"You can't trust a mulatto"?

Often even to this day, sometimes people will say stuff along the lines of "you can't trust a mulatto" this is echoed by both whites and blacks, especially back in the slave times.

Why?

One would be surprised considering how much biracial people helped out the black race, people like Frederick Douglass and as recent people like Barack Obama.

The "you can't trust a mulatto" is a stereotype...or maybe.

The problem lies in allegiance. Peoples problems with mulattoes stem from the fact that they thought they were "unpredictable".

Modern examples of this could be how some biracials use the fact that their black to their advantage in some cases (such as college scholarships), but at the same time assert on a verbal level that they are not black (but this is partially also egged on by the fact that the gov't and society itself still hasn't fully given biracial people their own check mark).

But in some slave plantations the mulatto was given a "higher" job sometimes, while in others they were given harsh jobs for the sheer fact that they were "half breeds".

The main reason people are unsure of a mulattoe's allegiance has to do with the fact that some would try to pass and others wanted to use their lighter complexion to their advantage.

I mean, one has to look in context at the time...if you had a chance to escape a terrible fate for just being black, wouldn't you? In doing this, that kind of sets in motion the idea that you can't trust a mulatto because you do not know where they stand. Essentially society feels one should divide and choose rather than use being of 2 races to your advantage.

I stated in a previous post that no one has the same opportunities...if you can use your race to your advantage, why woudn't you? Those who make you feel bad for it are the same people that would leave you hanging if you did the "right" thing.