The One-Drop Rule revisited
In the post-Reconstruction era of the late 19th century, a disgusting and disgraceful practice was put into place in the American South as a key component of the Jim Crow anti-black laws. The practice was the "One-Drop Rule." To wit, if a person's genetic heritage contained just a trace of black ancestry ("one drop of black blood"), the person would be legally considered black and subject to the harshly restrictive "Jim Crow" discriminatory laws.
Recent developments in technology and the availability of DNA testing for the general public have thrown a wrench into racial and ethnic classifications, which presents a quandary for professional diversity and affirmative action advocates, government organizations, and employers. The argument could and should be made that since the One-Drop Rule penalized and oppressed individuals with trace amounts of minority ancestry, it should now work in favor of those who discover they have even trace amounts of such ancestry.
DNA technology provides a high-tech strategy for civil disobedience. For example, if a person's DNA results indicate even a trace of ancestry from the "Iberian peninsula" (Spain), he can check the "Latino/Hispanic" box under application of the one-drop rule. The federal government defines Hispanic or Latino as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."
The "white" racial category was solidified in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the implementation of affirmative action practices that followed. "White" was therefore defined as "not Hispanic or Latino" – in other words, a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. Strangely, ethnic groups that were considered other than white or not fully white (and were routinely discriminated against and sometimes lynched) were now included in this catch-all definition of "whiteness." These groups included Jews, Irish, Italians, Eastern Europeans, and others not of Northern European or Protestant stock. What an amazing metamorphosis! These groups, with the stroke of a pen, immediately had their historical status changed from the oppressed to "oppressors of people of color."
To make matters worse, it was now legal to deny these ethnic "whites" opportunities through the operation of affirmative action policies. After all, a "white" hiring manager can't discriminate against another "white" as defined by the EEOC.
If DNA testing provides a justification for ethnic whites to claim minority status, I say go for it. Any trace of "Iberian peninsula" DNA ancestry, for example, provides the justification under the one-drop rule to "check the Hispanic box" on college and employment applications. That one act of civil disobedience may eventually lead to the collapse of the discriminatory policy of affirmative action. Perhaps at that point, we will finally evaluate individuals based solely on the content of their character and the qualifications they bring to the table.
Ad Free / Commenting Login
FOLLOW US ON
Recent Articles
- The Slush Fund Nobody Voted For
- Hacktivism and the Possibility of WW III
- Illegals Working for Congress?
- Should FBI Agents Learn Martial Arts?
- Deep-State Sabotage in the DoD?
- What DOGE Is Accomplishing
- From Churchill to Vance...Sounding Off About Tyranny
- Globalist Games: They Play, We Pay
- Scorched-Earth Disease Control
- NATO, Ukraine, and the War Hawks’ Pixie Dust Playbook
Blog Posts
- Hunter Biden hotfoots it to a luxury vacation in South Africa, seemingly to avoid a deposition on his claimed poverty
- The Obamas' podcast bombs
- Did Stacey Abrams’s NGO really get $2 billion for appliances to hand out to Americans?
- Mark Kelly exposes the hypocrisy behind the Democrats’ electric vehicle fixation
- Washington state attorney general is mad at sheriff's office for complying with federal law
- Can Trump and the team really win?
- The Democrat party is in dire need of shock therapy in the form of hard truths
- CNN wants you to know that Biden did not strand the astronauts Musk is rescuing
- Could Rahm Emanuel be the Democrats' great hope for 2028?
- The South African ambassador’s fate shows that America will no longer be bullied
- Nvidia: The Vera and Fritz chips
- A track attack
- Dem violence and manhood
- Ending the Fed
- Hey Chuck, you need a tune-up