Mulatto, Quadroon, Somewhere Between.
"I want to tell you what for me it has been like.
To speak at all, I must occupy a position
in a system whose positions I appear not to occupy.
Though some say such non-position is my position,
speak from that placeless place outside the system, et cetera,
some would say and have said.
If the placeless place is created by terms of the system,
then it must be within the system,
even if it appears otherwise.
And so it may be that the position presumed to be of body
might better be regarded as a position of thought
or a receptivity to possible experience, as conceived
by the still implausible eye of a man who defined
the flimsy self he carried against those whom he did not
understand, or know, or in any real sense, see.
And if the possible vision of that implausible
I accounted for you in name only, then
filed you under consequence, side effect,
it is not that the system fails to position you.
It positions you actively and specifically nowhere so
that you appear on the outside and remain within,
or you appear within, but remain on the outside.
Which is to say, in other words, a part and a part.
And so if to speak in a particular social world,
I must occupy a position, and that world consists
of positions that are clear, but none of which clearly I occupy,
then it may be that I cannot, even if I want to, tell you
what, for me, it has been like.
And so."