The Question of Racial Mixing in the American Possessions
Keyword(s):
The Us
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This chapter discusses the imposition of the US system of racial classification in the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. The original use in certain US territories of a “mixed” racial category highlights the national norm that made mulattoes into “lighter-skinned” blacks. In the various territories acquired by the United States after 1898, a rigid imposition of the categories of the US census was difficult because they were the product of a national history that had not been shared. Whether in the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii the perception of what made a person black, white, or mulatto was very different from North American usage, showing that binary black and white mainland tradition was not working there.