History Main / OneDropRule

** The conspiracy theory about Obama being born in Kenya and therefore not qualifying to be US president really exists only because of this. Not only was his ''mother'' white, she was also an American-born citizen (and one with a family history going back to the first settlers in Virginia, at that), so he would still qualify as a "natural-born citizen" even if he was not born on US territory.

* Mixed race Bette and fully black Yolanda on ''Series/TheLWord'' discuss racial politics, and at one point Yolanda [[InvokedTrope brings this up]] to tell Bette why Bette is still considered 'black'. Bette retaliates by [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asking]] [[DefiedTrope if she's going to let White America define her identity.]] Bette notes that she could [[HidingYourHeritage pass for white]], but never does, consciously embracing having black heritage and always calling herself biracial rather than to deny either of her parents implicitly.

* Mixed-race Bette and fully black Yolanda on ''Series/TheLWord'' discuss racial politics, and at one point Yolanda [[InvokedTrope brings this up]] to tell Bette why Bette is still considered 'black'. Bette retaliates by [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asking]] [[DefiedTrope if she's going to let White America define her identity.]] Bette notes that she could pass, but never does, consciously embracing having black heritage and always calling herself biracial rather than to deny either of her parents implicitly.

** "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E1InThroesOfIncreasingWonder In Throes of Increasing Wonder...]]": Louis de Pointe du Lac mentions to Daniel Molloy that his family is mixed-race, and in former times were somewhat more privileged as free people of color. With Jim Crow, however, racist state laws apply no matter what, even when only one of his grandparents was entirely black. Louis just calls himself "Negro," the term used then, and the laws would have classified him as such.

Compare to HalfBreedDiscrimination (when there's more than just one drop) and UnevenHybrid (when the one drop doesn't result in any discrimination) . Contrast to ButNotTooBlack. Revealing that a character falls under the One-Drop Rule can result in a PassFail.

** Louis de Pointe du Lac mentions that his family is mixed-race, and in former times were somewhat more privileged as free people of color. With Jim Crow, however, racist state laws apply no matter what, even when only one of his grandparents was entirely black. Louis just calls himself "Negro," the term used then, and the laws would have classified him as such.
** However, it's worth noting that in the presence of his French boyfriend, [[https://mymycorrhizae.tumblr.com/post/697029452584075264/iwtv-s01e02 Louis identifies himself as "Creole" in the second episode.]] He makes a point about how he and Lestat de Lioncourt are labelled in America ("Colored. White.") and France ("Creole. French.") based on their race. While America's one-drop rule means that Louis' French ancestry is completely ignored, in France, he is more likely to be recognized as biracial, and thus he would be called ''Créole'' rather than ''Nègre''. Lestat certainly views Louis as Creole because the [[MixedAncestryIsAttractive latter's mixed heritage is a turn-on for him]].

** [[TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragonsSecondEdition AD&D 2nd Edition]] went there with half-elves right in the ''Player's Handbook'', where the children of a half-elf could only ever be a half-elf themselves or else essentially human with some cosmetic elvish features depending on the other parent, but never an actual 'proper' elf. This isn't even presented as prejudice (which could vary by setting), but just as biological ''fact''.

* Under Nazi Germany's notoriously anti-Semitic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws Nuremberg Laws,]] a person with one Jewish grandparent was ''Mischling'' Second Degree, with limited legal rights. The [=SS=] was even stricter -- if you wanted to join, you had to prove that all your direct ancestors going back to 1750 were non-Jewish. Depending on how long one considers one generation to be, this could involve proving Aryan ancestry back 8 or 9 generations. However, given that the records used contained religion and not ethnicity, one could even have had completely Jewish ancestry and be classified as full "Aryan," if all your (distant) ancestors were converts. Of course, it's moot since their racial theory was nonsense-European Jews have a lot of shared DNA with other groups there since (by intermarriage or affairs) mixing occurred historically anyway very often.