Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity
PASSING (def): usually understood as an abbreviation for
"racial passing". Describes the fact of being accepted,
or representing oneself successfully as, a member of a different
group. Everybody passes. Not just racial minorities. As Marcia
Dawkins explains, passing has been occurring for millennia, since
intercultural and interracial contact began. And with this profound
new study, she explores its old limits and new possibilities: from
women passing as men and able-bodied persons passing as disabled to
black classics professors passing as Jewish and white supremacists
passing as white. 'Clearly Invisible' journeys to sometimes
uncomfortable but unfailingly enlightening places as Dawkins
retells the contemporary expressions and historical experiences of
individuals called passers. Along the way these passers become
people -- people whose stories sound familiar but take subtle turns
to reveal racial and other tensions lurking beneath the surface,
people who ultimately expose as much about our culture and society
as they conceal about themselves. Both an updated take on the
history of passing and a practical account of passing's effects
on the rhetoric of multiracial identities, 'Clearly
Invisible' traces passing's legal, political, and literary
manifestations, questioning whether passing can be a form of
empowerment (even while implying secrecy) and suggesting that
passing could be one of the first expressions of multiracial
identity in the U.S. as it seeks its own social standing. Certain
to be hailed as a pioneering work in the study of race and culture,
'Clearly Invisible' offers powerful testimony to the fact
that individual identities are never fully self-determined -- and
that race is far more a matter of sociology than of biology.
"A significant step forward in the nascent field of critical mixed race studies. Dawkins' meticulously researched study provides an exciting education in historical and contemporary passing and in other ways in which multiracial individuals have illuminated schisms in American notions of race." --Mary Beltr n, Assistant Professor, Department of Radio-Television-Film and Affiliate Faculty in Women's & Gender Studies and Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Inhaltsangabe
Preface Introduction: Passing as Passe? Passing as Persuasion Passing as Power Passing as Property Passing as Principle Passing as Pastime Passing as Paradox Conclusion: Passing as Progress? Appendix Notes Bibliography.
