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Still, for some young biracial people like her who came up during the hip-hop era, identity seems more like a personal issue than a social one -- even though the latter still exists in a big way.

Hernandez says that in her old neighborhood, "it was majority Spanish, Asian and black."

She attended racially diverse schools and recalls that other kids didn't give her a hard time about her father being Costa Rican and her mother being African-American. But with her long, soft, curly hair and caramel skin, she found the most acceptance among Hispanic friends.

Later on, as a young woman, she began to think of herself more as "black," one of the reasons she decided to attend NCCU, where she is arts and entertainment editor at The Campus Echo newspaper.

"The [historically black college] thing was kind of an added bonus," she says. "I really wanted to connect and meet people, and be surrounded by people that were like me, and be taught by people that looked like me."

For a young woman with two black half-brothers from a black father, the search for identity continues to be complicated and ever-changing.

"Lately, I've been kind of wanting to embrace the Costa Rican side of myself more," she says.

She thinks Obama's lighter skin tone makes it "easier" for him as a black candidate.

"If he were dark-skinned, if he were Don Cheadle or something, I think it would be different," she says. "I feel like people have that complex -- dark skin, light skin."

Change over time

The perception of what is dark skin versus what is light skin varies, of course, from person to person. Geremy Gills of Raleigh, who is black, says that when he first saw Obama delivering his famous 2004 Democratic Convention speech, he had no idea the senator was biracial.

"I thought he was just 100 percent black," Gills says.

He figures that his nearly 2-year-old son Cameron, whose mother is white, will be perceived as black by society, because of his dark skin color. Should Obama win the election and be re-elected, he would be the only president a 10-year-old Cameron would know.

"I'm hoping that maybe it'll shine a light in his head," Gills says: " 'Wow, this guy could run for president. He's basically the same as I am. I could do the same thing.' "

Many polls give Obama a double-digit lead in North Carolina over Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton going into next Tuesday's primary. Professor Boxill says that old-time Southern Dixiecrat hatred of "race-mixing" seems very distant.

"It's just incredible how things have changed," he says. "There is progress. Not that everything is perfect. But compared to what it was 50 years ago, the very idea that people can witness race mixing and not get all angry about it is fantastic."

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