Social practice, not genetics, assigns mixed-ancestry persons to racial categories.

Evidence

There is now general agreement that when in English-speaking countries reference is made to race, as, for example, in instances of racial discrimination, the reference is to race as a social construct and not a biological category. The social nature of the category can be demonstrated by considering the position of persons of mixed origin. In the United States a person of 90 percent African and 10 percent European ancestry may consider himself or herself, and be considered by others, to be black, or African-American. It is social practice and not genetics which decides that person’s position. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 675

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to general ‘race as social construct’ literature and hypodescent rules in US history. — connects to: Racial identity is a dynamic bricolage, not a fixed biological given.; Races are produced by racism, not biology, through imperial practice — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 88; Heterogeneity does not disqualify a group from holding racial identity. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 61 (+1 more)