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You can argue Sorites paradox all way down but it isn't useful. I'll grant that some mixed people might be considered "white" in African setting and "black" in American setting. But in this sense "mulatto" would be correct for most cases.
It makes sense because majority of world population is not product of recent mixing.
Actually average amount of Euro admixture in African American is about 20%, only slightly below your 1/4.
You can put either individuals' genotypes or phenotypes in any biological classifying software without telling it which "race" they are and yet the software will classify it like 19th century racists would.
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