Racial Passing in the US - Essay Example

Racial passing in the United s might not seem important today, but before the Civil Rights Act, it could affect the quality of life or even be alife and death issue. Light-skinned African Americans have passed as white since the United States was a mere colony. Literature and cultural examples of racial passing can be found in a multitude of sources. Reasons for passing included, but are not limited to, unequal segregation, love, opportunities denied to African Americans, and fear. The reason depended upon the individual. Examples of passing are presented through the movie, Lost Boundaries, and three other literature sources explaining why it was important during the first of the 20th century for African Americans to pass as white. Lost Boundaries is an important, but largely ignored movie. If the same story came out today, reactions would range from horror from African Americans at the thought of an individual’s denial of heritage to confusion about why an individual would want to pass as white to begin with. In Lost Boundaries, two light-skinned “Negroes” are forced to pass as white in a New Hampshire town (Ling and Shaler). Scott and Marcia Carter is a young married couple who are expecting a baby. Scott is in school to become a doctor in the beginning of the movie. After applying to many African American hospitals as an intern and being rejected as being too white, Scott decides to take a job for one year in Portsmouth. After saving a man from death one night, Scott finds out that the man was Dr. Walter Bracket. The doctor recommended Scott to take over his father’s house and practice in New Hampshire, even after finding out Scott’s African American heritage. Scott and Marcia move to New Hampshire and raise two light-skinned children, never revealing their secret to anyone, especially not their children. After Scott joins the Navy, his heritage as an African American becomes known. The Carter family is devastated. The whole town talks about the Carter’s race. At the end of the movie, the whole town embraces the Carters and allows Scott to remain as the local doctor. Lost Boundaries has a unique successful conclusion. Normally an individual that passes as white in literature or entertainment is doomed at the end. For one example, in a movie called Imitation of Life: The prodigal black daughter, who has crossed the color line and passed for white, returns for her mother’s funeral, collapsing in tears on the coffin as she blamed herself for her mother’s death…With her story’s heartbreaking ending, Sarah Jane becomes yet another tragic mulatta, joining the ranks of mixed race women in American literature and culture who typically meet bitter fates for their transgressions of the color line. (Harrison-Kahan 19) Normally the tragic endings are due to an individual denying their race and hurting someone in the process, or being found out by white individuals and discriminated against. In 1949 when Lost Boundaries was released, the second option would have been more logical. The whites in real life probably would not have accepted an African American doctor. Interracial couples were a big fear in the deep South during the first of the 20th century. This is probably due to white objection to race mixing. No examples of literature promoting interracial couples, or passing as white were popular at this time. Lost Boundaries was about two passing Negroes due to the uproar an African American male and white woman would have caused. Two light-skinned Negroes passing as white were enough to make this movie unpopular before the Civil Rights Act was passed. Another example of the interracial couple fear in literature was the boycott of The Rabbit’s Wedding. Two rabbits, a black male and white female, get married in this children’s book (Sollors 19). This children’s book was deemed inappropriate for children due to the dangerous theme of interracial relationships. This might seem ridiculous, but this book was released in 1958. Interracial couples were taboo in literature and films during this time. The fear of African Americans passing as white, or interracial couples, was a real concern in the south at the beginning of the 20th century. For example: On June 21, 1948, the Jones County Circuit in Ellisville indicted Knight, who claimed to be—and certainly looked—white, for the crime of miscegenation. On June18, 1946, he had married Junie Lee Spradley, a white woman. The state claimed that, even though Knight appeared to be white, he was in fact black. (Bynum 247) The literature and films of that time reflect this fear. Jim Crow laws forbade African Americans from mixing with whites in the South, so passing as white was illegal. Racial mixing was also forbidden. The fear of passing and racial mixing influenced the literature of the time. The reason for this fear is the chance an individual passing as white might enter into an interracial relationship unbeknownst to the true white partner. If the couple had a child, the secret of a colored parent might be revealed. The Call of the South released in 1908 related this problem (Sollors 64). The daughter of the president falls in love with a man whose great-grandfather was African American. To the president’s horror, his daughter gave birth to a very distinct African American baby. In Lost Boundaries, both children turned out white looking. This is often not the case. When a child is mixed, depending upon the genes, they can be light or dark. No gene test, or midwives superstitious tales can predict the color of a baby. Since the color is unpredictable, interracial couples and passing Negroes were discouraged. In many films and literature, two passing Negroes end up together. This allows for the lesson of passing for white to be learned with no race mixing actually occurring. The Carters were on example. Another example is Black No More: Being Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of the Science in the Land of the Free, A.D. 1933-1940 (Sollars 74). In this story, a political leader’s daughter and an African American that had a procedure to turn him white get married. When they go to have their first child, a son, he comes out extremely black. As the man talks to the doctor about the situation, the doctor suggests to get rid of the baby. As the father contemplates the issue, a newspaper is delivered announcing his wife’s father has been discovered to have colored blood. As his wife apologizes for having a colored son, her husband confess he too has African American blood. All of these examples try to give a moral. Depending on the point of view, the outcome is the same. Whites want to give the message that race mixing is bad, and whites need to be on the lookout for African Americans passing as white. African Americans want to get the message across that denying one’s race is a travesty. Mixed individuals want to belong to one group or another, thus will pass as white or black depending upon their color. Even the movie, Lost Boundaries, tries to teach the moral that racial tolerance is possible. However, if the story would have been about a passing African American and a white woman, racial tolerance would not have been achieved. All of these stories have an agenda. None of the works mentioned above were written with the intent of entertainment. Passing as white was sometimes a necessity before the Civil Rights Act, but it would not have happed if racial harmony existed. Even today, one group or another scorns mixed children. In the end, the children are the ones that suffer for passing parents and interracial couples. Racial tolerance needs to be embraced, so passing on any level will no longer be an option. If every individual could be valued for their personalities and not color, being white, black, or green would not matter. Passing as one race or another would no longer occur. Everyone would have pride in themselves, not their color. Passing would become obsolete. Works Cited Bynum, Victoria E. ""White Negroes" in Segregated Mississippi: Miscegenation, Racial Identity, and the Law." The Journal of Southern History 64.2 (1998): 247-276 . Harrison-Kahan, Lori. "Passing for White, Passing for Jewish: Mixed Race Identity in Danzy Senna and Rebecca Walker." MELUS 30.1 (2005): 19-48. Lost Boundaries. By Eugene Ling and Virginia Shaler. Dir. Alfred L. Werke. Perf. Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer and Susan Douglas Rubes. Prod. Louis De Rouchemont. 1949. Sollors, Werner. Neither Black Nor White Yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Read More