Official Colored category absorbed anyone failing crisp racial classification

Evidence

Ideologists of apartheid proposed an ingenious, pernicious solution: in addition to Afrikaner-English and black-white-Indian segregation, segregation within the African population. Although nineteenth century regimes had commonly applied the term “Colored” to all non-Europeans, officially designated “Colored people”—8 percent of the national population in 1936—now contained the overflow: nonwhite people who could not be forced into one of the standard categories (Goldin 1987). — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 563

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what the official ‘Colored’ category was: a residual overflow category for the unclassifiable.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 563
• XREF: connects to: Racial categories were administratively imposed rather than biologically fixed — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 216; Racial classification criteria vary wildly by culture and era — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1564; Hypodescent rules make mixed-race people statistically impossible to classify as anything but black — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 721 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Hypodescent rules make mixed-race people statistically impossible to classify as anything but black #expands (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 721
• Racial classification criteria vary wildly by culture and era #exemplifies (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1564
• American racial taxonomy logically makes mixed race impossible #corroborates (0.80)
• Racial categories are unstable and shift through contested definition #corroborates (0.76)
• Colonial classifications imposed race categories that subjects never recognized as their own #expands (0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 650
• Racial categories are unstable social meanings reshaped by political struggle #corroborates (0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1241
• Racial categories were administratively imposed rather than biologically fixed #expands (0.74) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 216
• Colonial classification suppressed internal diversity under one inaccurate label #expands (0.73)