Quadroon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quadroon, octoroon and, more rarely, quintroon were historically racial categories of hypodescent used in Latin America and parts of the 19th century Southern United States, particularly Louisiana. Quadroon (from the Spanish cuarterón "quarter") denoted someone of one quarter black ancestry: a person with three white grandparents and one black grandparent. Likewise, octoroon denoted a person of one eighth black ancestry, and quintroon (quint- here implying "fifth generation") or, less commonly, hexadecaroon described a person of one sixteenth black ancestry. The terms were also used in Australia to refer to people of mixed Aboriginal and European ancestry.
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[edit] Culture and law
This cultural classification differed somewhat from the "one-drop theory" current in most of the United States, in that it recognized a higher social status for black-descended persons by degree of majority white ancestry. Nevertheless, persons of minority black ancestry in these cultures were still heavily discriminated against and often subject to slavery.
In the United States, the Jim Crow laws generally followed the "one-drop theory"; hence the case of Homer Plessy, a Louisiana man of one-eighth black ancestry.
By the latter 20th century, these terms had almost totally faded from use, being generally considered racist and obsolete.[citation needed]
[edit] Famous quadroons and octoroons
A number of notable people might have been described as quadroons, or might have been had they lived in a time or culture where such words were current. These include the French writer Alexandre Dumas, père, the Brazilian writer Joaquim Machado de Assis, actress Carol Channing, singer Mariah Carey, the NCAA Florida Gator champion Joakim Noah, Wentworth Miller, Patrick Francis Healy, Vin Diesel, Cassie, and Sally Hemings. Famous octoroons include Alexandre Dumas, fils, Henriette DeLille, Aleksandr Pushkin, Homer Plessy, and Peter Ustinov.
[edit] In popular culture
- Quadroons and octoroons of the tragic mulatta archetype were a popular subject of 19th century literature through early 20th century cinema, as in the films The Octoroon and The White Slave; or, The Octoroon, both released in 1913.
- American musician Laura Love has embraced the label "octoroon", and released an 1997 album entitled The Octoroon.
- The first season of MADtv included a popular sketch entitled "The Octoroon." Memorable quotes include: "Once you go octoroon, you'll be wanting more soon!"
- In Walter Mosley's book, Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World, a plague released by a fascist group to eliminate black people is instead mutated and infects and kills anyone who is less than 12.5% (one-eighth) black.
- An episode of the FX Networks series Nip/Tuck dealt with a Neo-Nazi girl discovering that her mother is an octoroon, making her a quintroon; in an attempt to hide the fact from her father, she subsequently disfigured herself while trying to bleach her skin whiter.
- Poet Ogden Nash used the term Octoroon Coffee to indicate a very weak brew.
- An episode of the short-lived Comedy Central program Stella included a scene in which Michael Ian Black accused David Wain of living a lie, as he was not truly white, but an octoroon.
