Passing As An Integral Part Of African American Literature

Racism has devastated and destroyed people, families, communities, and friendships. “Passing” and “Desiree’s Baby”, the literary works of Nella Larsen and Kate Chopin, respectively, shed light on the impact of racism through characters whose experiences often reflect those of the authors. Both stories explore various forms of white racial dominance including feminist issues involving race. Both main characters, despite coming from significantly different backgrounds, are negatively impacted by both sexism and racism. In “Desiree’s Baby”, Desiree, an orphan raised by Monsieur and Madame Valmonde in their Louisiana plantation as if she were their own daughter, “grew to be beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere”(Chopin 3).

Although society advocates believing in a ‘sameness’ between people who are black or white, individuals are still organized by race, class, gender and sexuality into social hierarchies. These hierarchies essentially formulate stigmas that suppress certain races and discriminate against them. Caucasia written by Danzy Senna is focused around a young mixed girl, Birdie, who encounters obstacles in her life that help her form her own perceptions about issues regarding class, race, and sexuality. These obstacles fundamentally shape her to have a unique outlook on society where she begins to question white privilege and also sympathize towards the mistreatment of black individuals. Senna explores the fundamental problems that are associated

In 1912, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man was anonymously published by James Weldon Johnson. It is the narrative of a light-skinned man wedged between two racial categories; the offspring of a white father and a black mother, The Ex-Colored man is visibly white but legally classified as black. Wedged between these two racial categories, the man chooses to “pass” to the white society. In Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are, Brooke Kroeger describes “passing” as an act when “people effectively present themselves as other than who they understand themselves to be” (Kroeger 7). The Ex-Colored Man’s choice to ultimately “pass” at the end of the novel has been the cause of controversy amongst readers. Many claim his choice to “pass”

In Caucasia, by Danzy Senna, Birdie spends time in several different racial contexts and, in each one, adjusts the racial definition of herself. Through this process, she discovers much about the conception of race in contemporary American society and achieves the nuanced understanding that race, while merely a construction, is still (operationally) real. This is contrasted by the more dangerous, oversimplified understanding of race – that races are biological rivals, inherently different and unable to coexist without some sort of power structure – embodied by the character of Redbone, who is also a symbol of inauthenticity. This latter aspect of Redbone shows the emptiness inherent in the views he holds about

“Passing,” by Nella Larsen is a novel all about pretending to be something that you are not. It is about giving everyone the impression that everything is in order when in reality everything is falling apart. Passing in this novel refers to the ability of a person to be classified as one thing, normally a social group, while belonging to a different group. Passing is usually done to gain class or acceptance by groups other than one’s own. The primary focus of the novel is on racial passing which is the ability to look white and belong to a white group when in reality the person is an African-American in order to gain privileges that were unavailable to them. Although racial passing is the main focus, another major theme in this novel is sexual passing and identity.

For centuries many have practiced a deception of identity called 'passing ' not only in America but other nations as well. Passing is a term that many Black/African-Americans have heard at one time or another from an acquaintance or possibly from someone in their own family speaking of a relative that 'passed ' as another race during a time period in America pre-civil rights era, for personal gain, whether it was for acceptance in their communities, ease of living or financial equality.

McLaurin caught interest in a girl named Charlotte Humphries who had been a schoolmate of his since the first grade. Blue eyes, blonde hair, having the complexion of a white girl, he was impressed and did not think pursuing wanting to date her would be a problem. However, regardless of his feelings, his mother disagreed and insisted that Charlotte would not be a good idea for him. McLaurin’s grandmother began to explain to him that he “just shouldn’t” pursue her, mentioning that the story behind it all goes back a long time ago. She explained that Charlotte’s great-grandmother was someone who was a “mulatto nigra”. Some mulattos pass as white, even though they are not, if they are light enough and that is what happened with Charlotte’s great-grandmother. Even though Charlotte was blue eyed blond hair, McLaurin could not pursue her simply because black ancestry was in her blood.

Nella Larsen’s Passing uses the two main characters to explore how the idea of racial identity is not a discussion that is black and white, but rather one that is grey. The story is utilized to demonstrate how some individuals of black complexion fell trap to societal standards, causing them to abandon their own race in search of better life. But, in all actuality, the text argues that the pursual of another identity ultimately causes an individual to lose their own self identification.

In the United States, there are only two types of people: white and coloured. The narrator struggles with self-identification and does not know whether to call himself white or coloured. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator assumes he is white and looks down upon the coloured children whom he attends school with. However his struggle with identification starts once he learns that he is classified as coloured solely for the reason that his mother is coloured as well. He stops teasing the coloured children, but he feels a “very strong aversion to being classed with them.” For the entirety of the novel, he resists the label “coloured” and tries to find ways to distinguish himself from the rest of his people he deems inferior. When in Paris, he was identified as neither coloured nor white, but simply as an American. He could roam Paris freely and enter any business he wanted due to being treated as equal. Paris was the first time he has ever ignored the color of his skin. Life in the United States is very different for the narrator however. The treatment of the narrator in the different towns he visits

In Danzy Senna’s novel Caucasia, Birdie finds herself traveling throughout the United States under a variety of different identities and at different stages of her life. The one constant throughout all her movement remains her box of “negrobelia” that her father leaves her on the day their family separates. Originally the box holds nothing more than items that tie Birdie to her African American culture; however, as the plot continues Birdie adds items such as a photograph her and her mother in New Hampshire and her star of David necklace. As Birdie ages throughout the story she becomes more in touch with who she is as both a white and Black woman. Through analysis of how the contents inside Birdie’s box of negrobelia transforms one can understand

According to the Nella Larsen’s novel, Passing is the ability of an African American women who are born with ivory skin to pass or act as white for various reasons such as; security, privileges, impartiality, and so on.

Senna also examines whiteness and its social construction from the character Birdie’s standpoint in the novel. Standpoint refers to the location or place within the relationship of domination and subordination, that affects what people see or do not see. Ruth Frankenberg (1993) argues that there is a direct relationship between experience and standpoint. She argues that those who are the oppressed in the systems of domination are more likely to see the structure of domination because they experience it (Frankenberg, p.5). In Caucasia, Birdie can see whiteness in ways others can not due to the fact that Birdie sits on the boundary of whiteness. In fact, for this same reason Birdie can see blackness in ways that others can not. To the “black” community Birdie is seen as “white”, but in comparison to the “white” community she feels like she is

Passing” by Nella Larsen is a great piece of art, that is mostly concentrated on the act of passing as a member of other race in order to assimilate with them and cover their own race. I have to be honest through reading the book I developed love hate relationship because how this book was structured. It is filled with really charismatic personalities such as Claire Kendry or Irene Redfield but at the same time I was really frustrated how they behave themselves regarding their race. For someone who never had any conflicts regarding race it was really hard for to rationalize Clare’s or Irene’s actions that involved covering their own identity to benefit from it either socially or financially. Book still lacks clarity in most of the cases that happen in story, for example ending where Clare dies but it might be also seen as way for reader to think and guess who might be the murderer. Even though this story takes place in the early 20th century when the African American society was still harshly treated by white society, I think we can still see a lot of racial conflicts that happen nowadays among all races that live in big cities such as New York or Paris and etc. Also, depiction of how race might be sign of belonging to specific class was interesting topic. Most importantly what frustrates me most in the story is how racial difference is troubling or forcing characters act in specific ways. By that I mean how Clare went extra mile and even married a white bigot John Bellew

Caucasia written by Danzy Senna, is similar and yet different compared to Song of Solomon. In Caucasia, Birdie is a young bi-racial girl, in which she is the daughter of a black man and white woman. While Birdie appears and passes for white, she embraces her black identity even more so. Birdie is torn apart from those she loves, yet she undergoes a journey to find them. In Song of Solomon, there is an all black family- the Dead family, that struggles within itself and within an all black community. Milkman is born into a world that is divided between black and white. Throughout the novel he develops as a person with the help of a wise family member and his own experience. According to June Jordan, “Affirmation of Black values and lifestyle within the American context is, indeed, an act of protest.” (Notes Toward a Black Balancing of Love and Hatred, 47) Through affirmation of Black values and lifestyle, Caucasia and Song of Solomon show instances of Black protest in the form of Birdie’s and Milkman’s characters, their relationship to their black communities and family, and the adventures that they undergo to find answers.

Dambudzo Marechera writes of the insanity he feels as a result of his own desperate racial confusion and accompanying self hatred in Black Skin What Masks. In this story Marechera begins by placing the overall notion of discomfort that accompanies one’s skin being black on the same level as an unnamed friend. The description of the friend points very clearly to different levels of insanity while simultaneously, the reader’s attention is constantly being brought back to the point at hand, the issue of race. Ultimately, the main character’s (author’s) discomfort regarding his racial identity and his efforts to change that are displayed as a completely separate persona from