When I was a child...

[Warpy]

33. I look forward to the day when speculation about skin color

will be no more hurtful than speculating about hair color or whether the kid resembles Uncle Harry or Grandma Martha, just like any other physical trait. I think it's going to take us a long time to get there, the wounds of slavery are barely scabbed over.

Portugal abolished slavery within its borders in 1761, although Portuguese seafarers were heavily involved in the slave trade to the various colonies. At the time they abolished slavery within their borders, Portugal was 10% sub Saharan African. They are very mixed now and while they do have white supremacists, their number is dwindling. It can be done, but it was delayed in the US by the 100 year fiction of "separate but equal," which was anything but.

I don't know if the speculation about the color of her kids was mean spirited or not. It didn't matter, since someone who has been on the wrong side of a social hierarchy based on skin color and continental origin would find it so.

I think they're well away from the UK gutter press, which is considerably more savage than our own.