to me that those who criticize the "One Drop Rule" as degrading today assign the same negative mentality about Black blood in one's heritage as White slave holders did in slavery times. People should certainly self identify, and I support Halle Berry choosing to proudly identify with her Blackness for herself and her daughter. Your report noted Ms. Berry's acknowledgement that her daughter may choose to align diffently when she's an adult, and her support of that. Most of your comments seemed to be from the "Race Doesn't Matter" or "I have a Black neighbor" crowd. The reality of America is that race is both a source of pride, and a source of challenge in America..(even, and perhaps especially, in places like Grosse Point Ms. Celeste. I challenge you to provide the statistics behind your comment about diversity in the Pointes. I'm sure there's still a long way to go).
Peace , Love & Diversity!
My son is married to a Chinese woman from Singapore. At the time their daughter was born, their best friends were a couple who were Hispanic (of South American origin) and African American, who had a son at the same time. They fantasized cheerfully that if these two children were to marry, their offspring would represent (and have more than one drop of blood from) Asia, Africa, South America, and Northern Europe. That would be a puzzle beyond the limit of any fallacious "one-drop rule" to figure out!
Maybe this one drop view is an opportunity to put race issues behind us sooner. By that theory, we'd all be "mixed race".
In all honesty Halle Berry's daughter is more caucasian than anything else. I am truly surprised by Halle's comments, and I don't believe for a minute that she really feels that way. How can she ignore her bi-racialness. I always hate it with the media even reports the President as Black or only African American he is indeed bi-racial as well with two parents of different ethniticities. Is one parent more important than another?
Halle Barry is not alone in her views. Ask anybody if we have a black president and the answer will be yes. Not since early in the campaign for president has Barack Obama been of mixed race. When we claim him as black, aren't we all expressing a variation on the one drop theme?
There is no race, only ethnicity. Arguments about "race" always fall apart into meaningless (or in this case, controversial) statements because race doesn't exist except as an false label, especially when it manifests as colors like black, white, yellow, red, etc. You can only describe ethnicity based on your parent's ethnicity, and their parent's ethnicity. When people talk about race they need to be corrected so that you can have an intelligent discussion. Although that's asking a lot.
Both Halle and Celleste are scarred by their respective upbringings in a country that still refuses to honestly address it's evil racial history and how that evil manifests itself today because of the refusal to address it. We are judged, like it or not by appearance. Until the larger white majority (that still has too many who play down race as an issue) acknowledge pubically and then adjust it's collective behavior this topic will persist. Halle can't pass, so she might as well acknowledge that part of her which people will know exists as soon as they see her face...
It nice to be able to be Black for convience, but I am Black everyday...I mean real Black. African black
The 'mixed race' tag is the new "one drop" tag of the post racial era...Race trumps everything in America ...In our nation every ethnic group in America there is language that refers to Black Americans as n*ggers..
"But I would respond by reminding you that Halle Berry has lived as a mixed race woman for 44 years."
C'mon Celeste. That's a simplistic,'Shut up if you're not a 44 year old biracial woman, non-argument.' The one-drop rule is a racist idea imposed anti-miscegenation laws for the purpose of preventing women like Halle Berry being born. The Oscar winning sister needs to more deeply read American history before using her celebrity soap box to spout pearls of 'wisdom'.
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