{"id":44916,"date":"2016-01-01T00:32:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T00:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=44916"},"modified":"2016-01-01T00:33:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T00:33:47","slug":"before-rachel-dolezal-what-did-it-mean-to-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=44916","title":{"rendered":"Before Rachel Dolezal, what did it mean to \u2018pass\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before Rachel Dolezal, what did it mean to \u2018pass\u2019?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Christian Science Monitor<\/a>
\n2015-06-22<\/p>\n

Randy Dotinga<\/strong><\/a>, President
\nAmerican Society of Journalists and Authors<\/em><\/p>\n

Allyson Hobbs<\/a>, author of \u2018A Chosen Exile<\/a>,\u2019 says the debate stirred up by Rachel Dolezal’s<\/a> resignation from the NAACP<\/a> hits historic chords.<\/em><\/p>\n

Allyson Hobbs<\/a>, a history professor at Stanford University, remembers hearing a story from her aunt about a distant cousin who grew up on the South Side of Chicago<\/a> during the 1920s and 1930s.<\/p>\n

The cousin was African-American, like Hobbs. But she was light-skinned, \u201cand when she was in high school, her mother wanted her to go to Los Angeles<\/a> and pass as a white woman<\/a>,\u201d Hobbs recalls. \u201cHer mother thought this would be the best thing she could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cousin didn\u2019t want to go but followed her mother\u2019s wishes. She married a white man and had children. About a decade later, Hobbs says, the cousin\u2019s mother contacted her: \u201cYou have to come home immediately, your father is dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was not to be. \u201cI can\u2019t come home. I\u2019m a white woman now,\u201d the cousin replied. \u201cThere\u2019s no turning back. This is the life that you made for me, and the life I have to live now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This remarkable tale inspired Hobbs to investigate the long history of blacks passing as whites in her well-received 2014 book A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The topic of racial passing has filled the airwaves this month amid the controversy over a once-obscure local civil-rights official named Rachel Dolezal<\/a>. Hobbs adds to the debate this week with New York Times<\/em> commentary<\/a> that offers an unexpectedly sympathetic take amid vitriol aimed at Dolezal…<\/p>\n

Read the entire interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Rachel Dolezal, what did it mean to \u2018pass\u2019? Christian Science Monitor 2015-06-22 Randy Dotinga, President American Society of Journalists and Authors Allyson Hobbs, author of \u2018A Chosen Exile,\u2019 says the debate stirred up by Rachel Dolezal’s resignation from the NAACP hits historic chords. Allyson Hobbs, a history professor at Stanford University, remembers hearing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,13743,8,6462,20],"tags":[9812,13974,20257,20241,20250,5666],"class_list":["post-44916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-allyson-hobbs","tag-christian-science-monitor","tag-rachel-a-dolezal","tag-rachel-dolezal","tag-randy-dotinga","tag-the-christian-science-monitor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44916"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44920,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44916\/revisions\/44920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}