Passing (race relations)

Passing is the perception of belonging to a racial group or ethnicity different from one's identity or the concealment of one’s racial identity or ethnicity to gain access to another group, usually to obtain social or economic benefits, to be accepted by that group, or to avoid discrimination. Passing has been used by African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans as a means of transcending racial stigmatization and marginalization, especially during the period of de jure segregation. Most commonly, individuals of biracial or multiracial descent who had certain characteristics associated with whiteness broke from their minority heritage and lived within the dominant White community. These characteristics included a light skin tone, “European” facial features, and a high level of acculturation to White society. Because the differences in skin tone and facial features are typically less dramatic, Asian Americans and Latino Americans generally had an easier time passing for White than did African Americans. Asian Americans and Latino Americans who wished to pass as White and have the necessary physical characteristics might only have had to anglicize their names or adopt White surnames. Sometimes, African Americans unable to pass as White often passed as Asian Americans or Indigenous Americans to achieve a slightly higher status in society.

Passing could be temporary or permanent. It was a largely urban phenomenon, since individuals in rural areas were more likely to be recognized and hence were less able to escape their racial identities. The most common form of passing involved a temporary leave from one’s racial identity, possibly to enter a White establishment or to hold a job; cases of individuals who permanently left their racial identities to assume lives within White society were probably less common.

There were drawbacks associated with both temporary and permanent acts of passing. For example, those who passed temporarily in order to hold jobs were faced with the constant pressure of operating in two different and antagonistic worlds while keeping their identities separate. Those who chose to pass for White permanently were generally forced to leave behind their families and friends, and they lived with the constant fear that someone might learn their secret. Because of the secretive nature of the phenomenon, it is impossible to assess with any accuracy the number of individuals who have engaged in passing. It is also difficult to know whether passing has actually decreased in the era of desegregation, though the greater access that racial minorities have to all realms of society has probably removed the immediate impetus behind the act of passing.

The concept of passing is based on ideas of racial purity and the drawing of rigid racial boundaries by which individuals of biracial or multiracial descent are considered part of the minority group. An example of this is the “one-drop rule,” which stipulated that any individual with even one drop of Black blood was Black. The idea of passing thus has meaning only within a society that defines race as mutually exclusive categories. Passing, by Nella Larsen, was a fictional novel written in 1925 about a woman, Clare, who is passing as White, is married to a racist, White husband, and tries to rekindle a friendship with her Black friend, Irene. Larsen drew from her own experience of being multiracial and, at times, passing as White, and essentially coined and popularized the term. In 2021, Larsen's novel was turned into a film, which was shot in black-and-white to add to the visual effect.

Three important works of nonfiction that deal with the issue of passing are Paul R. Spickard’s Mixed Blood: Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-Century America (1989), Maria P. P. Root’s Racially Mixed People in America (1992), and Gail Lukasik's White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing (2017). Lukasik's memoir tells the story of her mother's passing and explains how Lukasik came to terms with her mother's choice. Akin to Larsen's novel, Lukasik details the struggles multiracial women face when attempting to pass.

Bibliography

Bennett, Brit. “The Performance of Racial Passing.” The New York Times, 10 Mar. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/t-magazine/passing-nella-larsen-brit-bennett.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.

Connally, C. Ellen. “Book Review: 'White Like Her' by Gail Lukasik.” Cool Cleveland, coolcleveland.com/2019/07/book-review-white-like-her-by-gail-lukasik-reviewed-b-c-ellen-connally/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.

Davis, F. James. “Mixed Race America - Who Is Black? One Nation's Definition.” PBS, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.

Guterl, Matthew Pratt. "Passing." Seeing Race In Modern America. U of North Carolina P, 2013.

Hobbs, Allyson. A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life. Harvard U, 2014.

Mahtani, Minelle. Mixed Race Amnesia: Resisting The Romanticization of Multiraciality. U of British Columbia P, 2014.

Nittle, Nadra Kareem. “What Is the Definition of Passing for White?” ThoughtCo., 2 May 2025, www.thoughtco.com/what-is-passing-for-white-2834967. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.

Norwood, Kimberly Jade, editor. Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the Myth of a Postracial America. Routledge, 2014.

Puente, Henry. "Racial Passing: Images of Mulattos, Mestizos, and Eurasians." Images That Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media, edited by Paul Martin Lester and Susan Dente Ross. Praeger, 2011, pp. 121–32.