Alexandre Dumas was black?
I thought he was French.
Turns out he was just 3/4 French. Interestingly the 1/4 black thing wasn't such a massive deal in France in the early 1800's.
The crap you learn when watching exploitation movies that offend Spike Lee.
There was some Russian writer (Pushkin?) who was part-black, descended from one of those little black pages that were so popular for royalty in the early 18th century. His ancestor shows up in one of the portraits of Peter the Great.
ReplyDeleteThe French never had the anti-black prejudice we have; quite a few talented blacks went to France back in the old days to live in greater freedom.
Wasn't a big deal here either. a "Quadroon" IIRC was considered "White" so long as they weren't owned by anybody.
ReplyDeleteThe whole "Tarbrush" thing didn't come until later.