The nature of liberalism is to be flexible and adaptive at the same time it always secures a certain kind of past for the future.
In Zen communities across North America, there are awakenings afoot about inclusivity in sanghas. We must be careful to understand and recognize the limits of simple representation, naive words, and questions of attitude.
I have been an advocate of history, more history, and still more. Seeing things as they are now, particularly with respect to inclusivity issues, involves history. This moment includes all previous ones across time and space.
Hypo-descent (also known as the drop rule) is a figurative part of the contemporary moment. Sure, the U.S. has gone from hypo-descent (and blood quantum) to ethnic and racial categories (and genealogy), and exclusion policies are generally replaced by notions of assimilation, integration, inclusivity.
But the foundational work of hypodescent is recognition of the humanity of others.