"passing"

why is it I find myself explaining my child's heritage to whomever seems bewildered? My daughter is 21 now and yet to this day she is questioned about her "race". I am White-snow white-paper white. Her father (my ex husband is Black-very dark) My daughter is only a little darker than me but has dark hair and very dark eyes (I am a redhead with blueeyes) . For the past 21 years I have been questioned ("are you sure its his?") accused ("you are lying") and looked at like I was crazy. Sometimes I want to beat these ignorant people over the head-have they never heard of racially mixed people in the past who actually "passed" as White-pretended to not be Black and were so light that no one suspected a thing??!! My ex and I also have twin sons, born when our daughter was 18 months old..one is only a little darker than my daughter but has a curly tight afro-so no one asks about him. The other twin is even darker. My kids have been called every name you can imagine~but have learned to live with it~now that my kids are having their own kids~well you can imagine we are a family of colors~but I love our diversity!