Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Massachusetts

I don't know if this is even a Civil Rights Law or not.

Please settle an office debate. If a person is 25% Irish, 25% Italian, 25% Native American, 25% African American, what would they legally be considered for the purpose of filling out a document that requires this information? I was told in the late 1970's that ''By law you are what your father is''. So, in the above case, if a person's father was 1/2 African American and 1/2 Native American, and His paternalGrandfather was African american and his paternal grandmother was Native American, then HE would be African American. Is this true?


Asked on 11/17/05, 2:22 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Barbara C. Johnson Law Office of Barbara C. Johnson

Re: I don't know if this is even a Civil Rights Law or not.

If a person is 25% Irish, 25% Italian, 25% Native American, 25% African American, that person is 25% Irish, 25% Italian, 25% Native American, 25% African American for ALL PURPOSES.

If a father is 50% African American and 50% Native American, he is 50% AA AND 50%NA.

There used to be man-made laws that said if any Negroid "blood," then the person was a Negro. Ignore those laws. They were for bigots. You are what you are.

We now use DNA and mtDNA for genealogical purposes. Stick with the new and forget the old. The entire world is one mulatto pile. None of us are all of "one thing."

There are, many if not most genealogists conclude, NO RACES as those perceived in the past. There is just ONE HUGE RACE.

All daughters of Eve, for instance, have a little SubSaharan background. Native Americans have East Asian. I have a mtDNA from maternal grandmother from Lithuania who had a Native American component. How, because some of her people traveled across Asia and down through Alaska into the Americas, taking there genetic oomposition with them, which still matched to her genetic composition. Until she came to the USA, she had never left Lithuania. We are all mulattoes, including the people in your office, whether or not they want to believe it. Tell them to get DNA and mtDNA tested.

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Answered on 11/17/05, 3:42 pm


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