{"id":51836,"date":"2017-02-24T01:04:42","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T01:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=51836"},"modified":"2017-02-24T01:04:42","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T01:04:42","slug":"a-chosen-exile-a-history-of-racial-passing-in-american-life-by-allyson-hobbs-review-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=51836","title":{"rendered":"A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life by Allyson Hobbs (review) [King]"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life by Allyson Hobbs (review)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Journal of Southern History<\/a>
\nVolume 82, Number 2, May 2016<\/a>
\npages 465-466
\nDOI: 10.1353\/soh.2016.0107<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilma King<\/strong><\/a>, Professor Emerita of History
\nUniversity of Missouri<\/em><\/p>\n

A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life<\/em><\/a>. By Allyson Hobbs<\/a>. (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press, 2014. Pp. [xii], 382. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-674-36810-1.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

An insightful introduction prepares readers for five deeply researched chapters and an epilogue constituting what Allyson Hobbs<\/a> describes as a history of racial passing<\/a> in American life. Two well-developed themes in the text add to its significance. First, Hobbs argues that the perceived need for racial passing changed over time. Before the Civil War<\/a>, slaves passed to escape bondage, not blackness. Later, the promises of Reconstruction encouraged blacks to believe treatment equal to that enjoyed by whites was imminent. Instead, political disenfranchisement, social intimidation, and economic deprivation followed. Racial passing was a viable option to escape those circumstances. However, during the 1920s the Harlem Renaissance<\/a> expanded conceptions of racial identity and offered alternatives to passing. The elimination of some racial barriers after World War II<\/a> rendered racial passing pass\u00e9. Second, the author calls attention to both the intended and unintended consequences of blacks passing as whites. On one hand, passing offered opportunities for economic gains, but on the other hand, there were social losses associated with leaving families and friends behind. \u201cOnce one circumvented the law, fooled coworkers, deceived neighbors, tricked friends, and sometimes even duped children and spouses,\u201d writes Hobbs, \u201cthere were enormous costs to pay\u201d (p. 5).<\/p>\n

The author contends \u201cthe core issue of passing is not becoming what you pass for, but losing what you pass away from\u201d (p. 18). Passing, a performative, subversive, and tactical exercise, required constant vigilance to protect a newly crafted identity from exposure. Eventually, those who passed, temporarily or permanently, faced questions about gains and losses. A variety of historical and literary sources, supplemented by materials from popular and mixed media, make A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life<\/em><\/a> come to life as readers are introduced to racially ambiguous women and men, including Ellen Craft<\/a>, Henry Bibb<\/a>, John H. Rapier<\/a>, and descendants of Sally Hemings<\/a> and Sarah Martha Sanders, all of whom were interested in acquiring equal opportunities, suffrage, and citizenship, more so than in actually becoming white…<\/p>\n

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

A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life by Allyson Hobbs (review) Journal of Southern History Volume 82, Number 2, May 2016 pages 465-466 DOI: 10.1353\/soh.2016.0107 Wilma King, Professor Emerita of History University of Missouri A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life. By Allyson Hobbs. (Cambridge, Mass., and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,459,8,6462,20],"tags":[9812,780,26262],"class_list":["post-51836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-book-reviews","category-history","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-allyson-hobbs","tag-journal-of-southern-history","tag-wilma-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51836","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=51836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51837,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51836\/revisions\/51837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}