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Identity + Race Relations
Black Interraciality, One-Drop Rule, & the Mixed Race Identity Complex
On racial classification and their intricate impact on interracial families and children.
In a recent interview on The Cool Mom Code Podcast, actress Tia Mowry opened up about identifying as a Black woman despite her mixed-race identity. Mowry is the twin sister to Tamera Mowry, whose mother is of Afro-Bahamian descent and father is of English and Irish ancestry.
“I identify myself as a Black woman. My mother is Black. My mother is dark-skinned and I have seen and felt her struggles as being a Black woman. Of course, my dad is white, but I am an extension of my mother. So yes I am mixed-race, but I identify as a Black woman because that is how I am seen and viewed.”
Mowry also discussed growing up under the racial classification of the one-drop rule and how it helped her identify the purpose of representation in her community. The one-drop rule is a legal concept that asserts any person with one ancestor or one “drop” of African-American ancestry, is considered Black.
Although the concept originated prior, it became prominent in the 20th century, concerning those of mixed-race backgrounds. Between the practice of…
