Passing: Chapters 2,3
Chapter two tells the story of a white woman in Essex County Virginia where school integration did not occur until seventeen years after Brown v. Board of Education and seven years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Our leading lady is a school teacher who considered her self color-blind. Her boyfriend is adopted and unsure of his parentage, but is "noticeably dark-complexioned," and she spends most of her time in the company of the black people in her community.
Her moment of truth came when she was asked to serve as master of ceremonies for a charity fashion show. She was delighted to accept. Occasionally asked to attend planning meetings, she came to realize that all the women involved in planning were black and that the organization was all black. No big deal. She was used to being the only white woman in a room. The problem came when it became clear the other women assumed that she, too, was black. After wrestling with her dilemma she decided it was best to be honest and let the ladies know they were mistaken.
The encounter made her desperately uncomfortable. ... "I'm emabarrassed to say that I think it [the discomfort] was because somebody thought I was black. At that time. In my life." (Kroeger, pp.61, 63)
Really? I'd be interested to hear how she came to that conclusion. It seems to me that is the standard conclusion. "I was in a really uncomfortable situation with a person of color. I must be racist." I'm sorry, but this presumption of racist guilt bugs. Wouldn't any person, even absent issues of color, be uncomfortable informing an organization they had be offered a position of honor under false pretenses? Weren't the racist people the black ladies who assumed she must be black because no white woman would be so involved with and so helpful to their community? Granted, not an unreasonable assumption to make in that time and place, but painting anyone the villain in this scenario seems ridiculous to me.
I recently read in one of my many other readings the statement that black people cannot be racist, the presumption being that to be racist you must be in a position of power. If I can find the reference, I'll update the post, but frankly I think that's horseshit. What a great way to define racism so you don't have to examine your own prejudices. Chapter three tells the story of a Hispanic woman who was a model student by day and hung out on the streets with dropouts who smoked weed, drank too much alcohol, dealt drugs and illegal weapons. "If my friends found out I was a goody two-shoes at school and at home, I would've been beaten and left on the curb" (Kroeger, p.82). She would have been beaten for the sin of being too white. The man she finally married and settled down with was, like her, "deeply engaged with the world of ideas, but [did] not have a college degree" (Kroeger, p.87). One of the things she enjoyed most about him was being able to have intelligent discussions without either of them accusing the other of sounding white (p.87). But minorities cannot be racist...