I Passed for Black

As a fan of John Williams’ music, I am aware of the old movie “I Passed for White” and blogged about it a while back.

Today there has been a prominent news story about the reverse situation – someone who is “white” passing for “black.” Rachel Dolezal, president of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chapter in Spokane, Washington, is apparently listed as “white” on her birth certificate, and yet she has identified herself as African-American.

I hope that most discussions about this will focus on the underlying reason for the issue: that “whiteness” and “blackness” are not binary categories. There is a range of skin colors, and perhaps, just as people are increasingly recognizing the fluidity of gender identities, the time has also finally come for people to recognize that the binary categories of “white” and “black” are based on racism and not on the realities of the diverse spectrum of human skin pigmentations.

See also (in addition to posts I’ve linked to above) my earlier posts on the first African-American President and longing for a post-racial society.