Race, in America, and thus through the extended power of America, the world is purely political. Every empire has a hook. Something that allows the people of the nation to gain all the confedence to take the chances that will make the nation strong. In the United States the notion was to have millions of peasants cross the ocean and say that they are white. White being a term used only by the European nobility for the greater part of history. Of cousre this process also happened in Europe at the time when Europeans satred to leave for other countries.
Race as a way of labling other people as expliotable. People have been finding ways to do this for centuries. In ancient times subserviant people were blinded, branded and many other methods that arose over time. In our century (and yes the past centuries more so) race and skin color. The world has been broken up so as to be easier concquered.
I am what for generations has been call Creole. This means that my ancestry comes from all three branches of the race tree. Despite this mix, In America I am purely black politically. So is Halle Barry. There are two ways to look at her but only one way in which she is viewed by the greater American public. She can be seen as mixed of race or she can be seen as black. In america she is black with all the implecations that brings along with the status.