Reply to comment

-- from "one drop = black," namely trying to account for every drop and assigning a classification to every possible combination, as in apartheid-era South Africa. I remember reading a story in the L.A. Times, sometime around 1979 or 1980, about all the official classifications for different mixes, with people petitioning the government and submitting to examinations to get their classification change, and the statistics of people granted changes from which category to which. It seems incredible now.

I also remember my own '40s and '50s childhood during which the only black people I ever saw were maids, and the word "black" was considered just as bad as the N-word. I'm very glad I've lived to see some change from that.

Once again, nice article.