Us can’t class off. We’s a mingled people.
In Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, a sad Black character deeply twisted by internalized racism clings to the illusion that facial features suggesting a Caucasian image makes her superior to Blacks with strongly African features. She tries to persuade the light skinned Janie to “class off” against their inferiors.
Janie’s reply is steeped in sadness: “Us can’t class off. We’s a mingled people.” (Quoting from memory—might be slightly inaccurate).
This quotation knocks me out every time I think of it. Of course, Janie is thinking of her African American people who have forged an enduring, inspiring cultural identity out of the result of centuries of white men enslaving and raping powerless African women. She reminds Hurston’s readers that her people include a wide range of genetic heritages, including those most despised by White stereotypes. Hurston was one of the very few Black writers of her time willing to look at colorism, a caste system favoring African Americans with White features, and to celebrate what we now honor as African American English as a language of glorious literary achievement.
Reading the passage as a White guy, however, I see the power of the other side of the coin. African Americans are a “mingled people.” But so are Whites! Every Black person with White ancestors IS ALSO RELATED TO WHITE PEOPLE! As most of us know, legal codes long relegated people with any “Black blood,” to, using the sad, old phrase, a Negro identity. The result was an enduring myopia in which white people literally cannot see that a person of mixed heritage also has White heritage. It isn’t just African Americans. ALL AMERICANS ARE A MINGLED PEOPLE!
Twelve years ago, we elected a Black President. But how often do we remember his White heritage? Barack Obama was just as much a White as a Black President. The racists can never see that he is one of them. Too often, we forget it as well.
So now we are all celebrating the nomination of a Black woman as VP. Let me just say that I am beyond thrilled. Sen. Harris (I am going to fondly say “Kamala” from now on as we say Joe, Barack and Hillary) was always my first choice among the Dem. candidates. I think she’s fantastic, I think she will lift Joe’s campaign, and I see her at the top of the ticket down the road.
But it strikes me that we should remember Janie’s reminder. We in the Democratic Party “is a mingled people.” And like Barak before her, Kamala is a mingled candidate. She is the first Black woman nominated for VP. …
She is also THE FIRST SOUTH ASIAN MAN OR WOMAN NOMINATED FOR VICE PRESIDENT!
Let’s try to remember that when we speak of her. Her mother was an immigrant from India, and her mother raised her and her ACLU civil rights lawyer sister. Let’s honor her and all the South Asian citizens who are as thrilled as Black women are.
There’s a vicious trope asking whether Kamala is “black enough.” Let’s turn that base meme on its head.
Kamala Harris is our Black, South Asian, woman candidate. And we’re damn proud of her.
Remember: we’s a mingled people!
[Edited to correct my egregious misspelling of Se. Harris first name. Thanks to Lovejoy for the heads up!]