tion, but instead were reenacted or reaffirmed, with even more rigorous definitions of whiteness, during the nineties when anti-black repression took multiple forms, legal and extralegal" (87-88). Twain's novel hints at both the racism of slavery as well as the racism of the world contemporary to his writing. In Latin America and the British West Indies, specific names were given to specific levels of miscegenation. Mulatto, or 1/2 white; sambo, or 1/4 white; quadroon, 3/4 white; mestizo, 7/8 white. Twain plays with these ridiculous levels of "whiteness" by making Roxy 1/16 black or 15/16ths white. Daring to be different Twain did not stop at mocking the racism of the world surrounding him but also attacked the false pride and self-importance that he saw in humanity. Never bowing before anyone Twain stepped up to the plate and wrote...
