In 1953 Dr Saxtorph, medical advisor to the Greenland department (part of the Danish government), wrote that the Greenlanders do not like outsiders to see or discuss these birthmarks; "they doubtless feel as a reminiscence of the time when they lived on a low cultural level".The presence or absence of the slate grey nevus was used by racial theorists such as Joseph Deniker (1852-1918), the French anthropologist.The Journal of Cutaneous Diseases Including Syphilis, Volume 23 contained several accounts of the slate grey nevus on children in the Americas:

Holm ("Ethnological Sketch. Communications on Greenland," X., Copenhagen, 1887) announced the presence of the spot in the east part of Greenland. Bartels ("The So-Called Mongolian Spots on Infants of Esquimaux," Ethnologic Review, 1903) received letters regarding it from East Greenland and also from Esquimaux of Alaska. In half-breed European-Esquimaux, Hansen says he has encountered it. Among Indians of North Vancouver, British Columbia, there are observations made by Baelz as well as by Tenkate (secondhand). In the Mayas of Central America, Starrs (Data on the Ethnography of Western Mexico, Part H., 1902) facts are corroborated by Herman (Aparecimiento de la Mancha Mongolica. Revista de Ethnologia, 1904). He cites A. F. Chamberlain (Pigmentary Spots, American Anthropologist, 1902,) and Starr (Sacral Spots of Mayan Indians, Science, New Series, xvii., 1903). In Central America, according to these authorities, the spot is called Uits, "pan," and it is an insult to speak of it. It disappears in the tenth month. It is bluish-reddish (in these Native people), and is remarkable by its small size.
According to the Mexican Social Security Institute nationwide, around half of Mexican babies have the slate grey nevus.Central American indigenous children were subjected to racism due to their slate grey nevus but progressive circles began to make having the slate grey nevus popular after the late 1960s.Highland Peruvians have the slate grey nevus. Treatment
As a congenital benign nevus, Mongolian spots do not require treatment and in most cases disappear before adolescence. No cases of malignant degeneration have been reported. Cultural terminology
The slate grey nevus is referred to in the Japanese idiom shiri ga aoi (尻が青い), meaning "to have a blue butt", which is a reference to immaturity or inexperience. In Mongolian language, it is known as "Хөх толбо". Korean mythology explains the nevus as a bruise formed when Samshin halmi or Samsin Halmoni (Korean: 삼신할머니), a shaman spirit to whom people pray around childbirth, slapped the babys behind to hasten the baby to quickly get out from the mothers womb. "Mongolian Mark", the middle third of the 2004–5 novel The Vegetarian, is named after the title characters nevus, which obsesses her brother-in-law. In Chinese, it is referred to as "青痕" (Pinyin: Qīng Hén; literally: blue mark). Among common folk it is said to be caused by the Buddhist goddess of childbirth Songzi Guanyin (Simplified Chinese: 送子观音; Pinyin: Sòng Zǐ Guān Yīn; literally: the goddess of baby sending) when she is slapping the babys backside, telling it to be born.