Passing

:For other uses of the words pass or passing, see Pass.

Race

Racial or ethnic passing describes a member of a disadvantaged racial or ethnic group (usually member of a minority) who successfully tries to be accepted by others as another race or ethnicity, especially in the case of a person of mixed race or ethnicity being accepted as a member of the racial or ethnic majority. It is usually used derisively and is not considered politically correct to aspire to, attempt or accuse another person. It has therefore been used less often in recent years.

Related Topics:
Racial - Ethnic - Minority - Majority - Politically correct

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As an example, civil rights leader Walter Francis White, the chief executive of the NAACP from 1929 until his death in 1955, was of mixed race; five of his great-great-great-grandparents were black and the other 27 were white. When he went out on investigative assignments of lynchings and hate crimes he was forced to pass as Caucasian for his own safety. Other light-skinned persons, such as Lena Horne and Fredi Washington refused the opportunity to pass. Some darker-skinned people of European ancestry, such as the Greek-American musician Johnny Otis, or Jewish American musician Mezz Mezzrow, have chosen to pass as African Americans. Environmentalist Grey Owl was actually a white British man named Archibald Belaney, rather than a First Nations Canadian as he presented himself to be.

Related Topics:
Civil rights - Walter Francis White - NAACP - Lynching - Hate crime - Caucasian - Lena Horne - Fredi Washington - Greek-American - Johnny Otis - Jewish American - Mezz Mezzrow - Grey Owl - British - First Nations

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While it is extremely uncommon for dark-skinned Europeans to aspire to pass as African American, at some stages in history some Caucasoid peoples living in the United States, who may have at one time or another been excluded from White American society and categorized as non-Whites, allied themselves with African Americans and other coloured for common causes such as civil rights.

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African Americans passing as whites in the United States brought the possibility of running afoul of miscegenation laws in several states in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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See also: racial anonymity; whitewashing; blackface

Related Topics:
Racial anonymity - Whitewashing - Blackface

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Literature

In fiction, Passing is the title of a 1929 novel by Nella Larsen about a light-skinned African-American woman posing as white (ISBN 0142437271). (See Nella Larsen for a discussion.) Jessie Redmon Fauset's novel Plum Bun of the same year and Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel Imitation of Life featured similar plots to Passing, and the latter was made twice into successful films by Universal Pictures, first in 1934, and later in 1959. A recent passing narrative is Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain (ISBN 0375726349) (2000).

Related Topics:
Fiction - 1929 - Nella Larsen - African-American - Jessie Redmon Fauset - Plum Bun - Fannie Hurst - 1933 - Imitation of Life - Film - Universal Pictures - 1934 - 1959 - Philip Roth - The Human Stain - 2000

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The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams, and Love on Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White by Earl Lewis and Heidi Ardizzone are other non-fiction books on the topic. Also in non-fiction, Black Like Me is an account by journalist John Howard Griffin about his experiences as a Southern white man passing as a black in the late 1950s.

Related Topics:
Shirlee Taylor Haizlip - Gregory Howard Williams - Earl Lewis - Heidi Ardizzone - Non-fiction - Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin

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Pinky was a 1949 Oscar Award-winning film on the topic.

Related Topics:
Pinky - 1949 - Oscar Award

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2004 the Wayans brothers featured in the movie White Chicks two black policemen who tried to be accepted by white girls as women.

Related Topics:
2004 - Wayans - White Chicks

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Rock band Big Black released a song regarding this subject called Passing Complexion on their 1986 album Atomizer.

Related Topics:
Big Black - 1986

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The 2000 TV movie A House Divided told the story of a mixed-race woman who was light-skinned enough to pass, but whose mother was a black slave. When the woman's white father attempted to will his property to his mixed-race daughter, the family ran afoul of local laws forbidding property ownership by blacks.

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