Passing and Performance in the 21st Century: Black-White Biracial Americans and Passing as Black |
Passing and Performance in the 21st Century: Black-White Biracial Americans and Passing as Black
American Sociological Association
Annual Meeting 2010
Regular Session: Multi-Racial Classification/Identity
Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Monday, 2010-08-16, 16:30-18:10 EDT (Local Time)
35 pages
Session Organizer: Rebecca C. King-O’Riain, Senior Lecturer of Sociology, National University of Ireland-Maynooth
Presider: Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Minnesota
Nikki Khanna Sherwin, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Vermont
Drawing on interview data with black-white biracial adults, I examine the considerable agency most have in asserting their racial identities to others. Extending research on “identity work,” I explore the strategies they use to perform race, and the individual and structural-level factors that limit the accessibility and/or effectiveness of some strategies. I further find that how these biracial respondents identify is often contextual – most identify as biracial, but in some contexts, they “pass” as monoracial. Scholars argue that “passing” may be a relic of the past, yet I find that “passing” still occurs today and quite frequently. Most notably, I find a striking reverse pattern of “passing” today – while “passing” during the Jim Crow era involved “passing” as white, I find that these respondents more often report “passing” as black today. Motivations for “passing” are explored, with an emphasis on “passing” as black.
Read the entire paper here.
Tags: American Sociological Association, Carolyn A. Liebler, Carolyn Liebler, Nikki Khanna, Nikki Khanna Sherwin, Rebecca C. King-O’Riain