How do you authenticate race?

I am who I am. I am a black young woman. And I am sure that if I ever decided to trace my family tree, I would find that African descent is not my only lineage, but that discovery would not make me any less black or any less of anything else I could be. In Authenticating Race by Sarita Cannon, there is an ongoing  tug-a-war in the fight to prove that Afro-Native Americans are in fact Native Americans and should be included in their culture.

"In the past several years, cross-cultural dialogue between Blacks and Indians has

arisen in publics spaces throughout the United States, such as the 1998 conference ""Eadng

Out of the Same Pot': Relating Black and Native Histories" at Dartmouth

College, which was co-organized by Tiya Miles, a Assistant Professor of

American Culture, Afroamerican & African Studies, Native American Studies

at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. But interactions between African and Nadves

in the Americas were not always characterized by harmony and cooperation ("Authenticating Race").

Although, African Americans and Native Americans have gotten along in the pass because of their similar struggles under tyranny, they continue to perpetuate segregation and discrimination. I believe the reason Native Americans do not want to be affiliated with African Americans or Afro-Native Americans is because of the negative social stigma that is in association with African Americans. African Americans are treated as second class citizens and have countless negative stereotypes. A part of me can understand why Native Americans want "blood proof" in order for the Afro-Native Americans to accpet their membership into their tribe. But I also think it is wrong to prevent someone from trying to embrace their own culture.

Above is an image of Native Americans working among African Americans. This was why they began to interact and "interbreed." Since the days of slavery, there has been the existence of Afro- Native Americans. Being an Afro-Native American is just as valid as being an African American or Native American and should be accepted as such.

Works Cited

Tiya Miles, "Preface: Eadng Out of the Same Pot?" in Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country, edited by Tiya Miles and Sharon P. Holland (Duke University Press, 2006), xv.

 http://www.freewebs.com/black-legacy/UNDERGROUND-RR.jpg