Re-Birth of a Nation?

[Number23]

3. Utterly fascinating read here on the entire Tragic Mulatto experience in American literature/film

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/mulatto/

And yes, there is a bit of discussion on ol' Silas in Birth of a Nation. But if this bit ain't the weirdest thing I've ever read...

"Mulattoes did not fare better in other books and movies, especially those who passed for White. In Nella Larsen's novel Passing (1930), Clare, a mulatto passing for White, frequently is drawn to Blacks in Harlem. Her bigoted White husband finds her there. Her problems are solved when she falls to her death from a sixth story window. In the movie Show Boat (1936), a beautiful young entertainer, Julie, discovers that she has "Negro blood." Existing laws held that "one drop of Negro blood makes you a Negro." Her husband (and the movie's writers and producer) take this "one drop rule" literally. The husband cuts her hand with a knife and sucks her blood. This supposedly makes him a Negro. Afterward Julie and her newly-mulattoed husband walk hand-in-hand. Nevertheless, she is a screen mulatto, so the movie ends with this one-time cheerful "White" woman, now a Negro alcoholic."