Racial Passing Reflection

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I found this lecture to be very interesting. The way Alyson Hobbs talked about racial passing, about how context influences our identity, and about how racial passing still occurs today really spoke to me and allowed me to see more how we live in an ever changing world. She began the talk by discussing racial passing and what it is. How people of color would pass as white individuals in the past to have better opportunities in life. She then went on to discuss how she initially became interested in passing, and the story about how her cousin passed as a white woman for the entirety of her life. Finally, she wrapped up the talk with stories of passing, why those who passed chose to do so, and how racial passing is still occurring today. I learned a lot during the course of this talk.
First, I learned what racial passing was. Before this talk I had never heard of passing or even knew it was a thing. I also learned more about how our context and experiences influence our identity and our ethnicity. Something I already knew that was discussed in the talk was how people of color had less opportunities simply because they were not white. After attending this lecture I now view racial passing in a different light. For instance, I originally thought that Rachel Dolezal, the white …show more content…
Ethnicity is how you view yourself in context with your surroundings and what is going on in your life. By passing, one is changing their ethnicity to what they identify with, something we talked a good amount about in class. A specific example from the lecture, even though this is really what they entire lecture was about, is how her cousin changed her ethnicity from African American to Caucasian in order to get out of the south side of Chicago. After attending this lecture and thinking about what ethnicity really is, I was able to better grasp this concept in