Degrees of Passing: Representations of White Passing in Popular Culture
Updated: Aug 14, 2023
If popular culture reflects society, then studying popular culture representations of White passing can provide insight into the motivations for passing, the different degrees to which racialized “Others” pass, and society’s changing attitude toward the practice of passing. This article explores White passing through an analysis of the portrayals of White passing in Nella Larsen’s Passing, Francisco Arriví’s play Vejigantes, and Netflix’s series One Day at a Time. There’s a clear progression in the representations of passing from survival strategy in the early to mid-1900s, as demonstrated by Irene and Clare in Passing and Marta in Vejigantes, to a denial of your heritage in current times, as represented by Clarita in Vejigantes and Elena in One Day at a Time. These texts argue that despite the privilege and supposed security approximating whiteness may grant, it's not worth the trauma it causes. They do so through socio-politically correct and emotionally moving narratives that call their audience to reject racist discourse and decolonize their perspectives. The motivations of each character for passing as White will be explored using the work of Frantz Fanon and Homi Bhabha while the degrees and mechanics of passing will be explored using the work of Catherine Rottenberg.
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This was a really nuanced breakdown of how white passing shows up in media — the part about it being both a survival mechanism and a form of emotional erasure hit hard. It makes me think about how much of identity is about performance and who gets to decide if you're "convincing" enough. Speaking of performance, this reminds me of the choicer voicer game, where you literally have to mimic voices and get judged on how well you pull it off — a fun, low-stakes version of the passing dynamics you're describing here. Thanks for writing this, definitely gave me a lot to sit with.
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This was a thoughtful read—the shift from passing as survival to passing as emotional erasure really stood out. I also found this online cam scanner useful for digitizing and organizing article notes.
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