Paula can't pass for white.
Most of the women who passed back then couldn’t pass for white today.
They looked like Mariah Carey, Meghan Markle-ish. Obviously not full White to us nowadays, but back then they just claimed to be French, Spanish, or Italian or some “exotic” European that wasn’t around in the US in great numbers. So that little hint of olive skin wasn’t indicative of being mixed, it was just “the way Spaniards look”, etc cuz nobody here was traveling to Europe and actually interacting with Spaniards, Italians, French, Greek, Portuguese, etc.
People who are as removed from their Black ancestry like Hailee are actually white. Racism is why they aren’t considered white. Someone with her same background, just replace her Black ancestor with an indigenous person or another Asian ancestor and she would’ve been considered WHITE. Back then.