one-drop rule
Any African, fully Black
The one-drop rule is a principle of racial classification holding that any person with any Black African ancestry—even "one drop of blood"—is Black.
This standard shaped American slavery laws, Jim Crow segregation, and anti-miscegenation statutes.
Though no longer legally enforced, it continues to influence how race is understood and self-identified in the United States: Under the one-drop rule, someone who appeared white could still be classified as Black.
Ancestral proportion for tribal enrollment
- quadroonOne-quarter Black ancestry
- octoroonOne-eighth Black person
- mulattoMixed-race person, archaic
- lineageDescent from progenitors
descent · bloodline · genetic ancestry · biracial · triracial · mixed-race · creole · casta
Doctrine of racial superiority
- racial purityIdeology of ethnic exclusivity
- racial hierarchyRanking groups by ancestry
- eugenicsControlled human reproduction theory
- scientific racismPseudoscience justifying ethnic hierarchy
miscegenation · social Darwinism · ethnocentrism · nativism · segregationist · supremacist
Before a war's start
- slaveryOwnership of people
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
chattel slavery · slaveholder · manumission · freedmen · abolitionism · racial violence · lynching · Great Migration
Grouping by ancestry or ethnicity
- legal doctrineEstablished rule of law
- antimiscegenationOpposing cross-racial unions
- inheritance lawsLegal rules for bequests
- Plessy v. FergusonRuling allowing racial separation
Jim Crow laws · court ruling · citizenship · civil rights · equal protection · constitutional law · segregation laws
Moving by or temporary
- racial identityPerceived ancestral group membership
- colorismBias based on complexion
- racializationAssigning people racial identities
- self-identificationClaiming an identity label
racial ambiguity · code-switching · social identity · phenotype · skin color · hair texture
blood quantum
Ancestral proportion for tribal enrollment
lineage · descent · bloodline · genetic ancestry · biracial · triracial · mixed-race · creole · casta · kinship
white supremacy
Doctrine of racial superiority
- racial purityIdeology of ethnic exclusivity
- racial hierarchyRanking groups by ancestry
- eugenicsControlled human reproduction theory
scientific racism · miscegenation · social Darwinism · ethnocentrism · nativism · segregationist · supremacist
antebellum
Before a war's start
- slaveryOwnership of people
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- reconstructionRebuilding after destruction
emancipation · chattel slavery · slaveholder · manumission · freedmen · abolitionism · racial violence · lynching · Great Migration
racial classification
Grouping by ancestry or ethnicity
- legal doctrineEstablished rule of law
- antimiscegenationOpposing cross-racial unions
- inheritance lawsLegal rules for bequests
Plessy v. Ferguson · Jim Crow laws · court ruling · citizenship · civil rights · equal protection · constitutional law · segregation laws
passing
Moving by or temporary
- racial identityPerceived ancestral group membership
- colorismBias based on complexion
- racializationAssigning people racial identities
self-identification · racial ambiguity · code-switching · social identity · phenotype · skin color · hair texture
- oppressionoppression, tyranny, racism, repression, secret police
- pseudosciencehomeopathy, astrology, phrenology, numerology, palmistry
one-drop rulemixed-race identity
Having ancestors from different races
blood quantum · self-identification · biracial identity · colorism · passing
one-drop ruleracial integration
Unifying separated ethnic groups
color-blindness · casta system · anti-racism · creolization · racial harmony
dropping, droplet, dropout, oneness, onerous, onetime, one-liner, drop in the bucket