Are there any black Chinese?


 There is a very high percentage of African-Americans with Chinese ancestry. If you are talking about people who are genetically both, then the answer is, yes, many. I am one of them. Back in the 1800s, Chinese male immigrants came to the USA behind the gold rush and other opportunities, but weren’t allowed to bring women with them. When they arrived here, they were only allowed to marry Native American or Black women, so they did. My ancestors co-founded a county in Texas called Robertson that was essentially for these Black wife-Chinese husband pairs.


Having said all that, I have to say I don’t think of myself as Asian, nor do I think most African Americans with ancestries similar to mine think of themselves as such either (ex. Oprah Winfrey, Mae Jemison, Tyson Beckford, Tatiana Ali, Ne-Yo, Whoopi Goldberg, and many more). Take what you will from this data.


As an aside, I'd love to see a movie made about two of my ancestors. Picture it, Texas in the 1800s.


Him: An immigrant from China trying to make a living in this new world.


Her: A Black woman who lived in a weird oasis in the middle of a slavery hell. But she actually wasn't enslaved herself, because her parents were bought and secretly freed by some Quakers from Britain via Canada who felt slavery was wrong and let them live on their land as equals.


They shack up shortly after the Civil War. Can you imagine the looks they got? The hardships they had to endure? They co-found part of a county specifically for Asian-Black marriages and their descendants. That has got to be an American story worth revisiting that most have never heard.

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