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Colorism And Racial Passing: Loving The Black Skin You're In

by NOIRE Online

February 16, 2022 608 views
 
If you could pass as white, would you?
 
This is a question that has come up before in conversations.    It’s a very old question for many in this country and around the globe.  It invokes visions of the old antebellum south, with the dark blacks in the field and the light-skinned blacks in the house.  
 
Many black families have grappled with this question in the past and are still grappling with it til this very day.  It is a dilemma that makes men and women choose paths early on or have those paths chosen for them.  It was a question that was easily answerable for many during the time immediately after slavery but became a more difficult question during the Jim Crow era.
 
In the year 2022 we are still encountering the question of skin color benefit.  The currency of skin color was leveraged and paid most recently by the Miami Dolphins.   The national spotlight illuminated the Miami Dolphins firing of their dark skinned coach, Brian Flores and then hiring a  fair skinned black coach, Mike McDaniel. This issue in this case at first was not one of colorism initially because no one knew, Coach McDaniel was black.  The seeminglingly inocuous hiring ignited questions and debate throughout black social media.  The dilemna was beautifully captured on screen in the Netflix film, Passing.(See Sundra Roney's Article:  https://noireonline.com/article.php?id=1061)
                                                                          Coach Brian Flores
                                                                          Coach Mike McDaniels
 
Colorism and racial passing, raise intense feelings in the black community that many had thought were long gone.  However with this new awakening of black pride there has been an all or none approach to race that had not been seen since Plessy vs. Ferguson.  We seem to have gone back to the separate but equal  status that was established by the Supreme Court’s ruling.  We seem be using the one drop rule all over again.  This time both the black community and white community are agreeing on one thing, one drop makes all the difference.   The only difference is, now a days, white people like the one drop rule because it helps them meet that magical status of being diverse and inclusive. 

The ability to pass as white allows some to have all of the benefits of being white in America and all of the benefits of being black in America.  Unfortunately the people passing never experience those benefits at the same time.  When in the company of white peers many have to go along with insults and derogatory treatment of members of the black community.  When in the company of black peers they also have to deal with the evil deeds of the white people.  Living this dual life sometimes takes an unimaginable toll on individuals when having to completely deny a part of that person's identity.  It makes one think of deep questions that are going to be with us for the foreseeable future.
 
Questions like:  Should a community banish individuals who choose not to identify as black?  Is it fair to assume that anyone who has benefited from passing, hates their black heritage?  Is racial passing beneficial or harmful to the black community?  Is being black not viewed as being a human being?  These are questions that are deeply personal but have ramifications well outside of personal beliefs.  These are also questions that can shake a person at their core.
 
Being black does not mean we are a monolith.  We are have all kinds of people in our diaspora.  We must be free, honest, and open to be able to have conversations like this.  It is truly baffling how we are so accepting of others but some of us have such a hard time accepting our own?
 
 
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NOIRE Online
NOIRE is a new online magazine that scopes the Black and multicultural community from a cutting-edge perspective. Our mantra is “Our Lives, Our Stories, Our Voices.” Our vision is to become the leading source of true, high-quality narratives of people of color.
 
All Comments (2)
  • Kirby     2 years ago
         These are great conversations. We are not all the same.
  • Joanne     2 years ago
         This is something that should be kept privately in a family! Shame on you!!

 

 

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