By Allison Perrine
RED BANK – Have you ever thought about why in the U.S. people are often asked to identify themselves by race? At the doctor’s office, for example, you might be handed a form that requires you to check off a box if you are white, Black or Latinx. The question is a no-brainer for some people, but for others the answer is much trickier.
“As a half Black person, when I had to fill out college applications, I had to pick Black or white. I always picked other,” said Dee Moye Hoban, an attendee at the Red Bank Public Library’s latest installment of its Let’s Talk About Race program. “I was other for a very long time.” During the virtual event last Wednesday, panelists and attendees talked about the idea of “passing,” or as moderator Claire Phelps described it, “the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category, often different from their own.” This stands not only for race but for religion, gender identity and more, and it impacts people globally. “Historically, the term has been used primarily in the U.S. to describe a person of color or of multiracial ancestry who assimilated into the white majority to escape the legal and social conventions of racial segregation and discrimination,” said Phelps. “It’s not that these people really wanted to be white; they wanted to be free.”
The program kicked off with an over view of what “passing” means, along with a few video clips to show some examples of it happening in the world. The topic has been covered in several movies over time, most recently in the movie “Passing” which came out on Netflix this year. Phelps also provided some background on historical figures who passed, such as African American civil rights activist, former NAACP leader and journalist Walter White. Born in 1893, White traveled to the south to investigate lynchings and riots, often passing for white to gain access to the sites and to protect himself. While much of the conversation centered around Black people trying to pass for white, there are instances of passing within the Black community. There are also situations when white people try to pass as Black people, though as attendee Diem Jones said, some “like to pass in and out.” And Jones explained how “cultural co-opting” goes hand-in-hand with passing. “Cultural co-opting comes when we suppress people but we want to steal their culture,” he said, giving the example of hip-hop music. “I drove Uber for a while and it took me a long time before I would try driving at night because I did not want to be around drunk white people,” said Jones. “The most frustrating moment I had was picking up seven white high school girls singing… a hip-hop song. Of course, they weren’t trying to be anything other than who they were,” he said, but in the song they found “the freedom to use the N-word.”
Passing also occurs within the Black community. Phelps explained the “paper bag test” which was mentioned in one of the videos during the presentation. She said historically in the Black community if a person’s skin tone is darker than a brown paper bag, he or she may not be invited to join certain organizations, parties or events. “If you didn’t pass the paper bag test, you weren’t admitted. That’s some of the colorism within the Black community where you had to be lighter or just right at that level. I always found it offensive but that was a reality,” said Phelps. Library circulation super visor and adult program and outreach coordinator Linda Hewitt, who is part Jewish, lightly touched on passing within religious organizations. During the Holocaust, for example, she said “so many Jews tried to pass for anything but having Jewish heritage.” She also noted why some refugees from other countries might try to pass for a different religion or background. “As migration heats up, people are going to do everything they can to pass, to be somebody that they’re not. They’re trying to get someplace that’s safe to some degree,” Hewitt said.
While passing may be done to try and gain some privileges, it comes with negatives. Passing sometimes means having to cut off family members and friends for years, sometimes for a lifetime, Phelps noted. “And sometimes the fear of discovery always stays with people who take this route.” Attendee Birgit Monde sir said when discussing the concept of passing, the conversation should really be about “coming to terms” with what is and is not considered acceptable in society as an advantage or disadvantage. The only solution is to be yourself and be accepted in that form, she said. “That’s the only form of justice that we should be aspiring toward.”
The article originally appeared in the November 24 – December 1, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
