One-drop rule
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The One-drop rule is a term referring to Jim Crow classification of black as anyone with black ancestry. Regardless of one's appearance, any African parentage meant you were legally considered a black person for the purposes of segregation. In non-American usage, this concept is referred to as hypodescent, and is sometimes also applied to non-racial classes.
By the one-drop definition of race, miscegenation has the consequence that the ratio of "black" people (including people of mixed ancestry) to white people increases over time; see white extinction gambit.