Why do people keep calling Gwen black?

It's not an American thing at all, it's a white thing. Anything darker than white, most people call black. It's particularly glaring in the case of people of mixed parentage: everyone calls Obama black, when in fact he's half and half; why are people who are half white, half black, always labelled according to the black half? Because, however we have progressed in terms of tolerance, belief in equality and justice, and all that, we still live in a white-centered society, psychologically speaking. White is the standard to which most brains refer, for obvious historical and cultural reasons, and anything departing from the standard is instinctively labelled according to that.

"Occasionally I'm callous and strange."

Bro she's black

I don't think it's racist of people, merely ignorant, when people guess someone's race they go with what they think is closest and usually don't bother to find out. Take it from me I grew up in a white community, there was one girl in my class who was obviously Native American and all others to me we "white" people, over the years I've found out that many of the "white" people who were a little tanner than I there's were part Native American or Hispanic or something else, but since my community consisted only of white people and people of "color" in my community were of mixed race and not true "black" or "red" or "yellow" it's always been hard for me to tell someone's race. Where I live people were either white or white and part something else, I even have a little Native American heritage but I look "white" and it's not been until recently that we've had people of color who are not mixed race move into the area (it's a sheltered place) and at first it was shocking to see people of full color in our community, not in a bad way or anything but just something I hadn't really seen before, it made me feel like Brendan Frasier's character in Blast from the Past where he's lived in a bomb shelter all his life and when emerges meets an African American mail-woman and he exclaims "oh my lucky stars! A negro!" So I don't believe most people are racist, just sheltered, and mixing of the cultures and races living together and understanding each other is much needed. Since my racial radar is no good and is just a labeling tool I've decided to take the healthy step of tossing it out and just referring to people as people.

I always thought she looked Maori. I prefer to call people by their names rather than their race.

To answer your question yes many people are ignorant.

"Do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else" -Whitman

Ignorance isn't limited to nationality or race. There's ignorant white people, ignorant Asians, ignorant black people, etc. Those blanket statements you made only show your own ignorance.

As for calling her black, I thought she was black too until someone on here said that she was part Indian and a fourth black. Big deal. I didn't think she was black because I thought she was an inferior being (because NO ONE is inferior because of color), I thought she was black because quite frankly, that's how she looks. People think I'm white all the time because that's how I look when I'm actually only half, but I don't get offended. People think my mom is Asian because of how she looks when she's actually Mexican, but she doesn't get offended because that's how she looks. Big deal.

It's just the damp of the first spring rain; I do not believe this darkness will endure. -Faramir

It's the same ignorant people who keep calling Porthos from BBC Musketeers "Black" who call Gwen the same, when clearly they are both Mixed race.

Don't think I don't understand loyalty just because I've got no one left to be loyal to.

I'm calling Gwen black because in the show her father was black. Her brother was definitely black. What else do you expect people to think?

She clearly blah blah blah