She wanted to know if he spoke English, because he looks like the typical Brazilian-medium, athletic build, brown skin, dark hair and dark eyes. But he's not Brazilian. He's American, and what most people in this country call black. He's black, or African American, even though his father is white. In this country we have the one drop rule-one drop of black blood makes one black.
Black blood is very strong stuff.
Brown is the largest government category in Brazil, with more than 60 percent of the population comprising the multiracial community. Recently a Brazilian college student attended Louisiana State University. We are absolutely fixated on racial and ethnic labels in this country. But in this society, they are set in stone. Baby boom Census categories are the way we officially catalogue our racial groups.