What, or who, is Black? [View all]

[TreasonousBastard]

I know this has been brought up in many different ways over the years, but I have to apologize for having some confusion remaining.

One of my favorite TV shows is Larry Wilmore's Nightly Show. He talks a lot about being black, but I wouldn't know if he didn't tell me. Same with Robin Thede. Granted that skin color is not the defining characteristic, but what is?

I have no intention of arguing with either of them, but how or why do they choose black? And since our President is mixed race, why is he automatically black, not white? Why are some light-skinned mixed race people dismissed as "passing"?

I hope I'm not opening some raw wounds here, but I am genuinely flummoxed about this. It seems to have a lot to do with history and seeing the descendants of slaves as a group separate from Africans, or black Hispanics. A cultural distinction more than a strictly racial one. Perhaps also some pride in being a part of a group. Oppressed rather than oppressor?

Many of us grew up in the days of legalized racism and my mother told me she was mortified when as a small child I saw my first black person and exclaimed "Look at the chocolate man." Apparently, my mother spent some time apologizing to him. There are scars from those days that can't be erased and how much of what remains of those days still haunts our choices?