CULTURE|RACE|PYSCHOLOGY
If You Could “Pass” For Another Race Or Ethnicity, Would You?
I can — and have come to see it is a privilege, especially outside of the United States
I took that photo to send to my boyfriend because he knows my nightly activity of braiding my hair into 1 or 2 plaits before going to bed.
The photo speaks volumes in more ways than one.
What race do you (or would you if you already know) think that I am?
Ethnicity?
Earlier today a woman thought that I was Arabic after she stopped me on the street to ask for directions and I spoke in (not so good) German to her.
That was a first!
Oftentimes people in European countries tend to think that I’m Italian or some sort of southern European.
Even once they hear my accent, most people in Europe do not know I’m American which blows my mind.
When I was a child, other children used to come up to me and immediately started speaking to me in Spanish.
Sometimes I pretended that I knew Spanish and spoke gibberish that I thought sounded like Spanish to kids who had no idea.
I never denied being Black and I have never tried to “pass” as white, but there have been many times that I am glad most people had a hard time figuring out my race or ethnicity.
I can’t even tell you how many times people in and around Philly have asked me,
“Where are you from?”
and they actually DON’T mean my race!?
I will write more in depth about these things in weeks and months to come.
However, I wanted to cast a little spotlight on a terrific story that Misty Rae recently published which touches on a topic I’ve been wanting to write about for the past week or so — “passing”.
I never hid the fact that my father was Black and my mother was White, never. I’m proud of it. And my boyfriend at the time had no issue with it. Neither did his family, at first.
Until I got knocked up. Well damn, look out, all of a sudden the concerns started:
What will the baby look like?
What colour will the baby be?
What if the baby looks Black?
This has all come to the forefront lately (it’s always lurking in the back) of my mind due to the film, Passing, which stars multiracial actresses Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.
As soon as I saw the advertisement for it a few months ago, I knew that I would watch it.
I wanted to know how they would depict the reality of “passing”.
Here’s the trailer to the film (which I didn’t see until last week, the day before I finally watched it):
It was much more of a “thriller” than I expected.
Just thinking about it leaves me with an uneasy feeling…and that’s part of the point.
This reality exists and it’s a dangerous one that can and should be discussed — often.
The reality of tensions between races, classes and genders.
For now, I care to focus on race and ethnicity.
If you watch the trailer- or the film- what is your guess as to Thompson’s and Negga’s race or ethnicity?
Both of them surprised me, but especially Negga’s ethnicity and culture (she nailed the accent in Passing).
These things make me smile though….
I wish that they made more people smile instead of frown.
What do you have to say?
What have been some of your experiences in regard to “passing” or being mistaken for another race or ethnicity?
Jason Cameron Elizabeth Silleck La Rue Adrienne Beaumont Hope Rising Jeanne Yacoubou, MS dick Karen Toralba Gerald Washington Lawson Wallace Deb C. Shante Nixon Michele Maize (The Sober Vegan Yogi) Walter Rhein Misty Rae Natasha Nichole Lake JA Vassili
