Gordon is a graduate student wanting to develop a projection model for understanding race in the future. he consults with sociologist jennifer lee, and she recommends that he study:

She recommends that he study: "the "black/nonblack" divide".

The reason behind this is that distinctions between blacks and all other groups when together are becoming increasingly important.

Contemporary nonwhite migration from Latin America and Asia, expanding racial/ethnic intermarriage, and the developing number of multiracial people has made the dark white shading line now appear to be behind the times in America, thus bringing up the issue of whether the present shading line is developing in new ways toward either a white-nonwhite partition, a dark nonblack partition, or another tri-racial chain of command. Keeping in mind the end goal to measure the arrangement of the present shading line, we inspect designs of multiracial distinguishing proof.