abavus niger

(Krull via darklyeuphoric on tumblr)

     "Nor do I care e'en to know an thou be white or be black."

               --Catullus (tr Richard Burton)

As a present for my birthday, one of my wife's best friends (Michelle R.) used her genealogical website memberships to do some research on my own ancestry. She has discovered that, on my mother's side of the family (from Louisiana), i have a great-great-grandfather (the Romans had a word for this: abavus) who was "a black man married to a mulatto"--though their daughter listed on the census as white. Which is funny to me, seeing as how i have so much Scandinavian ancestry (pure Norwegian on my father's side) & i sunburn very easily. But i really would be more surprised if anyone from Louisiana (or the Deep South generally) didn't turn out to have "mixed" ancestors somewhere.

Of course, the concept of race itself, as we now know (or ought to) has zero scientific basis. There are only traits. Still, because i am a word-junkie, i observe that the language contains terms for the various pseudo-mathematical combinations of "black" & "white", leftovers from when that mattered. I thought i would find out what the designation for 1/16ths black would be, & add "sesqui-" (1 1/2), for my 3/32nds... (The official Latin expression for this is: vncia & dimidia sextila & scripvlvm, according to the Latin fraction generator website. Not a useful locution, though they did provide a set of symbols, which i can't reproduce here.) Now i can--8/20--:)

                                    (via)

That proved no easy thing. There was a French writer of the 18c.: Médéric-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry (thanx, Lauren!), & he apparently invented a racial taxonomy that differentiated combinations down to 1/128ths (over 7 generations), in his travel book on the pre-Haiti/Dominican Republic (the French western half of Hispaniola) (volume one here). The "free people of color" have an interesting history (written about by Anne Rice, among others, e.g. The Feast of All Saints) & include such writers as M. P. Shiel. An article on Wikipedia covers hypodescent, where i also learned that the 1/16th African (Moreau's "mamalouque" which he defines as ranging from 8 to 12/128ths black) was called mustefino or quintroon (i won't even consider hexadecaroon--). Which gives: sesquiquintroon. Nice reduplication there.

I see that these arcane topics are still wrixling some brows.

The deeper significance of this is twofold. First, Négritude--in the broadest sense, would be to acknowledge the Other in one's artistic practice, as much for Language poets to respect Cowboy poetry as for Caribbean francophone poets to adapt Surrealism to their post-colonial experience. And, though you may identify with one particular quartering of the rainbow, there will always be Others whose experience can enrich & enliven yours. Then, the concept of "passing" which exists in autism as well. --Undeniably useful, but is it right? For to benefit from privilege is to sanction the discrimination which is privilege's other face. Perhaps that day will come when the question whether one is neurotypical or autistic, & to what degree (counted in hemidemisemiquavers), will seem as ridiculous as to discriminate on the basis of ear length (long my favorite comparison).

Meanwhile...