I have never liked the term "breeding" when speaking of human beings. It strikes me as "plantation" terminology. I rarely (if ever) hear this term applied to white relationships and families. It has the stench of racist language applied to Black people and/or animals.
As an Afrikan woman, my natural reflection would be an Afrikan man. INI celebrate Black Love and The Black Family, first and foremost.
Using Ethiopia and HIM as examples of "black purity" falls short, for as sistren JC mentions, Ethiopia has a long history of inter racial bloodlines. Their phenotypes are a result of both environment/climate AND interactions with non Afrikans. I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain to people that HIM is not an Arab, or Indian, but an AFRIKAN. To those who do not know HIM, he is often assumed to be everything but Afrikan!
We all know that Marcus Garvey and the early Rasta elders forbid interracial relations...Though truth be told, there is little evidence that Rasta adheres to this. Just go to any Reggae festival and take a good look around! It is DISPROPORTIONATELY interracial!
I recommend reading the Sex and Race series by J.A Rogers, who beautifully demonstrates that long before slavery and the Afrikan Holocaust, people have historically mixed with each other.
Who can claim to be pure anything? I dare suspect that not too many people can. What is our barometer when defining Black People? Anything less then what percentage? Anything more or less then what degree of melanin? We are the most beautifully varied people on Earth! And we have been long before mixing with others!
YOU CANNOT DEFINE AN AFRIKAN BY ANY PARTICULAR COMPLEXION, EYE COLOR, FEATURE OR HAIR TYPE!
WE ARE THE PARENTS OF ALL HUMANITY.
That being said, though INI acknowledge LOVE in whatever form, some of us have chosen to have a cultural responsibility to choose BLACK LOVE and family.
In I life, trodding on several continents and among different cultures and peoples, I have come across the darkest of Black people who have been conditioned to be traitors to INI, and light skinned Afrikans who valiantly throw themselves on the front lines of the Afrikan battle for liberation. I know a Jamaican Rasta sistren who grew up being affectionately referred to as "whitey".....but hear me good when I tell you that this Sistah is a MIGHTY AND FIERCE warrior!!!! AO!!!!
Look at Phil Valentine! The brothah can surely pass for white! Yet he is active in the Afrikan Liberation movement. Look at Marley, Elijah Mohammed, Haile Selassie I, even Malcolm! (his mother was "mixed")
I'd rather have an Angela Davis type on the battlefield next to me....then a dark skinned uncle Tom.
I have seen nuff confused interracial children, yes. But I have also seen equally confused black children with 2 black parents.
I am not promoting interracial relations. Do not misoverstand. I'm simply demonstrating that at the end of the day, Mama Afrika stretches forth her hand (genes) to all parts of our world, in various degrees and shades. And that BLACKNESS cannot be measured and weighed by any percentage of melanin, but by CONSCIOUSNESS and WORKS towards Afrikan Liberation.
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