One Drop Rule

Blount manipulates language to explore the intersections of race, identity, and history in his work. This print is part of a series (2021.60.3-.5) that concerns hypodescent, which, in the context of the United States, denotes the practice of identifying a person as Black based on their ancestry. For much of U.S. history, individuals with one-eighth African ancestry or "one drop" of African blood were considered Black, and enslaved people were counted as three-fifths of a free individual for determining congressional representation. The series illuminates how language has been mobilized to enact discriminatory and violent practices aimed at Black individuals, and how racial designations have determined their social status and legal rights. Blount created the prints using historic wood type during a residency he held at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, in 2017.