Paternity recognition alone conferred European status on mixed-race colonials.

Evidence

There are scores of so-called Europeans who consider themselves far above the native and therefore make so many higher demands, who are only counted as European because a European recognized him and gave him his name, but did nothing further for the upbringing of the person recognized, who in thought and in inclination is fully like the native, yes often even beneath him. Why do people now judge one of the two by another standard? The question can have no answer. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 893

Categorization

• QUESTION: This ‘the question can have no answer’ is a knowing rhetorical move — worth investigating how the author deploys archival quotations to build her argument about class inflecting race.