Making inclusion "moments" happen

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

The ability to pass oneself off as white—to choose between living with their existing identity or adopt the dominant racial identity—is the most extreme colorism privilege. It’s not an option to which the vast majority of black Americans has access. In an ethnic group in which “selling out” or being an “Uncle Tom” are major taboos, it’d be understandable if the discussion of passing focused on the supreme selfishness of the act. Passing is, at its essence, abandonment of the group to better the individual. And yet, the intra-community discussion about passing tends to avoid the question of the morality of the act. Instead, within the black community, family passing stories often serve other purposes: as a way of emphasizing the absurdity of race; as an example of a family’s access to the privileges of colorism; as a trickster performance of the ultimate racial transgression.

Mat Johnson, “Passing, in Moments,” Topic Magazine, Issue Number 25: Journeys (July 2019). https://www.topic.com/passing-in-moments.

Making inclusion “moments” happen

Making inclusion “moments” happen

Civil Service Blog
Government of the United Kingdom
2017-03-31

Hayley Trezel, Head of Transformation
Parole Board for England and Wales

Hayley Trezel compares her experience of working in the Civil Service with that of BAME colleagues.

To quote a phrase from a team of colleagues I respect and admire: “Moments don’t just happen.” I appreciate the truth of this when considering my own journey and ‘moment’ of clarity on the race agenda.

I am a 32-year-old working mum, having worked at the Parole Board for the past 8 years. I am a woman of colour, though I still shy away from referring to myself as black. I was brought up to be very proud of my mixed-race heritage. I have been asked on numerous occasions, “where are you from?”, and I take pleasure in explaining my heritage and seeing the surprise on people’s faces…

Read the entire article here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 2nd, 2017 at 01:04Z and is filed under Articles, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Justice, United Kingdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Mixed Race Studies

Making inclusion “moments” happen

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