You Can Tell In The Rice

The dilemma of being biracial. There are questions about the “pureness” of sides. This construct is a technique of white supremacy to maintain tiered levels of inequality. The idea that you’re not able to “claim” fullness of one ethnic group perpetuates the white supremacy tactic of divide and concur. As I was researching the histories of blood quantum theory, an academic article Justifying Blood Quantum as Sui Generis Tribal/State Law? By Pamela D. Palmater caught my attention. I find a few important elements in Palmater’s article, which we must consider when thinking about “race” and how this affects bi-racial and multi-racial individuals in relation to state sanctioned laws and how this creates ideological racism and social racial norms in our society. How do we then trust, especially for BIPOC folx, our governing body to not rely on pseudo-science, eugenics and phrenology to continue white domination and tiered levels of racial inequalities?