An intriguing article by Thomas Chatterton Williams in VQR on how our own perceptions of our identity differ from how the world sees us and how we are treated in society. This re-shaping of the self in response to what the outer world dictates is exactly what the Mischlinge went through in Germany, being designated as “of mixed race.” I remember my godmother telling of the way her life in school changed as more and more laws were passed; how the girls who had accepted her as Christian rejected her, and how eventually she was then rejected by the Jewish girls as well, for being not Jewish enough. . . 

Read Williams’ article, “Black and Blue and Blond: Where does race fit in the construction of modern identity?” here: http://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2015/01/black-and-blue-and-blond