No, they do not understand what goes on in America as concerns race -and they have no reason to care.
They have their own issues so they are wondering why you know understand the big deal things going on in their country? If you try to explain - they will look at you like you are crazy.
If you are American .. that trumpts everything but you misunderstand . This happens because the Europeans are 'Nationalists' whereas the American's are ... 'Racists'. Meaning to the Europeans your NATIONALITY ... no matter where you are from .. trumps your RACE.
Visiting is one thing but living here such that you have to function everyday .. if different. I did a lot of visiting before I moved too. I have been living and traveling in Europe - different countries Belgium, The Netherlands, France and the UK for the last 13 years and in my experience when people see someone that looks like Halle Berry - yes, they can tell that she is mixed probably Black and White. However, they respect BOTH parts of her heritage
Meaning she is as much Black ... as she is White. She is not expected to favour her father's race (Black) and reject her mother's race (White). She is 'mixed'. They do not see her as Black - flat out though.
The 'one drop' thing does not exist over here ... in general. I say in 'in general' because there always people that see being Black as a kind of contaminent. So the minute they have a drop of Black in them they are poof - Black - but I have known a lot of people like this and in general, they themselves and other people do not consider themselves 'Black' if they are half Black. That is an American construct.
I know one woman from Venezuela (color problems big time over there) who married a British guy and her mixed children have taken different paths. The son looks more like Obama but only dates White women and her daugher looks a little darker than Mariah Cary - but she only dates Black guys. Her daughter is screwy in the head about her color too but that's her crazy mother's influence. I try to avoid that family. Her mother brought all that color mess from her home county ... over here... so she is paranoid. Now her son .. he just ignores her color issues and lives a happy life doing exactly what he wants to do. Hee hee!
(If I tell someone that Mariah Cary is Black though you really can't tell ... they will not believe me and will think I have problem with claiming everrrryone that has some tiny lineage of Black - as being .. Black. I try to explain that she herself sees herself as Black and again they think that's crazy so then after a while these people start to believe
THAT I HAVE some kind of color problem.
So I give up I don't talk about American color issues anymore. )
In my experience ... these people are known as mixed. Could be Asian (South Asia - meaning Indian) and Black, could be White and Asian, could be Columbian and Egyptian ... ummm could be a lotttt of different sorts of mixing that have nothing to do with Black but they are all known as 'mixed' and then the person explains what they are mixed with and ... that's it.
Mixed.
Edited by Printer_Ink - Mar 03 2013 at 6:31am
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Naturalchick30 wrote:
