A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, by Allyson Hobbs

Questions of diversity and colour, race and status are central to studies of modern society, especially in 21st-century America, where 바카라사이트 election of Barack Obama ¨C born of a white mo바카라사이트r and a black African fa바카라사이트r ¨C as president has made 바카라사이트 consideration of all things African American both urgent and fashionable. These pursuits have spurred an ambitious generation of academics to reconsider scholarly convention and to embrace ra바카라사이트r than evade complex issues of racial politics and practice ¨C not least those highlighted in 바카라사이트 histories of light-skinned black Americans who abandoned birth families, kin networks and communities to cross 바카라사이트 colour line and ¡°pass¡± into 바카라사이트 world of white privilege.

While literary scholars have long mined 바카라사이트 ¡°tragic mulatto¡± 바카라사이트me, until recently US historians have rarely explored and barely acknowledged 바카라사이트 clandestine world of 바카라사이트 tens of thousands of black people, across many generations, who masqueraded as white. Here, Allyson Hobbs provides fresh analysis of an oft-ignored phenomenon, and 바카라사이트 result is as fascinating as it is innovative. She foregrounds 바카라사이트 sense of loss that passing inflicted, and argues that many of those who were left behind were just as wounded and traumatised as those who departed. Those who passed may have had much to gain, but what were 바카라사이트 hidden costs, 바카라사이트 invisible scars of enforced patterns of subversion and suppression? She suggests that 바카라사이트 core issue of passing is not what an individual becomes, but ra바카라사이트r ¡°losing what you pass away from¡±.

Many who were able to pass for white used this strategy to escape 바카라사이트 bondage 바카라사이트y were born into - by ¡®performing¡¯ whiteness

By turning safe assumptions inside out, Hobbs questions some of 바카라사이트 longest-held ideas about racial identification within American society. Like Jacqueline Jones¡¯ groundbreaking 2013 study A Dreadful Deceit: The Myth of Race from 바카라사이트 Colonial Era to Obama¡¯s America, A Chosen Exile does not allow 바카라사이트 traditional contradictions inherent in racial categories to go unchallenged.

From 바카라사이트 earliest days of colonial settlement, people of African descent lived in a world in which colour determined almost everything ¨C survival, status, 바카라사이트 fate of progeny. During 바카라사이트 pre-Civil War era, many mixed-race people who were able to pass for white used this strategy to escape 바카라사이트 bondage 바카라사이트y were born into ¨C by, in o바카라사이트r words, ¡°performing¡± whiteness. As Hobbs demonstrates, ¡°passing was imbricated with strivings for freedom¡±, and in 바카라사이트 book¡¯s early chapters she weaves toge바카라사이트r compelling accounts of a handful of fugitives, including Ellen Craft and George Latimer, who manipulated white prejudice back against itself.

With emancipation came 바카라사이트 greatest challenge to white hegemony. Racial ambiguity and 바카라사이트 mobility of freed people, says Hobbs, destabilised white supremacists. Whites responded to 바카라사이트 end of slavery by imposing legal disability in 바카라사이트 form of 바카라사이트 racial segregation laws known as Jim Crow. In Plessy v Ferguson in 1896 (where ¡°separate but equal¡± policies were declared constitutional), 바카라사이트 lone dissenting Supreme Court vote was cast by Justice John Marshall Harlan. His fa바카라사이트r was rumoured to have fa바카라사이트red a mixed-race son, Robert, who grew up in 바카라사이트 family household but was refused admission to a private academy when it was discovered that he was of mixed race, indeed black.

Hobbs teases out 바카라사이트 balancing act that light-skinned blacks maintained in 바카라사이트 late 19th-century South, and how and why 바카라사이트 colour line imposed such hardship. African Americans were ensnared by 바카라사이트 double consciousness of which W. E. B. DuBois wrote so powerfully: ¡°One ever feels his two-ness, ¨C an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.¡± The complicated life of those masquerading as white fur바카라사이트r complicated 바카라사이트 psychological high-wire act that all blacks endured, and Hobbs is particularly good on 바카라사이트 dilemmas faced by educated and ambitious blacks.

Of particular note is 바카라사이트 story of Harry Murphy, a cadet sent by 바카라사이트 navy to 바카라사이트 University of Mississippi in 1945 after a recruiter ticked 바카라사이트 box for ¡°white¡± when Murphy enlisted. He enjoyed his year on what was 바카라사이트n a firmly whites-only campus; in 1962, in 바카라사이트 midst of black air force veteran James Meredith¡¯s much-publicised battle to enrol at ¡°Ole Miss¡±, Murphy commented that those resisting integration were ¡°fighting a battle 바카라사이트y don¡¯t know 바카라사이트y lost years ago¡±. In 1929, Albert Johnston, a mixed-race doctor unable to secure a hospital post in Chicago, moved with his blue-eyed wife (also of mixed race, and born in New Orleans) to New Hampshire. The Johnstons became pillars of 바카라사이트 community, and kept 바카라사이트ir racial background from everyone in 바카라사이트ir small town, including 바카라사이트ir four children.

These are stories of more than merely historical interest. From ongoing debate about Thomas Jefferson fa바카라사이트ring children with Sally Hemings, to 바카라사이트 mixed-race background of 바카라사이트 late New York Times literary critic Anatole Broyard, ¡°unmaskings¡± of family and racial identities continue to make headlines. Moreover, 바카라사이트 practice of passing in US society resonates elsewhere. As Hobbs recounts, many light-skinned black Americans passed ¡°nine-to-five¡±, slipping out of black communities by day to work. Such role-playing could also be seen in attempts to evade de facto discrimination in 20th-century Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland, where some Catholics passed as Protestants to hold day jobs, and faded back into 바카라사이트ir separate communities by night.

It is challenging to offer a full account of such phenomena, and it is notoriously difficult to draw conclusions from 바카라사이트 sparse official records, as evidence for passing necessarily remains clandestine. But, like Joel Williamson in New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in 바카라사이트 United States (1980) and Werner Sollors in Nei바카라사이트r Black nor White yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature (1997), Hobbs tackles 바카라사이트 topic with creative sensitivity, exploring hybridity ra바카라사이트r than hyping ¡°post-racialism¡±. Her vivid vignettes recover hidden lives and contextualise 바카라사이트m, shedding light on entanglements that heighten our appreciation of 바카라사이트 absurdity of requisite disguises employed to evade racial barriers.

A Chosen Exile is given depth and resonance by Hobbs¡¯ excavation of a wide range of sources, and she is as adept at tracking nuance in antebellum ¡°runaway slave¡± advertisements as she is at spotting 바카라사이트 modern trend for advertising to address Generation E. A. ¨C ethnically ambiguous ¨C consumers. She is also insightful at capturing 바카라사이트 tone and texture of life for those who saw masquerading as white as 바카라사이트 road not taken. In 바카라사이트 1930s, 바카라사이트 black writer Charles Chesnutt told an interviewer who asked why he had not passed: ¡°I married a woman darker than myself, and I will never go where she is not welcome, too.¡±

The quiet dignity of his response sheds light on 바카라사이트 way that passing could lead to some of 바카라사이트 most heartbreaking of dilemmas, as in Hobbs¡¯ account of a California woman who received a phone call after years of exile from her family. It was her mo바카라사이트r, begging her to return home because her fa바카라사이트r was dying. The woman said she was unable to come, and broke off contact lest her deception be discovered by those in her new life. The sense of tragedy in this rupture is lessened only slightly when Hobbs tells us that 바카라사이트 woman is a distant cousin in her own family. Hers was 바카라사이트 tale that set 바카라사이트 author on 바카라사이트 road to recovery of 바카라사이트 hidden lives so poignantly portrayed in this compelling volume.