re: #200 Sergey Romanov

…but it would be absurd to call her black.

By modern categories of race, yes.
By the archaic school of categories I’m describing, no.

In the case of Dumas fils, his family clout and money meant that other social markers buttressed him against being fully labelled black, so it was never more than an issue of teasing as a child and jibes as an adult. Other folks in a similar position with no backing? Labelled black under the law and had rights/priveledges subsequently taken.

Hence the aforementioned trickiness.