Walter White, the "Voluntary Negro"

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  • Опубліковано 29 лис 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 903

  • @nytn
    @nytn  4 місяці тому +59

    Purchase Walter White's book here: amzn.to/3Wnc6a4
    or read the first chapter for free here:
    www.google.com/books/edition/A_Man_Called_White/E941yjPRAQEC?hl=en
    Listen to the library of congress recording here:
    www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/multimedia/walter-white.html

    • @catherinedavis1241
      @catherinedavis1241 4 місяці тому +5

      This is the first video that made me cry! My sadness for him when his father was in the so called yt hospital getting treated but subsequently, they snatched him from there and admitted him into a so called black hospital where he didn't get treated and died; that did it for me!

    • @Tethloach1
      @Tethloach1 4 місяці тому +1

      Walter White = breaking bad tv series

    • @NiKiMa023
      @NiKiMa023 4 місяці тому +1

      @@Tethloach1ma’am, not this time

    • @lorettahawkins1645
      @lorettahawkins1645 4 місяці тому

      If white peoples' skin is the color of snow, then they can call themselves "white". Otherwise, they're people of color like the rest of the human race.

    • @clementmckenzie7041
      @clementmckenzie7041 4 місяці тому +2

      As you are reading this, remember Lola was alive when all of this was happening. Kinda informs her choices doesn't it. Did she have another safe choice? Was there a choice that would not have put her husband's life in jeopardy?

  • @jarredf30
    @jarredf30 4 місяці тому +180

    I'm creole but I look like Walter White and so did both of my parents. I understand all this and have experienced this. My parents had to attend segregated schools and whatnot and my dad told me he would sometimes drink from the "white" water fountain or attend white restaurants when he was out of town or in a place where no one knew who he was or who his family was. He never got in trouble for doing that and it kinda taught him about what nonsense these ideas about race really are. He and myself are very oftem mistaken for white and he kinda learned to laugh at that late in life. Especially peoples suprise when they found out he wasn't. A few years ago I held his hand at his deathbed as he died and a few weeks later i got his death certificate and the doctor marked him as white on the certificate!!! 😂😂 I like to think he was somewhere up above and had a laugh about that.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +21

      Oh my gosh, I laughed and teared up with this one

    • @jarredf30
      @jarredf30 4 місяці тому +20

      @nytn Btw....a little off topic but didn't I hear you say you were related to prof. Andrew Jolivette in another video?? If so, then we might be related. My father who I spoke of in that comment was first cousins with prof. Andrew Jolivettes father. Both were very white passing creole men. I think that makes Jolivette my second cousin?? I think. I know we share 2 of the same great grandparents. Anyway I love your channel and think it's neat that you may be a distant relative if you are related to him. It's a very small world. Lol!

    • @SimplyQuintessa
      @SimplyQuintessa 4 місяці тому

      You are white…season it all you want but you are mostly white, so was Walter and so is this girl. I am majority African 20% white but look black, so I understand the struggle but yours ain’t ours

    • @KoolKats5
      @KoolKats5 4 місяці тому +10

      Thank you for sharing your story. It illustrates how ridiculous our segregation of people based on outward appearance actually is. We should all learn how to be color blind.🩶

    • @malwads1836
      @malwads1836 3 місяці тому

      ​@@KoolKats5Not color-blind....But to actually APPRECIATE the rich tapestry that is humanity with all of our fascinating differences🌞👍🏻👍🏻.🤍🖤🤎💛❤️‍🩹

  • @DarkStar-ng5nl
    @DarkStar-ng5nl 3 місяці тому +24

    My brother and I grew up in Ocean Beach, California. Our father was white. Our mother black. Our parents were married the year interracial marriages were legalized. I was born in 72. Our story is unique to Southern California. We surfed, fished, hiked the mountains. You have given me inspiration to perhaps write down the tale of two mixed kids raised in a hippie beach town during the 70s. Thank you.

    • @andeeanko7079
      @andeeanko7079 3 місяці тому +5

      Please write your story! ❤🙏

  • @tyronebrewer3219
    @tyronebrewer3219 4 місяці тому +223

    When my daughter was pregnant with my grandson, she was asked by her boyfriend's sister was tripping out over what my grandson look like because her father was black, I told her it doesn't matter what he looks like as long as he is healthy nothing else matters to me.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +58

      A healthy baby is a gift and a miracle always!

    • @gejost
      @gejost 4 місяці тому +16

      You would not have been lying if you had claimed that he would be deeply loved and he would be handsome. I hate racism. Our genetic markers should be curiosities. It is cool you look like your dad in this way and your mom in that.

    • @dekishajones282
      @dekishajones282 4 місяці тому +2

      Unfortunately, that does not help

    • @dplj4428
      @dplj4428 4 місяці тому +3

      Some couples choose to not have children because they don't want them to face the nastiness of haters. And the confusion-driven hate can come from any and everyone who fear those who do not look or sound like them.

    • @cindyhawkins6238
      @cindyhawkins6238 4 місяці тому +7

      Same story as the Royal Family asking Harry the same. Despicable.

  • @maryconte4474
    @maryconte4474 4 місяці тому +39

    I think Walter White was incrediably brave and highly principaled. I fully understand why he identified as a black man. The story of his father's demise was heart breaking. Thank you for sharing his story.

    • @dontbelongherefromanother
      @dontbelongherefromanother 3 місяці тому

      I believe Walter White and their parents were racially misclassified. This happened a lot during certain eras in history when whites and natives were misclassified as negro.

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      He came from a strong family who considered themselves to be Black. If it was me I would take the easy road.

  • @rebeccamd7903
    @rebeccamd7903 4 місяці тому +87

    I’m Melungeon from all 4 of my dad’s grandparents. 2 were easily white passing and 2 were questionable. My great grandmother paid the ultimate price of loosing her daughter and then her own life to ovarian cancer from the chemical straighteners. Sadly, everyone in the community she lived in still knew she wasn’t actually white. My maternal grandmother said my dad came from good Negro people and was willing to concede to a marriage. My life was marked with racist comments by my mother’s family and it hurt. I wear my heritage like a badge of honor because my ancestors survived 400 years of oppression and made me who I am today. I look at my daughters and see how beautiful they are inside and out and wouldn’t have it any other way. I am a blessed woman!! 🥰

    • @D13Nword
      @D13Nword 4 місяці тому

      Karen...you're as White as the rest of us...

    • @Acopdorchies
      @Acopdorchies 4 місяці тому +5

      God bless you.

    • @JulieMontrose-cr4lj
      @JulieMontrose-cr4lj 4 місяці тому

      We have all been oppressed, it has absolutely nothing to do with the color of your skin. We have been divided intentionally by luciferian race that are reptilians. They are not even human. I have been hated, stalked and they tried to take my life. It's about 100 people literally having control over the world! The truth is coming. Praise God

    • @Lokian_Mermaid
      @Lokian_Mermaid 3 місяці тому +8

      I'm Biracial/multi-racial and I also love it. My father was black but also white and Native American, which is common for American black ppl. I "pass as white" but I don't care. I love all of my DNA. (My mother is first Gen Hungarian and we have Asian ancestry that is very noticeable in me and my daughter).
      I feel blessed, my DNA has always felt like a gift. ❤️

    • @code-52
      @code-52 3 місяці тому +1

      You must be from East Tennessee. Hello cuz!

  • @thumbstruck
    @thumbstruck 4 місяці тому +137

    We are here because our forbears were here. If we could all go back and meet each generation of ancestors, we would be proud, and horrified by what we find. The dignity comes from the positive, responsible, loving attitudes and actions that people have manifested. Like my Dad used to say, "If you can't learn how to do something from someone, you can at least learn how not to do it." History is for our instruction.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +15

      Your dad sounds great. 😊

    • @thumbstruck
      @thumbstruck 4 місяці тому +8

      @@nytn he was.

    • @AmScEn
      @AmScEn 4 місяці тому +6

      but, yet, yt racism is the biggest problem we have---

    • @rroadmap
      @rroadmap 3 місяці тому +7

      Racism is just one of the manifestations of the wickedness of the human heart. We all need to see each other as made in the image of God.

    • @malwads1836
      @malwads1836 3 місяці тому +1

      Your father was a very wise man for saying that🦉👍🏻.

  • @brahmabkitty03
    @brahmabkitty03 4 місяці тому +56

    Kudos to him for not taking the easy way out

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      He got into strife with his family because he married a White South African woman as his second wife. They called him a race traitor.

  • @tarriegibson1193
    @tarriegibson1193 4 місяці тому +17

    I love that you have shared these issues. My great grandmother also went white. She lived her life on her brother's allotment of land at the confederated tribes of the Umatilla. After a bad marriage and divorce, she got pregnant with my grandfather ,whom we don't know who his father was. For some reason he didn't stay with her,but when he was 6,she married a white man who was an attorney and she got my grandfather back when he was 6.🙂 They had already sterilized her so she could no longer have any more children, bit her and her new husband raised my grandfather an only but loved child. 😁 I wouldn't be here without all those very specific events and I also feel a strong connection to her strength. But I also will never disregard her and our identity as indigenous survivors. We come from treatie signers and people who did what they had to do for our survival. I hope people understand that who we are is more than how we look,but I love your seriously needed today,open dialog. 🙂❤ I wasn't sure about you at first, but you rock....😄😁👊

  • @pilar8ful
    @pilar8ful 4 місяці тому +109

    Well in my opinion Danielle, you were probably more likely surprised that with such a small percentage of African blood he would choose to be black instead of white passing like your grandmother. However, it was the experience of his life that caused him to choose to take the harder route to make a difference for those that came after him. It was a choice for lighter skin folks, a hard choice but a choice all the same. I judge none of it.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +25

      It definitely made me think about what I would do.

    • @vangoghsotherear4114
      @vangoghsotherear4114 4 місяці тому +39

      My family is one of those who chose black and I am a darkskinned black woman as a result two generations later. However many of my cousins and even my own siblings have european features. My best friend growing up was a distant cousin who is a proctor from southern maryland. People refused to believe we were related or had the same mix of black, white, and indigenous because of our different appearance but we knew we would attend the same family reunions and all the people there would look all different colors. all of them identified as black and that's how we all see ourselves. I see people who don't get it but they simply don't understand the legacy of slavery. Those who pass in history are complex. some did it to benefit from whiteness and own slaves or gain freedom. Some used it to be free and purchase their family's freedom. Some used their ability to pass to infiltrate white spaces and help advance the black race. My bestie used to always fill me in on who was a closet racist to protect me growing up.

    • @ninasimone3765
      @ninasimone3765 4 місяці тому +6

      We must choose a side no way around it

    • @republiccooper
      @republiccooper 4 місяці тому +4

      ​@ninasimone3765 in the United States of America. Not in many, far I say "most" other parts of the world.

    • @SmartieSSmartie
      @SmartieSSmartie 4 місяці тому +9

      ​@ninasimone3765 19:57
      I really hope that someday we don't have to choose one side or the other....that our life experiences can be more in synch...and that we can accept that we are a flower garden of colors who are all human...
      I hear a statistic that roughly 10% of people who identify as white in America who have Southern roots have an 'non-white' ancester. DNA testing is uncovering these roots or proving what many people suspected about their family background.
      So, according to the one drop rule..many white identifying people are technically not white . Their family stories are so much more complex. To be designed as just white doesn't capture the full complexity of their family experiences.

  • @starfishjennie
    @starfishjennie 3 місяці тому +29

    I’m white, but my Mother brought me up to respect Black women and for that, I’m grateful

    • @malwads1836
      @malwads1836 3 місяці тому +3

      Same here.My mother actually encouraged me to be exposed to different types of people & I still remember being a little girl 👀 Gullah Gullah Island, listening to 🎶 from Destiny's Child, etc...I 💭 positive early exposure to different ethnicities & cultures is 1 of the best ways to reduce racism because it helps nip it in the bud before it gets the chance to get started.

    • @josephr2369
      @josephr2369 2 місяці тому +1

      Your mother raised you right. I am a black man and I am so happy your mother taught you love and not hate. Its so important. Besides when you respect other cultures and you are exposed to different ethnicities, your life becomes so much richer! Think of all the amazing food, music and culture you get to enjoy. Its part of celebrating life.

  • @JesusPrice
    @JesusPrice 4 місяці тому +59

    I've seen the nasty talk that you've been getting but, I see the knowledge that you have been sharing and I think that it is important so I've subscribed. Thank you.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +20

      I appreciate that, I figure if people don’t get angry at what you’re saying maybe you’re not telling enough of the truth, right?

    • @JesusPrice
      @JesusPrice 4 місяці тому +8

      @@nytn indeed☝🏾🖤

    • @mimialexandral
      @mimialexandral 4 місяці тому +4

      @@nytnYes! Keep doing what you're doing! History & research to uncover the truth are fundamental to living authentically! 😊💕🙏🏽

    • @JesusPrice
      @JesusPrice 4 місяці тому +1

      @@mimialexandral 💯

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      When you talk about race you'll get a lot of good and bad comments. It's sort of taboo.

  • @davidburkes9513
    @davidburkes9513 4 місяці тому +377

    It's a very hard job being Black. No weekends No vacation No sleep just work. Still we rise.
    This comment is about Walter White and the job he chose. If anyone chooses this job, it's hard, and there's a tax.

    • @phyllissowhat
      @phyllissowhat 4 місяці тому +10

      🖤

    • @jahbless4ever
      @jahbless4ever 4 місяці тому +10

      Or don't live in predominantly white areas.

    • @davidburkes9513
      @davidburkes9513 4 місяці тому +25

      It's actually easier in the predominantly white areas, healthier food, clean air, no lead in the water, better schools.

    • @jahbless4ever
      @jahbless4ever 4 місяці тому

      @@davidburkes9513 Yes, but it comes with the racism and the harassment. How about live in a nice non white nation.

    • @jahbless4ever
      @jahbless4ever 4 місяці тому +8

      @@davidburkes9513 Ok, which also includes racism. There are good non white areas in US and outside the US. Do your research.

  • @seanguillory973
    @seanguillory973 4 місяці тому +32

    I’m a Guillory from south Louisiana and my father is always confused as white until he speaks

  • @intellectualnapalm_fba
    @intellectualnapalm_fba 4 місяці тому +59

    His first brush with mob violence created the militant he became. He was HBCU educated and in his earlier years, he looked far more like a light-skinned black man. His story is fascinating.
    I will say this. Some chose not to pass because the penalty for passing, in some areas of the country, was (essentially) death.
    There was significant risk in what Danielle’s grandmother chose to do. As a biracial (Black) man, I’m mixed in my feelings about those who chose to pass, but the choice was not for the faint of heart.
    And the pregnant woman’s lynching he investigated was Mary Turner. The lynched her upside down, cut the baby out of her stomach, while she was still alive, and when the baby cried out, one of the men stomped the baby to death. Her crime was complaining about the lynching of her husband the day prior…
    Who are/were the true savages?

    • @josiebooth4670
      @josiebooth4670 4 місяці тому

      He looks like any White (European) man you see today.
      He was raised culturally Black instead of White.
      If he was raised culturally White you would never know he had any other heritage.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +23

      Thank you for giving me that woman's name, I wanted to look into Mary's story, but I have been dreading it. The weight of evil can be so overwhelming, you could suffocate. I do believe God is all seeing and will wipe away every tear and set all things right. I dont know how he will, but Im believing it.

    • @Speedkid
      @Speedkid 4 місяці тому

      The one thing I know about God, based on what he allows, is he hates Black people.

    • @batya7
      @batya7 4 місяці тому +12

      @intellectualnapalm_fba Horrified by your revelation. Yes, men reduced to worse than animals; they acted without conscience AND murdered wantonly. May the souls of Mary, her husband, and baby be blessed.

    • @freethinkinmelanin6795
      @freethinkinmelanin6795 4 місяці тому +6

      They truly moved like the devil.

  • @dawnanderson4967
    @dawnanderson4967 4 місяці тому +112

    I love being black. ❤☺️

    • @D13Nword
      @D13Nword 4 місяці тому +4

      I love being White ❤😊

    • @valritz3100
      @valritz3100 4 місяці тому

      ​@@D13Nword Really

    • @deloreswillis9224
      @deloreswillis9224 4 місяці тому +6

      ME 2❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💋💋💋💋💋

    • @NoName-up1px
      @NoName-up1px 4 місяці тому

      I love that I left america. It's laughable that the population in america believe humans are "white" or " black". It's a social construct. But I know you can't tell americans that. The social engineering/ cultural programming are deep in the states. "Black"/ "white" aren't even accurate descriptions of human flesh tones.

    • @brandysmith-n3g
      @brandysmith-n3g 4 місяці тому +3

      So do I

  • @Rebecca-le9hn
    @Rebecca-le9hn 4 місяці тому +53

    It's sad that if you Google Walter White, a fictional character from a TV series comes up first, even in Google Images.
    Another interesting person is Belle Marion Greener aka Belle da Costa Greene. She was an African American who passed for white. She was also the personal librarian of J.P. Morgan. Her mother and sisters also passed but the father/husband did not, he moved away from them.
    And there's John Howard Griffin, the author of the book (made into a movie) "Black Like Me" is the true story of a white man who darkened his skin and travelled throughout the South.
    The take away to White's book may be that he knew who he was and was proud of it.

    • @chakagomez8129
      @chakagomez8129 4 місяці тому +4

      i read that bbok "Black Like Me" when i was 10 years old. it was a real eye-opener

    • @jusletursoulglobaby
      @jusletursoulglobaby 4 місяці тому +4

      I saw the movie Black Like Me when I was young. It confused me. As an adult, I read the book and it frustrated me. I wish he would have drawn his conclusions in consultation with a black author, sociologist or archeologist.

    • @jusletursoulglobaby
      @jusletursoulglobaby 4 місяці тому +2

      @@Mimi-ht6xr not a habit fam

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      Interesting, I looked her up. She didn't look White. Did she pass or just let peopld assume she is White. That's two different things. There is some literary man who posed as a Jewish American yet he was African American, can't remember his name.

    • @Rebecca-le9hn
      @Rebecca-le9hn Місяць тому

      You might be thinking of Anatole Broyard​. His daughter didn'tknow about her fathers heritage until he died. She wrote a book, "One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life, A Story of Race and Family Secrets,"@Ponto-zv9vf

  • @linusthexy6245
    @linusthexy6245 4 місяці тому +73

    It was insanely sick people who came up with this color coded classification structure. Then again, exiled European prisoners colonized the lands on which these atrocities occurred.

    • @Rebecca-le9hn
      @Rebecca-le9hn 4 місяці тому +13

      Two good books on the topic of the type of folks who populated America are, "White Cargo" the forgotten history of Britian's White Slaves in America by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh and "White Trash" The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg.

    • @bardnightingale
      @bardnightingale 4 місяці тому

      I think you are confusing USA with Australia. Australia was colonized by exiled criminal Europeans. United States was built by greed, thievery and a people who felt that, their white skin gave them the right to take from the darker skinned natives who were here before and then found even darker human to enslave and use to make them rich in this "new world."
      Is it any wonder that today there are still people who must discriminate based on color, no matter the color?

    • @clementmckenzie7041
      @clementmckenzie7041 4 місяці тому

      Sick with greed and lust for power. A consistent sickness through the ages.

    • @Rebecca-le9hn
      @Rebecca-le9hn 4 місяці тому +5

      I am not confusing the US with Australia.

    • @taylenbronso5550
      @taylenbronso5550 4 місяці тому

      @@Rebecca-le9hnso just like Australia the brits sent prisoners to america too?

  • @delgadojonesable
    @delgadojonesable 4 місяці тому +10

    The take away is he was brave enough to live his truth,his reality told him different,he was operating from what I call collective blessings ❤❤❤

  • @charlestonchewies
    @charlestonchewies 4 місяці тому +3

    I am SO glad the algorithm allowed me to find your channel. I love it! Thank you for sharing such valuable and important information. I am picking up a copy of the book. ❤🎉 Thank you sis!

  • @batya7
    @batya7 4 місяці тому +46

    What a brave man!
    As a female Jew, I have no physical "marks" or distinctive garb to distinguish me from gentiles. I've "passed" unwittingly, however. I've been in groups where antisemitic remarks were made. l identify myself and project positivity. Maybe they can learn something. "But you don't have a big nose," I've heard.
    ... But Walter White didn't have brown skin...
    It is demoralizing to not be seen, to be hated without cause. Judge the individual by his actions.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +3

      I have not heard of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr but I will definitely look into his life. I wish I had been given more of the chance to grow up with the family in Louisiana. I really feel that loss as an adult.

    • @marial8235
      @marial8235 4 місяці тому +7

      My Mom (and me) had similar experiences. On public transportation, people would think they were all white and then say horrible racist stuff. Its just amazing how that stuff comes out and the people say “but i’m not racist, Anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-white, etc.”

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +3

      Oops! This went to the wrong comment 😫youtubeeeee

    • @duvlinmjw3191
      @duvlinmjw3191 4 місяці тому

      Gentilles..

    • @TheRealZJM377
      @TheRealZJM377 4 місяці тому

      The real israelites/jews are black or dark skin people

  • @kingkush8201
    @kingkush8201 4 місяці тому +25

    I actually read his book as a youth!! Great work Danielle 💯👍

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +5

      It’s blowing my mind!

  • @MoneyF4
    @MoneyF4 4 місяці тому +30

    This man’s story and downfall is truly an American story worth telling.

  • @AlexThunderwolve
    @AlexThunderwolve 4 місяці тому +20

    Greetings from NY
    Keep up the good work that you put into making these videos.

  • @robertwalker8453
    @robertwalker8453 4 місяці тому +4

    First thing first, congratulations on breaking a 100K subscribers. With the work you put in as well as the sincerity and authenticity of your channel, I would say this is just the beginning. It has been quite some while since I posted. I hope the autobiography of Walter White not only illuminates the complexity of the black experience in America (USA), but also helps you further appreciate the dangers that your Lola faced and the issues that she and her family faced and that her decision too pass was not one without grave risk to her and her family-had she been found out the consequences could have been dyer to say the least, hence her commitment to secrecy. From your journey of discovery that you have embarked upon it is no doubt that your Lola dearly loved the black members of her family as much as those who were not black, but the cruelty of a warped social system of her time made maintaining connection a painful and treacherous thing. For Mr. White I think there were some time and place issues that played a big part. The African American community in Atlanta, then and now, serves as bedrock example of the intellectual and economic strength of an intact Black community. Although it was still the Deep South it was in many ways an enclave. Mr. White seems to develop an understanding of himself and his community sense of humanity that let home to make a value judgement that was then and is now sometimes difficult to convey-his identity and personhood was equally as valid as black as would have been had he “pursued” being identified as white; his choose for his sense of culture and humanness not to be defined by a “flawed” at best interpretation of humanity that was predominant in western society. Again thank you for your courage and your brilliant dedication to honest exploration of history and education. What ever you do Danielle-keep moving forward!!!

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +1

      This came at the right time for me to read, thank you !

  • @Geoffreydarcy-pv4mq
    @Geoffreydarcy-pv4mq 4 місяці тому +5

    I love this channel. Being from New Orleans(if you know,...you know) I can relate to most of the content. The comments here are both concerning, and uplifting.

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      Free speech. UA-cam is not exactly free speech, but they can't police everything.

  • @oldreprobate2748
    @oldreprobate2748 4 місяці тому +3

    I firmly agree with you on the value of the Library of Congress being a source of knowledge and American reality. It is a shame that so many of our public servants either fail to use it or stubbornly refuse to because it will debunk their politicized assertions.

  • @mysteriodreams
    @mysteriodreams 4 місяці тому +3

    There’s so so soooo much more to this story, and how the concept of whiteness, and proximity to it, is essentially the tool to one’s outcomes. Babe Ruth, was a similar example of “dispatched whiteness” enclosed with negro blood. This all deserves a fuller conversation, thank you for the topic and your openness to go down this path.

  • @epicsseven7686
    @epicsseven7686 4 місяці тому +16

    The irony of his last name

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      What if he was Walter F Black.

  • @URBNGRWR
    @URBNGRWR 4 місяці тому +15

    Great find. Thank you for sharing your research. I will definitely read White’s biography. Library of congress has so much good information. I’ve found many gems there as well. I can’t imagine, what White must’ve felt, witnessing those horrific events, while being undercover..

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +2

      I can't imagine either, and the brutal end to your life if you were caught. Let me know what you think about the book! Im trying to read it slowly

    • @URBNGRWR
      @URBNGRWR 4 місяці тому +2

      @@nytn Will do, I’m already subscribed to your channel 👍🏽

    • @lorenzbeaumacc1175
      @lorenzbeaumacc1175 4 місяці тому +1

      ​@@nytn i wish i could meet italians especially women like you

    • @jaggg.3821
      @jaggg.3821 3 місяці тому +1

      Think of WWI an the Trenches across War torn Europe it would of been something along those battleline's.

  • @SmartieSSmartie
    @SmartieSSmartie 4 місяці тому +13

    Loved this segement on Walter White. What a very brave man he was ...I learned about him back in the early 70's when I took a Black History course in college. I was also a history major in college. My love of history was also because of my dad.
    My skin color is white. I check my race as Caucasian. However, a DNA test confirms what I suspected. According to the one drop rule, I would not be white.
    There are probably millions of us whose people's stories will never be told. The historian in me mourns the loss of their stories.

    • @Skiskiski
      @Skiskiski 4 місяці тому +2

      I bow to you in respect. I love the narratives that could come out of your story.

  • @PatThoms
    @PatThoms 4 місяці тому +50

    Are you familiar with Adam Clayton Powell Jr.? A Black NY congressman in the 1960's. This is a VERY common story in the Black community. What do white people think when they see a light skinned NON-biracial Black person, i.e. Tyra Banks, Will Smith, Vanessa Williams, LL Cool J etc.? We look this way because of white ancestry.
    I had a friend who was NOT diagnosed with a serious condition that occurred primarily in whites - his great grandfather was white. He looked like LL Cool J but it never occurred to the doctors to check for the condition because they only saw a Black in front of them. Once they made the diagnosis his children were tested for the genetic marker of the disease.
    Then there are the darker skinned Black people who have just as much white ancestry as Beyonce. Black folks never know what complexion, hair texture or eye color their children will have because of the genetic mix. My mother's siblings are like the kids on the Cosby show - light, dark and everything in between. I have a white skinned non-biraical first cousin and I'm the color of Michelle Obama. I've gone places with him and white people did not believe we were related - Blacks folks never blinked.

    • @brianvesta
      @brianvesta 4 місяці тому

      Vanessa Williams is seen as white in Europe the rest of them are seen as black.....

    • @osiruskat
      @osiruskat 4 місяці тому +10

      You should check out Brazilian samba legend, Neguinho Da Beija Flor, who is blackety black but DNA results revealed 67% European and 31% African and the rest indigenous. What you inherit genetically can be random.

    • @Frapzoid
      @Frapzoid 4 місяці тому +4

      Tyra Banks, Will Smith, and LL Cool J aren't light skinned.

    • @brianvesta
      @brianvesta 4 місяці тому +7

      @@Frapzoid They are light skinned but definitely not ambiguous like Vanessa Williams.....

    • @Frapzoid
      @Frapzoid 4 місяці тому +5

      @@brianvesta Your idea of light skinned is different than mine.

  • @richardwilliamswilliams
    @richardwilliamswilliams 4 місяці тому +6

    Good afternoon from Copperhill Tn. The weekend is here!!😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +2

      Hey there! and hot as ever

  • @Khankhankhan420
    @Khankhankhan420 4 місяці тому +2

    I am a descendant of Matilda hicks, the wife of Nathaniel Jackson of Texas. They had a route on the Underground Railroad during the civil war. I’m also mixed native and Spanish as most tejanos are. My great grandmother was Matilda hicks great granddaughter and she was white enough to pass and grew up in a black/ Mexican neighborhood in Georgetown Texas. She was the only one who could go into the white stores and was paid by other families to buy them things and ask white doctors questions. Fascinating to think had any of the traits of being part black had come out in her our family’s history would be completely different. We found this out after we did an ancestry dna test. It gave us all the records and changed how my tejano family viewed our selves and our racial identity.

  • @UnsungGoat
    @UnsungGoat 4 місяці тому +4

    The most interesting thing about your channel is that you openly vent your ethnic frustration with your own mixed heritage. You are publicly staging your internal battle. Its honest and refreshing. You are Italian, You are also African American. I recommend a look at science to assist you on your journey ✌🏿

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      Sorry. She is an American of mixed ancestry, but not of anything in particular, not Italian, not Black American, not Creole, not NA.

    • @UnsungGoat
      @UnsungGoat Місяць тому

      ​@Ponto-zv9vf Well, she liked my comment, so you may be out voted bud. If this is your take away then you missed the point of the entire video. Maybe you just have a problem with the black part? That's usually what creates comments like yours. 👍🏿

  • @wendellbatts2477
    @wendellbatts2477 4 місяці тому +6

    Neither W.E.B Du Boise nor Adam Clayton Powell were much darker, Excellent video Danielle.

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      Yes but they weren't blond or blue eyed, I don't know Mr. Dubois but Mr. Powell was odd looking whereas Mr White was odd looking also but more White passing.

  • @hrwilliams9278
    @hrwilliams9278 4 місяці тому +3

    In college I read William Faulkner's "A Light in August" where his character Joe Christmas dealt with such an issue. Essentially I concluded "as a man thinketh so is he." I never had given it much thought even though I can recall being a 6-7 yr old in my grandmother's kitchen asking her why she was white and we (the rest of the family) weren't. Grandma could easily pass for white and had given birth to a green eyed, fair skinned son, my dad. While I don't remember her words, I do remember the pain on her face as she responded to me.

  • @josephr2369
    @josephr2369 2 місяці тому

    Thank you so much for doing this story. I never knew of Walter White's history until I saw your video. I am a dark skinned black man who's mother and grandmother looked white. My grandmother especially looked 100% white so I found this story intriguing. Part of the chapter you read, was about a pregnant black woman who was lynched. My mother told me a similar story of a black woman who was 9 months pregnant and was lynched in my grandmother's front yard. That very day she packed up her entire house and moved to California. I share that with you because I want you to know what your doing is important. That horrible tragedy happened to millions of blacks throughout this country. The events that happened in Walter White's life, shaped him and made him the man he was. Because of his work we have all benefitted from it (both black and white). Keep up the good work. I will need to pick up that book and add it to my collection. Thanks again for sharing. Stories like this are uncomfortable and touchy subjects but its history and it needs to be told. We are not responsible for the past. We are responsible for the future and stories like this remind us why we need to make it a better place.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  2 місяці тому

      I appreciate this so much. And I’m so glad to have you here.
      We don’t know why my great gram and grandfather left Louisiana after they got married. I have ideas though. It breaks my heart to play that out.
      This book should be a must read in highschool!

  • @JanelleFreeman-nz1ws
    @JanelleFreeman-nz1ws 4 місяці тому +37

    The difference between you and Walter, is that he was raised in the culture of blackness. So despite his skin color, that is why he identified as black. Proximity to culture, has a huge impact on self perception. As a daughter of a light skin mother, she would tell me stories about “clubs” that would approach her in her home town, specifically because she was fair. However, she had 2 black parents, but her great grandfather was Irish. Often, she remarked that white people may have seen Walter White as Caucasian, but black people can almost ALWAYS tell a person of African descent, due to the many shades in our families. It’s nuanced behavior, speech, and yes, facial features, but more than that, a deep knowing, and understanding when you looked into their eyes.

    • @vannessatrippett7750
      @vannessatrippett7750 4 місяці тому +11

      He loved who he was.

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      I was raised in my parent's ethnic culture but I don't identify with it at all. My eyes are not a give-away.

  • @danielfreeman1192
    @danielfreeman1192 3 місяці тому +1

    A friend of mine turned me on to your video because I am like Walter White (fair skin, blonde, blue eyes). Wrote an award winning book a few years ago and now sharing my story on a Substack column. My next two episodes are about the slave market in Natchez, MS, and then onto tracing my parental grandmother’s grandfather on the slave roll of an 1860 Louisiana Plantation. BTW, a few years back, I walked the land that use to be that plantation. In a letter from my paternal grandmother she wrote that her grandfather was the son of the plantation daughter and that her grandmother was a breeder. Interesting family history.

    • @danielfreeman1192
      @danielfreeman1192 3 місяці тому +1

      Can’t make a a correction. Should have written “”…grandfather was the son of the plantation owner’s daughter …”

    • @charlenescott7640
      @charlenescott7640 3 місяці тому +1

      Interesting family history, you must write the new book and tell your family story.

  • @Shadowbannddiscourse
    @Shadowbannddiscourse 4 місяці тому +18

    Ps it's cool talking about heros like this man and sista Ida B Wells and others who struck against lynching s of our people

  • @lulittle8824
    @lulittle8824 4 місяці тому +2

    You should read Johnny Otis's book "Upside Your Head" He's an R&B/ Rock N Roll legend. He was Greek and nobody knew it for decades. He lived Black and made that choice in the 30's. He looked at both sides and said he wanted the warmth that was on the black side, this was despite the pain and the struggle. When you look Mr Walter and many like him, they stayed on the black side because of this warmth in the culture. Nela Larson's book "Passing" deals with this too.

  • @onebadscientist
    @onebadscientist 4 місяці тому +28

    I'm a quarter West African by DNA, 1/8th by paper...my kids are 1/16th by paper. I say paper because I didn't really know who was considered Black in my family til I saw pictures. Anyway, did my son's DNA because he passes (I should blog my experiences since I don't pass) he is about 8%; he is blue eyed, was blonde, very fair but tans easily...also mostly Euro features. The 8% instead of 12% is not too surprising since we know ethnicity passes down randomly. People say it doesn't matter but even now in 2024, I'm in AZ...people will treat me differently depending on when they notice my child. I've had the same women at a Target walk in front of me, cut me off, stand in front of me while browsing...then later notice my son and say how cute he was and then look up to acknowledge me surprised that I am put off by her. It still surprises me to see this treatment because in all honestly it's not common. But then again, I have a shirt that says, I am not the nanny.

    • @lindaroberts4411
      @lindaroberts4411 4 місяці тому +1

      I have two daughters that people want to see them something other than black. Brazilian and Chinese has been brought up. When people see me they search for the same features which I have with my eldest and they say you do look alike. The reality is lighter skinned people are acknowledged. Only one has done her DNA and she really a well rounded mix from African continent, Scandinavian to bits of Asian. I'm black in appearance and their father is black but maybe appear Hispanic to some.

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      From what I have read, in the USA people of about 15% sub Saharan ancestry, that is Black African, not Black American, consider themselves to be White.

  • @2neetoon
    @2neetoon 4 місяці тому +10

    I've read a lot about Mr. White. This is a very down to Earth and informative video. Got a like button from me.

  • @MCLottotv
    @MCLottotv 4 місяці тому +11

    Sis! I need you to do one on Johnny White. John White, a middle child, was born in 1909 in Columbus, Ohio. By 1938, White had a reputation for being exceptional with calculating figures. It was reported, “Johnny White of Detroit, who is very smart on figures", according to Judge Damon Keith:
    "White was a fair skinned black man who was able to pass for white! In many ways, he was like a character out of a Damon Runyan story. He "looked white," as Keith remembers, and he moved in all the right circles as the owner of the Gotham Hotel, one of the finest hotels in America to serve black patrons. Johnny
    White may have looked white, but he was a man totally committed to the struggle and
    emancipation of black people"..

  • @chrisshackleford7482
    @chrisshackleford7482 4 місяці тому +57

    Just as a lot of dark skinned, African looking black Americans have white blood, a lot of white Americans like country singers Johnny Cash and Clint Black as well as Ty Burrell of Modern Family tv show fame have African ancestry.

    • @iaindcosta
      @iaindcosta 4 місяці тому +5

      ...about 20% either way, 1/5 "blacks" have recent-ish white ancestors and 1/5 "whites" have a recent-ish black ancestor but don't know it.

    • @77mudvayne
      @77mudvayne 4 місяці тому

      @@iaindcosta History sucks and we need to look forward and do better. White slavery (also white slave trade or white slave trafficking) refers to the slavery of Europeans, whether by non-Europeans (such as West Asians and North Africans). Slaves of European origin were present in ancient Rome and in the Islamic world, such as the Arab slave trade, the Barbary slave trade, the Black Sea slave trade and the Ottoman Empire. During the era of the Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171), the majority of slaves were Europeans taken along European beaches and during conflicts.Similarly, the Ottoman slave trade that included European captives was often fueled by raids into European territories or were taken as children in the form of a blood tax from the families of citizens of conquered territories to serve the empire for a variety of functions.In the mid-19th century, the term 'white slavery' was used to describe the Christian slaves that were sold into the Barbary slave trade. the slavery of Christians throughout the Barbary States and primarily in Algiers, the capital of Ottoman Algeria. It also encompassed many forms of slavery, including the European concubines (Cariye) often found in Turkish harems. route. From there they were sent into Islamic Spain and other Muslim-ruled regions especially North Africa. Slave markets flourished on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, in what is modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and western Libya, between the 15th and middle of the 19th century. The North African slave markets traded in European slaves which were acquired by Barbary pirates in slave raids on ships and by raids on coastal towns from Italy to Spain, Portugal, France, England, the Netherlands, and as far afield as the Turkish Abductions in Iceland. Men, women, and children were captured to such a devastating extent that vast numbers of sea coast towns were abandoned. Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the 15th and 19th centuries.However, to extrapolate his numbers, the number of European slaves captured by Barbary pirates was constant for a 250-year period. From bases on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, the Barbary pirates raided ships traveling through the Mediterranean and along the northern and western coasts of Africa, plundering their cargo and enslaving the people they captured. From at least 1500, the pirates also conducted raids along seaside towns of Italy, Spain, France, England, the Netherlands and as far away as Iceland, capturing men, women and children. On some occasions, settlements such as Baltimore, Ireland were abandoned following the raid, only being resettled many years later. Between 1609 and 1616, England alone had 466 merchant ships lost to Barbary pirates. Attractive women or boys could be used as sex slaves. 16th- and 17th-century customs statistics suggest that Istanbul's additional slave import from the Black Sea may have totaled around 2.5 million from 1450 to 1700. During the Al-Andalus (also known as Islamic Iberia), the Moors controlled much of the peninsula. Muslim Spain imported Christian slaves from the 8th century until the Reconquista in the late 15th century. Slavery was a legal and a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and society.The main sources of white slaves were Ottoman wars into Europe and organized enslavement expeditions in Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, the Balkans, Circassia and Georgia in the Caucasus. It has been reported that the selling price of slaves fell after large military operations. Even after several measures to ban slavery in the late 19th century, the practice continued largely unabated into the early 20th century. As late as 1908, female slaves were still sold in the Ottoman Empire.Sexual slavery was a central part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the history of the institution In Anglophone countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the phrase "white slavery" was used to refer to sexual enslavement of white women. It was particularly associated with accounts of women enslaved in Middle Eastern harems, such as the so-called Circassian beauties,which was a slave trade that was still ongoing in the early 20th-century.The phrase gradually came to be used as a euphemism for prostitution.The phrase was especially common in the context of the exploitation of minors, with the implication that children and young women in such circumstances were not free to decide their own fates. Though Barbary privateers began to seize North American colonists as early as 1625, Barbary captivity narratives did not begin to flourish until after the American Revolution. During these years, stories of Barbary captivity forced the U.S. government to pay humiliating tributes to African rulers, stimulated the drive to create the U.S. Navy, and brought on America’s first post-revolutionary war. Little boys??? Damn pedophiles. Lots of forced race mixing through the this sex trade.

    • @tbrown4080
      @tbrown4080 4 місяці тому +10

      You forgot Joe Manganiello

    • @Myopinionmattersthemost
      @Myopinionmattersthemost 4 місяці тому +3

      I learned about Walter White in 4th grade, I had read an excerpt of his autobiography .

    • @SmartieSSmartie
      @SmartieSSmartie 4 місяці тому +2

      So so true and DNA tests open the door to people discovering their history

  • @jayste9334
    @jayste9334 4 місяці тому +3

    Keep putting on these mini master classes now!! Your grandkids will one day say..."Thats my GMA!" Like you yourself say! 💘

  • @jakelong6860
    @jakelong6860 4 місяці тому +8

    I had a friend whose great great grandfather was a slave master and it showed.

  • @antionettehairston
    @antionettehairston 4 місяці тому +9

    Dr Cluad Anderson has shared many historical facts with me over the years. He refers to himself as being a forensic historian. Historical facts tend to change when you look deep into the subjects. How would history have changed if it were widely known during the time of President Andrew Jackson, he had a brother who was enslaved? Someone please explain to me a pure/unmixed race.

    • @Thomas_Oklahoma
      @Thomas_Oklahoma 4 місяці тому

      He's pseudo history nut tho, and he seeks justice at the wrong people while being xenophobic and anti-minority who isn't Black American descendants of slaves. How's he going to win justice being that way?

  • @Argos-xb8ek
    @Argos-xb8ek 4 місяці тому +8

    How did people not stay so angry and spiteful with living that way.

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому

      What? As a black person passing as White?

  • @mind_of_a_darkhorse
    @mind_of_a_darkhorse 4 місяці тому +7

    This tale reminds me of the movie "The 10 Commandments" with Charleston Heston. Moses was an Israelite baby who was rescued by an Egyptian Princess and raised by her! He later realized his true origins and eventually became their leader! The stories are similar! We as a people, the human race, need to throw off the shackles of race and start to judge people by whether they are good or bad! There should be no other considerations!

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +1

      Love that movie!

  • @theonlymeaning
    @theonlymeaning 4 місяці тому +28

    "Negro" , the actual word , is Latin for the color black. In Spanish, Portuguese, the word for the color BLACK is NEGRO.
    But that word "Negro" has been turned into a negative word. It is ironic that "BLACK" is a celebrated word and "Negro" is a word from which one escapes.

    • @Skiskiski
      @Skiskiski 4 місяці тому +1

      Can you explain the surname Negron? It is a last name the Latino culture carry?

    • @leward7788
      @leward7788 4 місяці тому +5

      really? I never thought negro was any kind of slur - altho the other n word definitely was - and i'm old. i think context is very important.

    • @masehoart7569
      @masehoart7569 4 місяці тому

      Basic linguistics one learns in 5th or 6th grade about Romance languages. Nonetheless, the Latin root nigrum has a negative connotation as well: besides the colour black, it can as well mean “sinister, cunning, wicked” Niger, nigrum entered Latin after the encounter with rebellious Amazigh people. As the older words for black were fuscus & ater. It probably derived from “gr-n-grwn” Touareg Tamazigh for “river of rivers” aka the river Niger. So, there is just an antique colonial root in the word negro/-a -

    • @masehoart7569
      @masehoart7569 4 місяці тому

      @@leward7788It is in Getmanuc languages or like the French negré because a lot of so-called scientific books until the late 1980s, used this term to point out the racial inferiority. The only reason why Black people accepted it as an endonym is because they were not given a choice

    • @22lyric
      @22lyric 4 місяці тому

      ​@@leward7788no one uses "negro" TODAY.

  • @brooklyn5755
    @brooklyn5755 4 місяці тому +16

    I recognize his name but don’t know much about him, but 12% of black is still a good amount for the avg white person. I loved the video, keep it up. I❤❤❤

    • @kaizatengoku3893
      @kaizatengoku3893 4 місяці тому +2

      Not really

    • @Ponto-zv9vf
      @Ponto-zv9vf Місяць тому +1

      The average White American who has black ancestry is only a few percentages Black, not 12% which is equal to one great grandparent.

    • @brooklyn5755
      @brooklyn5755 Місяць тому

      @@kaizatengoku3893oh what I mean by is that it’s better than having 1% because it is first time I’ve seen a white person with this percentage

  • @mimialexandral
    @mimialexandral 4 місяці тому +1

    I am so glad to have found your channel. Blessings 😊💕🙏🏽

  • @Leticia_creates
    @Leticia_creates 4 місяці тому +4

    So one thing I want to comment on is that when Walter White was alive, the binary was stark and was literally life or death. And even the choices that Lola made were life and death. To live the way she wanted she had to make a choice and there was no option that existed that allowed her to live in her multiracial truth. Walter White, while he made a different choice, had the same reality. He had no options to live a multiracial reality. A choice had to be made.
    Only in the past 40 years or so, have biracial and multiracial people have had the option to live openly and publicly with a multiracial reality and acknowledge the pain and the successes of different heritages within their family tree. You can honor all parts of your ancestry, but that was an options that most of your ancestors didn’t have.

  • @SoupBone-bp1qk
    @SoupBone-bp1qk 4 місяці тому

    I bought his autobiography a while ago. I started reading it and then put it down because life got busy and its not a book to just speed through. I wanted to savour it and allow his words and experiences to soak in. I am picking it back up now since I saw your video. Its time. Walter White was a man for his time. I sincerely believe God raised up that man for such a time as that.

  • @yolonda7486
    @yolonda7486 4 місяці тому +4

    Good Morning~ I wanted to thank you for the valuable insight and food for thought your videos always show. We have come a long way, but we have so much farther to go. It seems as if this country is moving back and not forward. What our ancestors had to do for survival is astounding.

    • @rroadmap
      @rroadmap 3 місяці тому

      We ARE moving backward. The powers that want to weaken our country and take over can't have us getting along. Divide and conquer. Since they control the media, they control the narrative. It's scary!

  • @larrywilliams9139
    @larrywilliams9139 4 місяці тому +3

    Thanks for another great video. Sadly, I had never heard of this gentleman's inspiring story. When you get done with his autobiography; you might want to read Caste: The Origins of our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson.

  • @Chitimacha1025
    @Chitimacha1025 4 місяці тому +12

    I have relatives in New Orleans that could pass for white, but like Walter White, never desired to do so. When there are occasions of interacting in white spaces, it does not occur to them that they are not initially perceived of as Black. When some context comes up that makes it clear who they are, it does confuse white people, and, I think, causes some angst, because they, same as during Mr. White's era, cannot fathom why someone would not choose whiteness when it's an option. I opine it also makes them uncomfortable in causing them to question the political construction of whiteness if they are able to be fooled so easily by an individual who does not identify as white.😗

    • @KamalasNotLikeUs
      @KamalasNotLikeUs 3 місяці тому +1

      Same. And they are our most vocal activists. I love my grandmothers.

  • @vannessatrippett7750
    @vannessatrippett7750 4 місяці тому +2

    "Black" is a state of mind. You would not understand if you do not identify with it. All of us do not have negative views of who we are. If we really know, who we are. Despite the ugly propaganda. I love who I am. Walter White is one of our heroes. Lena Horne, oh, how I love her. She was real! I have people in my own family that could have passed but didn't, because they loved who they were. We know how to love life & move on. That just makes us stronger. Walter White was a black man just like my great mother was a black woman (1/8). I'm sure they would both be indignant to anyone who tried to tell them otherwise. Some of you just don't get it. I'm not going to get into all that but I love who I am in the eyes of the only One that matters. We are by nature, a humble, happy, loving & spiritual people. I am not ignorant of the fact that there are exceptions to every rule. I love everyone, but I really love the soul, joy and resilience of my folks.

  • @AlwaysLime
    @AlwaysLime 4 місяці тому +27

    Speaking from Lumbee Land here 👋🏼…. No, looking white absolutely does not mean you identify as white, or were raised as white. I remember the first time someone described me to a room full of people as having more Caucasian features (he was a red-headed, white-skinned, blue-eyed Lumbee with a very African-looking nose). I was in shock. Because all I knew was that I was Lumbee. And I knew for certain I looked less white than him (dark brown hair, olive skin, brown eyes, narrow nose). It really was shocking to me.

    • @vanessareedhawaiinani
      @vanessareedhawaiinani 4 місяці тому +1

      I am also mixed with Lumbee too as well

    • @vanessareedhawaiinani
      @vanessareedhawaiinani 4 місяці тому +5

      A lot of lumbee. Are mixed some of. Them would deny havin “black” SMH Lordy cuz it a mess. Same with Saponi etc

    • @josiebooth4670
      @josiebooth4670 4 місяці тому +1

      One of my maternal lines descend from Lumbee thru a Triracial ancestor. So I know first hand, Lumbee are a MIXED NATIVE TRIBE.

    • @batya7
      @batya7 4 місяці тому +4

      Not familiar with Lumbees. I hope Danielle covers this group, too.

    • @Thomas_Oklahoma
      @Thomas_Oklahoma 4 місяці тому +5

      @@vanessareedhawaiinani There are no full blood Lumbee Native Americans, they have ancestry from refugee Natives, runaway Black slaves and friendly whites who married into the community. They are not a ancient Tribe with no official Indigenous language, which is why they have a hard time getting federal recognition support from ancient Tribes in the region and from the BIA.

  • @rudygrissom5871
    @rudygrissom5871 4 місяці тому +2

    I pose this to you, a person of color ie black has an extended family of many diverse shades from the darkest of dark to the lightest of light darn near white. Even within a household of step children this diversity occurs as my family. Has nothing to do and never has with acknowledging some spurious 1 drop rule, but with decent lineage those of us who come from a stock of colored ie black but appearance could be viewed by others as white and reject that description do so cause our forefathers and parents moved through this world with the affect both bad and good that came by being branded as colored ie black. We give honor to our foreparents by accepting their burdens and inheritance as our own by declaring we are them. We dishonor our foreparents when those of us who deny connections through those by whom our very existence is solely attributable to their struggles to exist and thrive.

    • @rroadmap
      @rroadmap 3 місяці тому +1

      We should honor all parts of our ancestry--African, French, Spanish, Irish, Native American, Asian or other. They all went through struggles in life. Some of the others suffered right along with our African ancestors whom they chose to love. We wouldn't be here if not for them.

  • @katrinaseymour6666
    @katrinaseymour6666 4 місяці тому +3

    I remember asking my mother one time about one of my aunts (approximately sixty-five years ago). I had two that looked white with straight hair and hazel and bluish color eyes. I asked, “Is Aunt So and So white?” I remember my mother laughing and saying no, baby, she is not white. We were at a family gathering.
    Maybe you can explore the deep fear associated with melanin.

  • @AllAroundGenius
    @AllAroundGenius 4 місяці тому +2

    FYI books don’t go by same copywriter standards as music. You could’ve read the entire book, so long as the entire book isn’t shown. I appreciate this post though. I have this book my shelves…

  • @Sun-dy
    @Sun-dy 4 місяці тому +3

    You shouldn’t have to choose one of your heritages over another. ALL are of value and each brings its own story of struggles and successes to embrace as part of who you are now. You are American and this is how we should be moving forward: learn from the past, accept all of our heritages, and then go toward making a better world for all children, whatever their race or color. Not telling them one is better or worse than the other, please God! That is exactly what Jim Crow laws taught and believed!

  • @vmw4444
    @vmw4444 4 місяці тому +2

    Thank you for this interesting story. My grandmother and her sister were bi-racial born in the late 1800s. My grandmother's sister disappeared never to be seen again, I often wondered if she was passing somewhere. The color codes should not be attached exclusively to perceived skin colors because most people aren't actually white, black, yellow or red. It's a system that was woven into this government for privileges, some privileges and little to no-privileges.

  • @joseph9531
    @joseph9531 4 місяці тому +3

    There's an NBA player that plays for the Brooklyn Nets I believe. He looks white and he describes himself as not light skinned but bright skinned. 😊 He had such a sunny lighthearted attitude when he said it. 😅

    • @cobano
      @cobano 3 місяці тому

      Isaiah Hartenstein. Love that guy.

  • @schadjam
    @schadjam 2 місяці тому +1

    In my research of my family I ran across Walter White’s story. He espoused to be a direct descendent to President William Henry Harrison through his mother’s side of the family. The story goes that when William Henry Harrison became governor of the Indiana Territory he had with him several enslaved people that originally belonged to his father. One enslaved woman was named Dilsia. She and William Henry had a daughter together, also named Dilsia. It is not known if the union was consensual or not. In any case the governor politically fought hard to make the Indiana Territory a slave territory, but lost (that is well documented). Subsequently he sold his slaves (including his own daughter) through the help of his brother to a buyer in Georgia where Walter White’s grandmother and mother were born. Harrison then turned his political ambitions against Native Americans, which made him very popular. His pre-emptive strike at Tippecanoe and other battles helped pave his way to the Presidency.

  • @polopb1
    @polopb1 4 місяці тому +4

    Love your videos.
    I will say, many of us are born into such a mixture that it becomes challenging. Sad that the color of your skin and such should make a difference on how you are treated. We are so shallow.

  • @nancytraynham6072
    @nancytraynham6072 4 місяці тому +2

    Hey People my father is European and my skin is dark brown. He has blond hair and blue eyes. My mother is a fair skinned Cherokee Indian. I used to have reddish brown hair,but it turn jet black during my teens. It depends on the genes. There are a lot of us around .

  • @abrahamisaacmuciusiii9192
    @abrahamisaacmuciusiii9192 4 місяці тому +19

    Walter White was an Octoroon, aka a person who comes from a family that consists of mostly white folks with the exception of one black great grandparent. In other words, an Octoroon is a person who one eighth African but is majority European in ancestry.

    • @Sachi52
      @Sachi52 4 місяці тому +1

      He said he was a negro. That is what he was. People say who they are and we must listen

    • @brianvesta
      @brianvesta 4 місяці тому +2

      He was a white man who wanted to help black folks.....

    • @osiruskat
      @osiruskat 4 місяці тому +9

      ​@@brianvestait's amazing that you don't know the history of Walter White and how the bus transportation got desegregated. There were several people that tested the Jim Crow system of 'blacks" being in the back of the bus before Rosa Parks. Walter White was technically still "Black" due to his parents being ex-slaves and the "one drop rule." Due to his skin tone he would challenge the separate but equal philosophy by openly riding in the front of the bus challenging the notion of what is 'Black." He also ran the NAACP.

    • @brianvesta
      @brianvesta 4 місяці тому +3

      @@osiruskat I know exactly who he is .....He is a white man with a tiny bit of black in him less than 6%....He is almost as white as the average white man in the South.....

    • @mcdonoghrahloh459
      @mcdonoghrahloh459 4 місяці тому +2

      1 drop, please if you're not from Black American heritage don't comment on Black Americans

  • @trinaaltanea5876
    @trinaaltanea5876 2 місяці тому

    You’re doing an amazing job providing this information.

  • @lesal.1373
    @lesal.1373 4 місяці тому +9

    There are more choices now. When I was younger, I'm 65, it was black or white. Other became available 1st, if I remember correctly. That became my choice. Biracial, which came later, would be my grandmother. Her son, my father, was also half Arab. My mother's people are European. So for now, Other still fits. Until we abolish this mess!

    • @clementmckenzie7041
      @clementmckenzie7041 4 місяці тому

      Abolishing racial categories will make no difference. Many Latin American nations have done it and it has done nothing to stem racism in those nations. At best it creates a pigmentocracy. With darker-skinned people on the bottom and lighter-skinned people on the top. Without the work of dismantling of anti-blackness, racism, and bigotry, abolishing "this mess" will be little more than lipstick on a pig.

    • @ClassyCourtesan
      @ClassyCourtesan 4 місяці тому

      Heritage and Culture are not a mess. The issue is stigmatizing it.

    • @lesal.1373
      @lesal.1373 4 місяці тому +1

      @@ClassyCourtesan heritage and culture are the most important! The mess is the racial categories created to oppress and divide.

  • @BrighidsForge
    @BrighidsForge 3 місяці тому

    Thank you for bringing this man and his book to my attention. I'll get a copy as soon as possible.
    I think there should be a Race option for bi- or multi-racial Americans:
    "O" for "Other", perhaps.
    NO ONE should have to reject one part of their heritage and have another part be, in effect, covering the rest of their identity.
    When I was a kid, I looked forward to a time when one COULD NOT DETERMINE, almost immediately, what race someone might be, simply because Americans had mingled enough that everyone was visually homogenous.
    Slightly over 50 yrs later, we're getting close that point, which makes me very happy.
    Still hoping for the realization to hit the mass quantity of the population, sadly.

  • @mauallison7755
    @mauallison7755 4 місяці тому +5

    This is an amazing, and not at all rare, story from the southeastern US. Walter was rare, yes, but his ancestry wasn’t. Walter was an amazing guy caught in the middle during difficult times. He surfed that wave well.

  • @narcissismrehabilitation
    @narcissismrehabilitation 4 місяці тому +6

    I love your videos based on passing. I think this is your niche,but I know your passion is American history. Just saying! 😊

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +3

      I think you’re right, in part because I am trying to make sense of my family and it keeps coming back to this!

  • @flamingostringfellow5399
    @flamingostringfellow5399 4 місяці тому +11

    Danielle as a grandfather of 4 biracial children with white mothers and black fathers. It always puzzled me for the children of white mothers to automatically be assumed black. Why can’t they be white? Does one drop of black blood contaminate a person who is otherwise white? I’m culturally black, I look black and was raised black, yet I have 14 percent Northern European ancestry. Why doesn’t the 14 percent white blood be considered a contaminant to blackness? I say this because my biracial grandchildren should be able to choose to be black or white depending on which culture they choose to identify with. We all know that there is only one race in mankind and that is the human race and this bogus construct of assigning people by their physical characteristics such as skin color, eye color and hair color was just a way for the elites to divide and conquer in order to enrich themselves. Therefore using race as a barometer of human purity, with the white race being the dominant race, the white elites exploited poor whites by making them think they were superior because of their whiteness. This divide and conquer strategy has been played by the elites for centuries and it’s still prevalent today. Why can’t I choose to be white if desired too? I’m not 100 percent SubSharan African.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +2

      I agree, I wish we could do better by our kids. Your grandchildren are lucky to have a grandpa like you!

    • @flamingostringfellow5399
      @flamingostringfellow5399 4 місяці тому +3

      @@nytn thanks Danielle. I love your channel and your knowledge of history. As a 70 year old black man with a rich history, born in the Jim Crow South in 1953 from sharecropping parents. Lived in the Chicago suburbs from 1963-1971 and then after 4 years in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War, I finally settled in Houston Texas in 1975 and lived a solid middle class life. In other words, I’m seen a lot during my lifetime. Moreover, my parents were much older than me, my mother was born in 1914 and my father was born in 1900. My great grandfather on my father’s maternal side was a slave and my great grandfather on my father’s paternal side was a white slave owner. My maternal family history can be traced back to the 1700s in Scotland. Needless to say, I have a very rich culture and I will from time to time drop a few nuggets of lived history in the comments of your channel. My life has been similar to Forrest Gump where I came from picking cotton as a six year old, to having a solid career in information technology. I’ve seen and experienced a lot and my parents laid out a plethora of history from
      their childhoods. I will love to share
      the stories with you. Thanks you for your great work.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +2

      If you would ever consider sharing your experiences for the world, let me know. I’d be honored to sit with you and listen! You can e-mail us at howdy (at) nytonashville(dot)com 😊😊😊

    • @carlosm.3426
      @carlosm.3426 4 місяці тому +3

      the one drop rule affected everyone on how biracials are seen, in black african nations though, biracials are seen as white, not as black or mixed race, but white, so its the opposite of what happens in the USA, biracial children are often rejected in black african communities for being mixed, although it depends on the country because in south africa you have whites, blacks and then the coloreds which are mix race people

  • @chilltarts
    @chilltarts 4 місяці тому +2

    My great aunt was white-passing. She joined the federal intelligence services, went to Europe and married a white man, then brought him home to her black family where they lived happily in a suburb of Maryland until they both passed away. I am also bi-racial, my father being a black skinned man and my mother white skinned. They married back in the 70s when this was just starting to be considered “okay” but not really “acceptable”- not by whites or blacks, alike. Growing up in the 80s, I received hate from both sides. White boys who wanted to date me but not take me home to their parents, white girls who simply ignored me, and black girls who openly scorned me and called me an “Oreo” because any little part of me that looked or sounded different was just more evidence of my “otherness.” I felt out of place, as long as I can remember. I felt so unwanted in American society, and devalued by all. Then I also went overseas, and I realized how unique and prevalent colorized hate is in American society- and that it doesn’t have to be. Hate is passed down on both sides of this divide; so if you hear nothing else from my short story, please know that there are vile racists on BOTH sides. And they are BOTH, equally, “the Problem”. Until we come together as Americans- all of us- the pendulum will swing back and forth but never truly settle 😢

    • @stephenfisher3721
      @stephenfisher3721 3 місяці тому +1

      Sorry for your sad story.
      Overseas is a big area!
      Where did you go and for how long?
      Why did you come back?

  • @marthamurphy7940
    @marthamurphy7940 4 місяці тому +6

    You're just you. You are unique. You've never lived in Italy. You haven't shared the Black experience. You have ancestors from a variety of places. You are a true American.

  • @moniquedavis7604
    @moniquedavis7604 4 місяці тому +1

    I respect Walter White for all he has done for Black people. He risked his life countless times. He was a good man in that aspect. It was also brave of him to identify as Black. My thing is there is no mistaking Black. If you can pass as something other than Black of course there are other ethnicities involved. You will never see a "dark/black" skinned person pass as White so how can a white skinned person pass as black? I do understand genetics and the history of the United States. And I'm not saying people cannot identify as what they want to. This is just my opinion. I teach a class called Passing: Culture of Survival. My comment is in no way meant to be disrespectful toward anyone. It's just what I believe.

  • @mactown91210
    @mactown91210 4 місяці тому +3

    I whole heartedly admire any white looking black person that lived their truth in those days. Couldn't have been an easy job knowing just passing would or could have led to a much easier life.

    • @v.a.993
      @v.a.993 4 місяці тому +1

      Malcolm X's mother. She probably could have passed.

  • @chellwilliams9898
    @chellwilliams9898 3 місяці тому +1

    It’s interesting because some people who “pass”, their complexions are a bit warmer than a White person’s or they have some features that are Black. Growing up in Pittsburgh but having a mother from AL, I learned how to tell. I still test out my skills. It shocks people when I talk to them. One of my neighbors was so surprised when I tested my skills on her. Her complexion told me everything I needed to know. I wasn’t wrong. I thought that everyone knew these things but I guess they don’t.

  • @zigm7420
    @zigm7420 4 місяці тому +3

    On one side of my family I’m MGM, one of my family names is even White, like Walter! I’ve known for quite a long time that I was mixed, but not my whole life. I’m light, but have very curly black hair and tan very, very easily. Growing up in a majority minority community, many people would see me as mixed without my having to say anything m and it was no big deal. After moving to one of the northern tier states, which is extremely white, I learned that people here automatically see me as white, and get super upset if anything comes up and I tell them I’m mixed. Some even accuse me of lying to them because I didn’t immediately tell them that I’m not 100% white. What a weird way to introduce yourself that would be.
    Too many times, I’ve been in a group of people having a general conversation and one of them has said something super racist. I always call them out on it - I feel compelled to do so - but the response I often get is basically “why do you care, you’re white too.” Which isn’t exactly true, of course, but why would it only be the domain of BIPOC people to call out racism?

    • @NiKiMa023
      @NiKiMa023 4 місяці тому +2

      *extends hand for shake*
      “Hello, I’m Zigm7420. Not 100% white. And you are?”

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому +1

      This is so crazy but I have met people who would want this. Crazy

    • @shawnahall7246
      @shawnahall7246 4 місяці тому +1

      This anomaly is common u look ethnic to minority communities because they see it. But you white in white community because what they see as they see themselves, which white has changed over time. White has become and still evolving into off white. Meaning white are becoming more ethnic looking so the white category has a broader look and meaning now. I’ve ask people what their heritage is they say American or white, but I clearly see they mixed with something so…this is common. Although it depends where u live. I bet if you expand your self more outside that community you would be considered an other or something different.

    • @shawnahall7246
      @shawnahall7246 4 місяці тому

      Right “ cuz you white to” that’s because racism is inbeaded into white culture and even other cultures to be accepted as white. But I’m like you why do u have to be non white to care there are white peoples out there that care and will say something. Unfortunately most don’t

  • @DustyD-vv8xb
    @DustyD-vv8xb 4 місяці тому

    It takes a brave soul that has one foot in each culture to tear down the walls between. What an extraordinary man that we should all celebrate and be grateful for.

  • @beaujac311
    @beaujac311 4 місяці тому +3

    Just think if Walter White had accidentally stepped on a black man's foot waiting on a train or bus in Atlanta and said I'm sorry. It would not have happened because the white and the black platforms would have been separate. Also Walter White would not be using the white platform.

  • @rnicholson6579
    @rnicholson6579 2 місяці тому

    My grandmother had a very good & lovely friend named Mary Panabaker. She owned a huge house filled with wonderful antiques. I remember her home as being so cozy & comfortable. She also has this cat who she trained to use the potty which to a child was so amazing. This was back in the 1950/60's. Grandma knew her further back & they thoroughly loved one another's company. Miss Panabaker appeared white, however, it was kept a secret due to the racist mining area we all lived in. She also had a sister who married a physician in Seattle. That sister became pregnant & nine months later she gave birth to a beautiful Black baby. She did not tell her white husband she was Black of ancestry. That physician divorced her & left mother & child. I have often wondered what happened to that baby.

  • @WTFVIDSok
    @WTFVIDSok 4 місяці тому +4

    Also Carly Simon & Carol Channing

  • @ant5361
    @ant5361 4 місяці тому +1

    Hi, great video. This issue is so uniquely American. You should read the account of Harriet Tubman fighting for the life/liberty of a "runaway slave", Charles Nalle, whose persecutor was his own half brother. The Troy, NY news paper accounts of the time noted how similar the two looked, at times not being able to tell one from the other in the ensuing struggle.

    • @nytn
      @nytn  4 місяці тому

      I grew up in Troy so that is wild to see!

  • @TheKatdawg65
    @TheKatdawg65 4 місяці тому +6

    I'm pretty sure in the old days, I would have been considered an octoroon...

    • @brianvesta
      @brianvesta 4 місяці тому +1

      I mean no disrespect but in the old days alot of white men loved to get their hands on a woman of your type.....

  • @rroadmap
    @rroadmap 3 місяці тому +1

    Rather than choosing Black or White, they should be able to claim both. As you say, race is just something used to divide us. Having mixed children identify with all parts of their ancestry will help get rid of the division. I've told my daughter and grandchildren not to let anybody from any race put them in a box.

  • @fortelewisandrew2426
    @fortelewisandrew2426 4 місяці тому +5

    They should make a movie about his life. But Hollywierd might muck it up. At least Walter White acknowledged his roots unlike a certain head of the FBI who made it his unholy mission to undermind his own people.

    • @brianvesta
      @brianvesta 4 місяці тому +2

      Hollywood would probably put Denzel Washington in the star role.....

    • @fortelewisandrew2426
      @fortelewisandrew2426 4 місяці тому

      @@brianvesta You made my point exactly with the fan casting. Hollywierd would muck it up on this alone.

  • @adrianwells6865
    @adrianwells6865 4 місяці тому

    I love that you are finding about all the Black great leaders,I learned about him in elementary school and read this book in middle.

  • @kaykreatesbeautyartist
    @kaykreatesbeautyartist 4 місяці тому +3

    I feel most black people can tell if someone maybe black. It’s just this feeling of familiarity. Not 100 percent but majority. Could be the Louisiana influence 🤔 .

  • @sasi6897
    @sasi6897 4 місяці тому +2

    @nytn there's a podcast you might be interested in by The Experiment; "How 'Passing' Upends a Problematic Hollywood History"
    Features Rebecca Hall, who did a few podcasts/interviews when her movie came out, but this was the best I think.

  • @iaindcosta
    @iaindcosta 4 місяці тому +4

    Thank you for uploading information about this remarkable man

  • @valstone52
    @valstone52 4 місяці тому +1

    My mother had two brothers who definitely looked white, he was the darkest one. But it was probably came from being mixed with Caucasian and native American. So I'm v proud. Because no one is pure anything., thank you. 😊

  • @jamesgreenldn
    @jamesgreenldn 4 місяці тому +4

    Yeah Mr. White, Yeah science!

    • @SunnyDaysAOK
      @SunnyDaysAOK 4 місяці тому +1

      Race is a social construct. Walter White was legally and socially Black in an American societal context. More importantly, an inclusive definition of American Blackness was and is a good thing. Rejecting notions of racial purity and embracing an ethnic/cultural identity builds a healthier, stronger, and more dynamic community (especially if such a community eschews colorism and champions the beauty of a diverse ethnic phenotype).

    • @SartoriallyBlack
      @SartoriallyBlack 4 місяці тому +2

      @@SunnyDaysAOKThey are quoting Jesse from “Breaking Bad.” Walter White was the main character. The TV show was the first thing I thought of too when I saw the title of the video, and why I clicked on it, lol.

  • @amandadenney6482
    @amandadenney6482 4 місяці тому +1

    I hadn't heard of this man. Thank you for sharing.

  • @jeanettegarrod-williams9150
    @jeanettegarrod-williams9150 3 місяці тому +3

    As a bi-racial person, I hate that oftentimes people want you to choose which race you are. I am all of the above but I do identify as a black person. I will not omit my white Father's side. My parents were married when it was illegal in some places.

  • @PerryWalker-og5js
    @PerryWalker-og5js 4 місяці тому +1

    This is a interesting topic, it cracks me up how some people don't realize there are some biracial people with no pigmentation they aren't passing for white they are white skinned. One the flip side there are dark skinned mixed people in the world, I know that's a great revaluation for some