How does one qualify to be a "real black person"?
This is actually an interesting question on multiple levels.
In a societal sense, there's not actually any cut-off point where someone starts to be black or where they stop being black.
In a societal sense, it's a lot about how much melanin you have in your skin.
But there're folks who're considered white who have more melanin than some folks who're considered black.
The internet says that some white folks and folks of other races have been made honorary black folks — e.g. Clinton being the 'first black president'
There used to be a 'one drop rule'.
But I think that's been largely abandoned these days as unwieldy and stupid.
As far as how you are asking the question,
as in what constitutes 'American blackness' there's been a lot of discussion in recent decades about what that means and who gets to define it.
I have the impression that some younger black folks hold the opinion that 'blackness' is old-fashioned.
They don't want to respond to the pressures they feel to conform with societal norms of 'blackness' which grew out of the circumstances of the past.
They don't think it's reasonable to be called an Oreo just because they like some nerdy thing that some white folks also like (or w/e similar reason).
But the conversation about 'American blackness' is an ongoing thing with no established arbiters.
At least a notable portion of 'what it means to be black' comes from the feedback from environment where you live.
If you're treated as 'black', that's a notable portion of being 'black'.
'Blackness' seem to be kinda like a beard
you can tell when someone has a beard and when someone doesn't have a beard,
but it's hard to say precisely where the line between the two states is.
