A Friendly Request from Your Blogger
August 16th, 2008Since blogging is a new enterprise for me, I’ve been encouraged by the number and range of responses here. I have appreciated all the comments from people who shared their efforts to answer the question “what are you?” and to understand the aspects of our country’s racial legacy that made the answer so significant. However, the comments section is not a referendum for how I or anyone else identifies themselves, despite a small number of people trying to hijack it for that purpose. If you read ONE DROP, you’ll see that I don’t view racial identity as simply black or white, based on some calculation of blood percentages. Rather, I think it’s the sum of a person’s experiences, the culture and times in which he or she was raised, how a person is seen by the world, and how he or she sees him or herself. For my part, I don’t deny one identity nor claim another. I do try to reclaim the history and family that my father prevented me from knowing. Please continue to engage in thoughtful nuanced dialogue about the challenges of constructing one’s racial identity and sifting through the legacy of a time when people had no choice in how they were categorized. Please refrain from judgment or assertions that there is a right answer to these questions. And please keep your comments to the posts at hand. If you must grind your axe, then I recommend starting your own blog (especially since you’ll be barred from posting on mine). Wordpress is very user friendly!
I don’t see anyone trying to force an identity on another except Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and other black-identified folks. You seem to support the forced identification of your father as “black” and oppose the combination of mixed ancestry with a white identity. It is obvious that your paternal grandparents did not consider themselves “black,” but merely bowed to a racial stigma. A stigma is not a race or ethnicity and is not entitled to respect. Your father was right.
According to your book, you have no problem in combining whiteness with American Indian blood.
I received a copy of your book, Just One Drop, for a Christmas gift. I enjoyed it very much. My family is very racially mixed. Some of them lived in New Orleans during the 18th century as well.
In fact, we have a cabinet card of Lewis Broyard at about 18-24 months old which was taken back then. You are welcome to it if you want. Maybe it is time that it found its way back to your family. I know that it is him because his name is on the photo and he does resemble your father.
I’m not sure how this photo found its way to our boxes of family memories since we have no records of Broyards as family members.
But, so many records have been lost or forgotten…..who knows.
I hope this note reaches you. Email me and I will arrange to send this cabinet card to you. No cost, of course, just glad that it can finally find its way home.
I just finished your book. The history was helpful & written as an intellect. I found it very moving & disturbing. I wasn,t brought up with these sterotypes. So sorry for so suffering. Your book helped me understand your Dad. Be proud. Your Dad would be do proud of you.
I’ve had an interesting afternoon. I read an essay by Melissa Harris Lacewell (at The Nation’s website) about Pres. Obama checking the African American box on the census form, and one of the commenters referred to your father. A quick Wikipedia search led me to Henry Louis-Gates’ essay about him, which led me to you, which led me to this blog. And I am so very glad that it did. I’m sorry that it seems you have abandoned this project, but I’m headed out to get your book.