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Halle Berry Cites 'One-Drop' Rule
Halle Berry Cites 'One-Drop' Rule in Battle Over Whether Her Daughter Is Black or White
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/halle-b...ry?id=12869789
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/halle-b...ry?id=12869789
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Halle Berry said she is in a war of words with her ex-partner, Gabriel Aubry, about their daughter's racial identity.
Berry, 44, is the daughter of a white mother, who was a psychiatric nurse, and a black father, who was a hospital attendant in the same ward. Aubry is French-Canadian and white.
The couple is in the middle of a bitter custody battle over their 2-year-old girl, Nahla.
"I feel she's black. I'm black and I'm her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory," Berry said in an interview with Ebony magazine.
The "one-drop" rule refers to Jim Crow laws passed in the South during the 20th century to further disenfranchise African Americans.
It varied from state to state, but generally, if a person had "one drop" of black blood, they were forbidden to pass as white.
"I'm not going to put a label on it. I had to decide for myself and that's what she's going to have to decide -- how she identifies herself in the world," Berry told Ebony. "What I think is that that's something she's going to have to decide."
"And I think, largely, that will be based on how the world identifies her. That's how I identified myself," she said. "But I feel like she's black."
Berry's remarks underscore an ongoing debate about racial identity in a country that is becoming much more multi-ethnic.
Halle Berry said she is in a war of words with her ex-partner, Gabriel Aubry, about their daughter's racial identity.
Berry, 44, is the daughter of a white mother, who was a psychiatric nurse, and a black father, who was a hospital attendant in the same ward. Aubry is French-Canadian and white.
The couple is in the middle of a bitter custody battle over their 2-year-old girl, Nahla.
"I feel she's black. I'm black and I'm her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory," Berry said in an interview with Ebony magazine.
The "one-drop" rule refers to Jim Crow laws passed in the South during the 20th century to further disenfranchise African Americans.
It varied from state to state, but generally, if a person had "one drop" of black blood, they were forbidden to pass as white.
"I'm not going to put a label on it. I had to decide for myself and that's what she's going to have to decide -- how she identifies herself in the world," Berry told Ebony. "What I think is that that's something she's going to have to decide."
"And I think, largely, that will be based on how the world identifies her. That's how I identified myself," she said. "But I feel like she's black."
Berry's remarks underscore an ongoing debate about racial identity in a country that is becoming much more multi-ethnic.
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