Editing One-drop rule (section)

==20th century and contemporary times==
In 20th-century America, the concept of the one-drop rule has been primarily applied by European Americans to those of native [[Demographics of Africa|African]] ancestry, when some Whites were trying to maintain some degree of overt or covert [[white supremacy]]. The poet [[Langston Hughes]] wrote in his 1940 memoir:
{{blockquote|You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word 'Negro' is used to mean anyone who has any native [[Demographics of Africa|African]] blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all African, therefore black. I am brown.<ref>Langston Hughes, ''The Big Sea, an Autobiography'' (New York: Knopf, 1940).</ref>}}

This rule meant many mixed-race people, of diverse ancestry, were simply seen as African-American, and their more diverse ancestors forgotten and erased, making it difficult to accurately trace ancestry in the present day.

Many descendants of those who were enslaved native Africans and trafficked by Europeans and Americans have assumed they have [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] ancestry. [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]]'s 2006 [[PBS]] documentary on the genetic makeup of African Americans, ''[[African American Lives]]'', focused on these stories of Native American heritage in African-American communities. [[Genealogical DNA test|DNA test]] results showed, after African, primarily European ancestors for all but two of the celebrities interviewed.<ref name="USAToday">{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/genetics/2006-02-01-dna-african-americans_x.htm|title=DNA rewrites history for African-Americans|date=2006-02-01|work=[[USA Today]]|author=Richard Willing|access-date=2008-08-05}}</ref> However, many critics point to the limitations of DNA testing for ancestry, especially for minority populations.<ref name="hur">{{cite web|url=http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3908 |title=Deep Roots and Tangled Branches |first=Troy |last=Duster |access-date=2008-10-02 |year=2008 |publisher=Chronicle of Higher Education |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726082531/http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3908 |archive-date=2011-07-26}}</ref><ref name="true2">{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071018145955.htm|title=Genetic Ancestral Testing Cannot Deliver on Its Promise, Study Warns| access-date=2008-10-02 |date= 20 October 2007 | work=ScienceDaily}}</ref><ref name="jh">{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/id/2138059|title=How African Are You? What genealogical testing can't tell you.|author=John Hawks|access-date=2010-06-26 |year=2008 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

During World War II, Colonel [[Karl Bendetsen]] stated that anyone with "one drop of Japanese blood" was liable for [[Internment of Japanese Americans|forced internment in camps]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://amhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/non-flash/removal_process.html|title=A More Perfect Union – Japanese Americans & the U.S. Constitution |website=amhistory.si.edu}}</ref>

Today there are no enforceable laws in the U.S. in which the one-drop rule is applicable. Sociologically, however, while the concept has in recent years become less acceptable within the Black community, with more people identifying as biracial, research has found that in White society, it is still common to associate biracial children primarily with the individual's non-White ancestry.<ref name=Davis/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/12/one-drop-rule-persists/|title='One-drop rule' persists - Biracials viewed as members of their lower-status parent group|website=The Harvard Gazette|first=Steve|last=Bradt|date=2010-12-09}}</ref>