I, myself, am not of mixed race, but I understand one could have the choice of becoming a completely different person separate from your familiarity in order to exceed in life. “She wished to find out about this hazardous business of ‘passing’, this breaking away from all that was familiar and friendly to take one’s chances in another environment, not entirely strange, perhaps, but certainly not entirely friendly” Irene questioned (Larsen 118). Though, I don’t agree with Clare’s decision, it does have it’s appeal as well as my interest. Willingly ignoring and not acknowledging one’s black identity in order to gain an advantage was a reality for many, not only during this time period, but it is one that has been around for quite some time. The fact that living in a world as a black was so difficult that you had to conceal yourself as something different to prosper, is a sad but awful truth that many would carry out during this …show more content…
Although it left them with having to abandon their family and friends from their communities, it also gave them opportunities that a black person during that time didn’t have access to. There are many justifications that encouraged the ideal of passing, of the numerous included were: safety, economic convenience, education, legacy equality and privilege. Despite the fact that in the past passing was most commonly used by blacks, it now can refer to the crossing over of any line that divides social groups such as sexual orientation, religion and class. Even now there has been multiple occasions and recent headlines of white people actually trying to pass a mixed race blacks, this practice is one that still occurs among different racial groups for a variety of reasons. The idea of passing is one that is controversial and hard to understand, but when really looking at it, it truly is one just trying to be accepted by others around