Mixed Race: Social Stigma?

[mr beer]

Running a game set in 1920s US, starting in New York. What's the appropriate Social Stigma for a guy who would be termed a "mulatto" at the time? I think probably -2 but maybe it should be more like -1 in the North and -2 down South?

I know that being say, a Catholic or an Italian was a cause for prejudice at the time, so I assume a mulatto would come in for a hard time.

[David Johnston2]

A "mulatto" was treated just as a black person as long as they were visibly off-white. If your reference society is the United States in the 20s, I'd class it as Minority Group. If it was the west in general then you could reduce the stigma to a -1.

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A "mulatto" was treated just as a black person as long as they were visibly off-white. If your reference society is the United States in the 20s, I'd class it as Minority Group. If it was the west in general then you could reduce the stigma to a -1.

Sounds reasonable. I agree that they would be considered "black" for all significant purposes.

[Phantasm]

If the guy was light enough to pass for a southern European (Italian or Spanish) and called himself "white", that would be considered a Secret (Utter Rejection). Many mulattos tried that up until the '80s, IIRC, (when the children of the civil rights movement were starting to come into their own) with varying levels of success.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

If the guy was light enough to pass for a southern European (Italian or Spanish) and called himself "white", that would be considered a Secret (Utter Rejection). Many mulattos tried that up until the '80s, IIRC, (when the children of the civil rights movement were starting to come into their own) with varying levels of success.

But then he'd be assumed a Catholic, wouldn't he?

[Anders]

Wasn't there a "one drop of blood" rule? If you had one drop of "black" blood you were black, with all the joy (very little) and rights (very few) thereof.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Anders

Wasn't there a "one drop of blood" rule? If you had one drop of "black" blood you were black, with all the joy (very little) and rights (very few) thereof.

That's how it looks in the USA (or looked - I think things have improved slightly, since the 1920s), from where I'm sitting.

Other places, such as Latin America and perhaps even Apartheidt era South Africa, had a slightly more nuanced kind of racial discrimination.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

That's how it looks in the USA (or looked - I think things have improved slightly, since the 1920s), from where I'm sitting.

Other places, such as Latin America and perhaps even Apartheidt era South Africa, had a slightly more nuanced kind of racial discrimination.

Interestingly, the nuanced type of racism seems vastly tougher to do anything with. The USA is improving (it takes effort but you can prove things are better). But in much of Latin America the fuzzy nuanced nature of the local racism makes adressing the problem a little like nailing jello to the wall.

Worse, international efforts at reducing racism always get caught up in the simple fact that the USA doesn't want to go to the conferences. Mainly because we don't want to lectured about Selma and Jim Crow. And since the past sins of America are easier to deal with than ones own present days sins, America's past would dominate the forums.

Still, in most of America, being a Mulato in the 1920's was harsh. It was clearly more than a minus one. African American history has often described the 1890 to 1920 period as The Veil of Tears. This was the most intense period of racial bigotry in American History. The Twenties were also the period when the Ku Klux Klan was a national movement and was popular internationally too. Germany had Ku Klux Klaverns! So assume a steep stigma.

[Verjigorm]

Don't forget that Black Men(even lightskin black men) can't marry or date white women.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Anders

Wasn't there a "one drop of blood" rule? If you had one drop of "black" blood you were black, with all the joy (very little) and rights (very few) thereof.

That had it's own blowback. There was one story of a slaveowner who fathered an illegitimate only to find that manumiting him was illegal in the state. If one slave could be free someone might ask questions about why others should be slaves.

The real reason for racism(the old word racialism is a better word to distinguish race pseudoscience from mere prejudice) seems to have been that it wasn't a natural slave society the way Rome was and the Peculiar Institution always looked peculiar so someone had to come up with the idea that blacks were genetically inferior rather then just unlucky because after awhile it became a little bit difficult to enslave people one obviously thought to be men and brothers. It is a scientifically odd theory seeing as whites and blacks can interbreed and men and mules cannot.