Youneverknow: "half-black"

[Benjamin Barrett]

It's parallel to half-Japanese or hapa. If you have to talk about someone's racial heritage, I just don't understand why you would call someone who is half-black just black. Maybe to emphasize that Obama is our first black president as a form of ethnic pride or disdain, and maybe certain situations where categorizing that way is convenient, but a fact is a fact.

Because the most common mix in the US is white with another ethnicity/racial group, then saying "half-X" and leaving out the "half-white" part makes sense.

I have a friend half-Japanese and half-Chinese, and I might refer to him as one or the other if we are in a Japanese or Chinese restaurant, etc., so maybe something along those lines makes sense, too...

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Dec 9, 2011, at 4:57 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 3:27 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> Isn't that pretty common to say?
>
> If those people who commonly say that a white individual is
> "half-black," "half-African-American," or whatever accept such a
> person as wholly white to the same extent that those people who
> commonly say that a black individual is "half-white" accept such a
> person as wholly black, then, clearly, a difference that makes no
> difference is no difference and my previous remarks on this point are
> nothing but reverse-racist nonsense and I apologize.

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