Just what does it mean to be Black in America? Louisiana Republicans want the courts to recognize people who say they are all black or black and part white as the new Black in America.
Strange as it may seem, that’s the heart of the issue Louisiana Republicans in the case of Ardoin v. Robinson. Louisiana Republicans want the Supreme Court to decide to narrow the definition of who can be counted as black. There are just too many people calling themselves Negroes and it threatens white power in Louisiana.
It’s a strange Dejavu for African-Americans because our citizenship and rights have been kicked around, changed, and altered for over 200 years.
It began with the U.S. Constitution, which initially declared that for the purpose of representation in Congress that slaves were only one-fifth of a man. If Southerners were allowed to count slaves on their plantations as whole human beings, they would have higher representation in Congress, so it took five blacks to count as one white man. Wow!
Afterward, the game changed, especially in the South. Louisiana passed strict laws that forbid blacks from certain activities, using a “traceable amount” test to determine blackness in Louisiana. Generally, if a person had one black ancestor seven or more generations back, that person was considered black, even if their skin color, hair, and features were undeniably white.
That meant people such as New Orleans Mayor Dutch Morial and Monroe’s first Black Mayor, George Hamlet were legally black, even though their appearance was as white as snow.
In 1970, Louisiana tried to correct this flawed definition by passing a law that said, “a person having one-thirty second or less of Negro blood shall not be deemed, described or designated by any public official in the state of Louisiana as ‘colored,’ a ‘mulatto,’ a ‘black,’ a ‘negro,’ a ‘griffe,’ an ‘Afro-American,’ a ‘quadroon,’ a ‘mestizo,’ a ‘colored person’ or a ‘person of color.’ ”
It effectively erased the 1/8th rule. However, that law didn’t last long. In 1983 it was repealed, and Louisiana reverted to its traditional “traceable amount” rule. In essence, you can look white, but if anybody in your bloodline, seven grandparents back, was just a little bit black….you are a Negro, colored, mulatto or spook.
Times have changed, and citizens are now allowed to “self-identify.” Barack Obama, who is half white and half black, chose to self-identify as Black. Golfer Tiger Woods, who looks very black, has chosen not to legally identify as Black but rather as a “Cablinasian” because he’s part black, white, Indian, and Asian.
The 2020 Census allowed citizens to self-identify as Black or mixtures of Black and white, Black and Latino. It meant that mix-raced folks who identified as blacks were counted as blacks.
Based on the 2020 census, Blacks in Louisiana are 38 percent of the Louisiana population, and the state’s Black leaders say we should have two of the state’s six congressional seats.
That’s the issue that Louisiana Republicans are fighting. They want “black” to mean only include people who checked off either just the “Black” box or both “Black” and “White” and did not identify as Latino on the 2020 census.
Now that Blacks use the old “traceable amount” rule to our advantage, the Republicans want to change the rule and narrow the definition of blackness.
What’s interesting is that Section 2 of the voting rights act doesn’t focus on blackness but on “identifiable minorities.” Either way, Republicans want only one of its six house seats to go to persons of color.
The Republican action won’t give the state increased representation in Congress; it’ll just reduce the number of Negroes in our state delegation.
How can we see that as anything other than a racist action?
