Introduction
Race refers to the phenotypic appearance of an individual, which includes skin color, nose, and hair appearance. On the other hand, ethnicity refers to cultural factors such as nationality, religion, tribal affiliation, traditions, and language. This paper seeks to explore what impacts the differences in race and ethnicity cause. Race and ethnicity are intertwined; people of a particular race are likely to portray similar cultural traits. In the USA, during the slave trade, the whites were regarded as the supreme race with civilized ethnic characteristics. Intersexual sex or marriage was considered as moves that would lower human quality, threaten the existence of the white race and weaken the concentration of white power. The white people, who enjoyed a large junk of power, cooked a way to reduce racial and ethnic mingling, thus the genesis of the one-drop rule.
One Drop Rule Deployment
The one-drop rule encompasses a set of rules that had two aims; one was to block interracial cohabitation while the second desire was to put across the definition of a Negro. The rule defined a Negro as anyone “with…any negro blood whatever.” Regarding the identification of a Negro, the powerful race engineered blood fractional laws. The first blood law was in the year 1705 and was known as the one-eighth rule where one was considered black if one of their great grandparents was entirely of African decency. By 1910, twenty out of the forty-six states applied the one-eighth or one-fourth rule to define a Negro. Later on, appearance and behavior chipped in as a possible guideline in defining a Negro. The role of appearance is evidenced by the Guy v. Daniel case in which Abby Guy-a a slave, was granted freedom based on his behavior and appearance.
In curbing interracial cohabitation, the government at various levels engineered ways. One of the ways was sound whipping, as was the case of Hugh Davis in 1630. Davis was suspected of interracial sexual contact with one of his black slave women; he was whipped before an assembly of Negroes while being accused of dishonoring God and shaming Christianity. In Virginia State, for example, extramarital sex was regarded as a crime. Moreover, during Oliver Cromwell’s era, the penalty for interracial sex was increased in 1662 (Painter 2009). In 1691, the celebration of interracial matrimony was criminalized- a move which Maryland too adapted. Later on, interracial marriage was banned, but extramarital interracial sex between white men and black women was tolerated. By 1910, twenty-nine states prosecuted interracial marriage but not interracial sex. Despite Sexual contact between white men and black women being tolerated, the arising offspring were considered people to increase laborers’ pool but have their freedom limited.
Sexual contact between black men and white women was intolerable; such women were considered a disgrace to the white race and the entire nation, and having them enslaved was their punishment. In the reconstruction period, having a biracial child was regarded as evidence of a parental crime (Hill 2009). The prohibition of interracial marriage, fining of interracial fornication, and enslavement of children born of interracial marriages/sex all acted to preserve racial purity. Subsequently, the offspring of interracial sex became large despite the rules of the one-drop rule. The offspring were regarded as mulatto, and the supreme race threatened them that they would be sterile, which was untrue.
Conclusion
One’s race refers to one physical outlook, while ethnicity refers to their cultural identity. Race and ethnicity are tightly related, and the white people considered their race and ethnicity supreme, which made them enjoy privileges such as being a master rather than a slave. To protect their supremacy, they engineered the one-drop rule, which defines a Negro as anyone with black ancestry. The rule also sought to ban interracial sex and marriage for their supremacy to be protected.
References
Hill, J. H. (2009). The everyday language of white racism. John Wiley & Sons.
Painter, D. (2009). The everyday language of white racism, Jane H. Hill: book review. New Voices in Psychology, 5(1), 129-132.