Black and white

A review in the November 2nd issue of the New Yorker by Nicholas Lemann discussed the compromises made when the Civil War ended and the South was re-incorporated into the Union.  The South lost the war, but many of its ideas that were “southern” became part of “American” way of thinking.

Here’s one you might never have thought of.  (I didn’t before I read the review.)  The definition in the U.S. of who is “black” and who is “white” is a southern holdover.  What is President Obama with a white mother and a black father?  He is “black.”  We accept that someone who has one black  great-grandparent out of eight is labeled black.

Isn’t that strange?  That is a legacy of southern culture which is now part of the national culture.  You have to admit that is weird.