Jordan is one of those surnames that can belong to almost any ethnicity. There are Jordans among my German-Jewish ancestors; they picked the name (presumably because of its Biblical associations) in 1812, when the Prussian government required all Prussian Jews to adopt hereditary surnames. I have cousins in Israel who spell the name as Yordan.
Yes, but Jordan is not generally thought of as a name for folks with an Asian ethnicity, which was my point, since the H is Korean and his boys are 1/2 Korean and 1/2 Chinese, ethnically.
Most black people descended from slaves will have non-African surnames. Slaves were not allowed to keep their own names, family connections, native languages, or religious beliefs after landing on these shores.
This percentage is growing at a remarkable rate, however. So quickly that a major national magazine (was it TIME magazine?) predicted that in something like 50 years, the average American will look quite racially ambiguous. I have to say that a good sized chunk of me takes a rather perverse pleasure in the assumption subverting affect this may have on people overly invested in the ability to easily categorize and dismiss people based on today’s conventional templates.
Reminds me of the head-exploding looks of confusion I sometimes glimpsed on the faces of people who overheard my white grandchildren (products of my stepson and his wife) call me “grandma” whenever we went out together.
However, a much larger percentage of white people in the US have “hidden” black or native American ancestry (that they may only notice if they dig around in their geneology). Also, due to ingrained social conventions regarding how people in the US are seen as black, most multiracial black people tend to be seen as black but not multiracial.
True dat, ucbalumnus. I think I read a number of years ago that approximately 25% of white Americans have some black ancestry. I wonder how accurate that number really is, though. Sounds awfully high, doesn’t it?
As for most multiracial black people being seen as black, that of course has everything to do with the infamous “one drop principle”, so strictly enforced here for a time. Historically, “black” people able to “pass”, who migrated north to escape oppression are probably the primigenitors of many whites surprised by the results of their genealogical research. My biracial children are genetically speaking more white than black. Their father’s grandparents on both sides were German immigrants to the United States. Combine that with the European ancestry on their mother’s side, and you get black people who are genetically less black than white, but who are reckoned to be fully black by the current rubric America uses to restrict privilege and influence. My children have, however, been frequently subjected to the “What are you?” inquiry, especially while growing up. S was suspected of being some flavor of “Arab” by coworkers in the his high security workplace, and D has had Indian people ask if she was also Indian.
But, they grew up in neighborhoods, and attended schools that are extremely diverse by American standards. They were by no means the only bi/multi-racial children among their friends and school peers. Our neighborhood is wonderful, in that most of us who live on this street know and are friendly with one another within 3-5 houses on either side of us. Many of us are active duty military, or former military, and we racially/ethnically/religiously run the gamut. I can’t imagine living in a place where there is little racial/ethnic diversity. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable. I think the key is having a great deal in common in the areas of economic parity, cultural values, and mutual respect. We on our street look out for one another, and keep an eye on each other’s property when we know someone will be away on vacation or deployment, for instance. I feel so sorry for those of you here who don’t know your neighbors, and never speak to them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/22/a-lot-of-southern-whites-are-a-little-bit-black/ suggests 3.5% of self-described white Americans have at least 1% black ancestry, but it is significantly higher in some states like South Carolina and Louisiana. http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/03/how_many_white_people_have_hidden_black_ancestry.html is another article on the subject. So is http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/science/23andme-genetic-ethnicity-study.html . They all seem to come from http://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/dna-usa-2/ .
Of course, “some” black ancestry could be less than 1%, so the percentage would be higher with a lower threshold than 1%.
I remember working with a woman who told me that her fiancee was so proud to have gotten into a WASPY club in the Hamptons in that he was Jewish. Struck me as odd that he’d want to be there even though she’d been a member since childhood.
Or my husbands Irish Catholic uncle saying the same thing about a Country Club on the Main Line.
If interested, I’d encourage testing at 23andme. My whole family did it. My mother does show a smidge of Sub-Saharan African DNA (.3%) and the same amount of East Asian.