Passing (Racial Identity) (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. In the racial politics of the United States, racial passing refers to a person classified by society as a member of one racial group (usually mixed-race African American) choosing to identify with a different group (usually white), usually by appearance. The term was used especially in the US to describe a person of mixed-race heritage assimilating to the white majority. In the 18th, 19th and early 20th-centuries, some Americans of mixed-race European and African ancestry sometimes claimed Arab or Native American heritage to explain skin color and features different from Europeans. They were trying to find a way through the binary racial divisions of society, especially in the South. Before laws on segregation and "one drop rules," most free people went by appearance. If they looked white, they were absorbed into white society. Only in a place where the idea that any African ancestry marked a person, would this be called "passing" for white. In Louisiana, people of color who passed as white were referred to as passe blanc.