Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity

Half Title Page, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Epigraph

Clearly Invisible This page intentionally left blank Clearly Invisible Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity Marcia Alesan Dawkins BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS © 2012 by Baylor University Press Waco, Texas 76798 All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of Baylor University Press. Cover Design by theBookDesigners Ellen Craft image courtesy of the Mary Evans Picture Library. Frances E. W. Harper image courtesy of the Library of Congress. Human Stain images courtesy of Photofest. Leo Felton image courtesy of the Associated Press. eISBN: 978-1-4813-0043-8 (e-PDF) This E-book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who encounter any issues with formatting, text, linking, or readability are encouraged to notify the publisher at BUP_Production@ baylor.edu. Some font characters may not display on older Kindle devices. To inquire about permission to use selections from this text, please contact Baylor University Press, One Bear Place, #97363, Waco, Texas 76798. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dawkins, Marcia Alesan. Clearly invisible : racial passing and the color of cultural identity / Marcia Alesan Dawkins. 285 p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60258-312-2 (hbk. : acid-free paper) 1. Passing (Identity)--United States. 2. Passing (Identity)--United States-Case studies. 3. Racially mixed people--Race identity --United States. 4. United States--Race relations. 5. Rhetoric-Social aspects--United States. 6. Rhetoric--Political aspects-United States. I. Title. E184.A1D2844 2012 305.800973--dc23 2011051774 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper with a minimum of 30% recycled content. For all who dare to be themselves . . . . . . and for the daring ones I’ve known best, Rafael, Olga, and José Matos. American culture, even in its most rigidly segregated precincts, is patently and irrevocably composite. It is, regardless of all the hysterical protestations of those who would have it otherwise, incontestably mulatto. Indeed, for all their traditional antagonisms , and obvious differences, the so-called black and the socalled white people of the United States resemble nobody else in the world so much as they resemble each other. —Albert Murray, The Omni-Americans ...