Racial Passing
Introduction
The behavior of “passing” has been a repeated topic for many researchers. The post-civil war era, saw African American were still unable to merge into society as full and equal citizens. Whereas the civil war might have brought about a level of liberation and development of the African American community, there was little growth in social or economic status. The discernment of dominant White Americans towards African American remained unshifted. Consequently, oppression and stereotypes remain the fundamentals on which white American shaped their perception and attitude towards people of another race and ethnicity (separate is not equal, n.d). As minorities continued to be struck with limitations, racial segregation …show more content…
Kennedy asserts that passing requires the passer to self-identify differently than his or her public presentation which may perpetrates psychological and social impact on both the passer and the secret keeper who vows to remain tight-lip and even to pass on the street and look the other way in the interest of the passer successfully committing to life as a white person. Another author, Hobb (as cited in Bates, 2014), argues that, racial passing is an exile, which originated in the eighteenth-century as a mean to escape slavery as well as to mitigate the devastating effects of extensive institutional racism during the Jim Crow era. However, the ramifications of passing are the reality of dispossession from families and communities that, once abandoned, cannot easily be recovered or …show more content…
The following section will look at the new trend in racial passing. The topic of racial passing may well sound obsolete since African Americans have basically gained equality in white society. However, the practice of passing is no longer unique to light-skin African American and certainly has not disappeared from modern society. In very recent years there have been cases of whites claiming black heritage with the most recent being Rachael Dolezal who paved her way into claiming a black identity thus abandoning her German and Czech race. Ms. Dolezal, deceitfully and meticulously manufactured her identity as a black woman, she was vocal in black politics, lobbied for civil rights, married a black man and adopted two black sons (Hobbs, 2015). Dolezal according to Hobbs, became a proud “functioning” member of the black community holding leadership positions such as professor, chair of the office of the police ombudsman commission in the city of Spokane and president of its chapter of the African American civil rights organization NAACP. Given the history of the black community, being deceived by someone in leadership position is undeniably great cause for concern. Rachels used her knowledge of the black struggles to frame her life experiences to feel connected and a sense of belonging in the black community such as the deception of having to
Introduction
The behavior of “passing” has been a repeated topic for many researchers. The post-civil war era, saw African American were still unable to merge into society as full and equal citizens. Whereas the civil war might have brought about a level of liberation and development of the African American community, there was little growth in social or economic status. The discernment of dominant White Americans towards African American remained unshifted. Consequently, oppression and stereotypes remain the fundamentals on which white American shaped their perception and attitude towards people of another race and ethnicity (separate is not equal, n.d). As minorities continued to be struck with limitations, racial segregation …show more content…
Kennedy asserts that passing requires the passer to self-identify differently than his or her public presentation which may perpetrates psychological and social impact on both the passer and the secret keeper who vows to remain tight-lip and even to pass on the street and look the other way in the interest of the passer successfully committing to life as a white person. Another author, Hobb (as cited in Bates, 2014), argues that, racial passing is an exile, which originated in the eighteenth-century as a mean to escape slavery as well as to mitigate the devastating effects of extensive institutional racism during the Jim Crow era. However, the ramifications of passing are the reality of dispossession from families and communities that, once abandoned, cannot easily be recovered or …show more content…
The following section will look at the new trend in racial passing. The topic of racial passing may well sound obsolete since African Americans have basically gained equality in white society. However, the practice of passing is no longer unique to light-skin African American and certainly has not disappeared from modern society. In very recent years there have been cases of whites claiming black heritage with the most recent being Rachael Dolezal who paved her way into claiming a black identity thus abandoning her German and Czech race. Ms. Dolezal, deceitfully and meticulously manufactured her identity as a black woman, she was vocal in black politics, lobbied for civil rights, married a black man and adopted two black sons (Hobbs, 2015). Dolezal according to Hobbs, became a proud “functioning” member of the black community holding leadership positions such as professor, chair of the office of the police ombudsman commission in the city of Spokane and president of its chapter of the African American civil rights organization NAACP. Given the history of the black community, being deceived by someone in leadership position is undeniably great cause for concern. Rachels used her knowledge of the black struggles to frame her life experiences to feel connected and a sense of belonging in the black community such as the deception of having to