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Passing, in the context ofrace, occurs when one conceals their socially applied racial identity orethnicity in order to be perceived as another race for acceptance and/or other benefits.[1] Historically, the term has been used primarily in theUnited States to describe a person of mixed race who hasassimilated into thewhite majority to escape the legal and social consequences ofracial segregation anddiscrimination. In theAntebellum South, passing as White was sometimes a temporary disguise used as a means of escapingslavery, which had become a racial caste.
Althoughanti-miscegenation laws outlawingracial intermarriage existed in the North American Colonies as early as 1664,[2] there were no laws preventing or prosecuting the rape of enslaved girls and women. Rape of slaves was legal and encouraged during slavery to increase the slave population. As a result, for generations, enslaved women (who might also be mixed-race) bore mixed-race children who were deemed "mulattos", "quadroons", "octoroons", or "hexadecaroons" based on their percentage of "black blood".[3]
Although these mixed-race people were often half White or more, institutions ofhypodescent and the 20th-centuryone drop rule in some states – particularly in theSouth – classified them as black and therefore, inferior, particularly after slavery became a racial caste. But there were other mixed-race people who were born in colonial Virginia among the working class to unions or marriages between free white, almost exclusively Irish, women and African or African-American men, free, indentured, or slave, and became ancestors to many free families of color in the early decades of the United States, as documented by Paul Heinegg in hisFree African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware.[4]
For some people, passing as White and using their whiteness to uplift other black people was the best way to undermine the system that relegated black people to a lower position in society.[5] These same people that were able to pass as white were sometimes known for leaving the African American community and getting an education, later to return and assist withracial uplifting. Although the reasons behind the decision to attempt to pass are deeply individual, the history of African Americans passing as white can be categorized by the following time periods: theantebellum era, post-emancipation,Reconstruction throughJim Crow, and present day.[6]: 4
During theantebellum period, passing as white was a means of escaping slavery. Once they left the plantation, escaped slaves who could pass as white found safety in their perceived whiteness. To pass as white was to pass as free.[6]: 4 However, once they gained their freedom, most escaped slaves intended to return to blackness—passing as white was a temporary disguise used to gain freedom.[6]: 28 Once they had escaped, their racial ambiguity could be a safeguard to their freedom. If an escaped slave was able to pass as white, they were less likely to be caught and returned to their plantation. If theywere caught, white-passing slaves such asJane Morrison[7] could sue for their freedom, using their white appearance as justification for emancipation.[6]: 30
Post-emancipation, passing as white was no longer a means to obtain freedom. As passing shifted from a necessity to an option, it fell out of favor in the black community. Author Charles W. Chestnutt, who was born free in Ohio as a mixed-race African American, explored circumstances for persons of color in the South after emancipation, for instance, for a formerly enslaved woman who marries a white-passing man shortly after the conclusion of Civil War. Some fictional exploration coalesced around the figure of the "tragic mulatta", a woman whose future is compromised by her being mixed race and able to pass for white.[citation needed]
During theReconstruction era, black people slowly gained some of the constitutional rights of which they were deprived during slavery. Although they would not secure "full" constitutional equality for another century until after passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1964 andVoting Rights Act of 1965, reconstruction promised African Americans legal equality for the first time. Abolishing slavery did not abolish racism. During Reconstruction whites tried to enforce white supremacy, in part through the rise ofKu Klux Klan chapters, rifle clubs and later paramilitary insurgent groups such as theRed Shirts.[8]
Passing was used by some African Americans to evade segregation. Those who were able to pass as white often engaged in tactical passing or passing as white in order to get a job, go to school, or to travel.[6]: 29 Outside these situations, "tactical passers" still lived as black people, and for this reason, tactical passing is also referred to as "9 to 5 passing."[6]: 29 The writer and literary criticAnatole Broyard saw his father pass in order to get work after hisLouisiana Creole family moved north to Brooklyn before World War II.
This idea of crossing the color line at different points in one's life is explored inJames Weldon Johnson'sAutobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.[9] But the narrator closes the novel by saying "I have sold my birthright fora mess of pottage",[10] meaning that he regrets trading his blackness for whiteness. The idea that passing as white was a rejection of blackness was common at the time and remains so to the present time.[6]: 30
African-American people also chose to pass as whites during Jim Crow and beyond. For example,United States civil rights leaderWalter Francis White conducted investigations in the South during which he passed aswhite to gather information onlynchings andhate crimes, and to protect himself in socially hostile environments. White, who had blond hair, blue eyes and a light complexion, was ofmixed-race, mostly European ancestry. Twenty-seven of White's 32 great-great-great-grandparents were white; the other five were classified as black and had been slaves. White grew up with his parents inAtlanta in the black community and identified with it. He served as the chief executive of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1929 until his death in 1955.
In the 20th century,Krazy Kat comics creatorGeorge Herriman, aLouisiana Creole cartoonist born tomulatto parents, passed as white throughout his adult life. Around this time, those who passed as white were referred to through French Creole slang aspassant (passing)à blanc orpour blanc (as white).[11][12][13]
The aforementioned 20th-century writer and critic Anatole Broyard was a Louisiana Creole who chose to pass for white in his adult life inNew York City andConnecticut. He wanted to create an independent writing life and rejected being classified as a black writer. In addition, he did not identify with northern urban black people, whose experiences had been much different from his as a child in New Orleans' Creole community. He married an American woman of European descent. His wife and many of his friends knew he was partly black in ancestry. His daughter Bliss Broyard did not find out until after her father's death. In 2007, she published a memoir that traced her exploration of her father's life and family mysteries entitledOne Drop: My Father's Hidden Life: A Story of Race and Family Secrets.
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Edward Stirling, one of the early British settlers in South Australia, was the illegitimate child of a Scottish slaveholder in Jamaica and an unidentified woman of colour. Financed by his father'sslave compensation, he passed as Scottish after arriving in Australia and became one of the colony's wealthiest individuals. He and his sonsLancelot andEdward Charles Stirling were all members of parliament.[14]
Leslie Joseph Hooker, the founder of one of Australia's real estate firmsLJ Hooker, concealed his Chinese ancestry during his lifetime, including changing his birth surname of Tingyou.[15][16]
Similarly to the African-American practice, manyAboriginal Australians have passed as white to avoid legal and social discriminations.[17] In the iconic autobiographyMy Place, a central theme isSally Morgan, whose family passed asIndians, discovering her Aboriginal heritage.
Examples of racial passing have been used by people to assimilate into groups other than European. Marie Lee Bandura, who grew up as part of theNew Westminster Indian Band in British Columbia, was orphaned and believed she was the last of her people. She moved toVancouver's Chinatown, married a Chinese man, and raised her four children believing they were Chinese and French. One day she told her daughter Rhonda Larrabee about her heritage: "I will tell you once, but you must never ask me again." Marie Lee Bandura had chosen to hide her roots due to the prejudice she faced.[18][19]
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