Novella Passing: The Thesis / Main Point of the Article?

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Research Paper – Novella Passing
Research Essay
Despite the many assurances from the world leaders, racism continues to be a major malaise that works to divide social integration between people from different ethnic backgrounds. In the US, protests like the most recent Black Lives Matter only but confirm the truthfulness of the above statement. Racism has managed to penetrate even the most socially welcoming of platforms like sports. There have been numerous instances in, for example, soccer, where players have used the “n” word against their black opponents or even, used other words like ‘monkey’ or throw some racial slurs. These are a testament to the fact that racism is still real and that the world is yet to rid itself of it. The US is a country that has been trying to rid itself of racism but with little success. The early 1900s were bad for the African American race because even the federal government believed in racially segregating its citizens. Laws like the Jim Crow Laws only helped to sever any efforts meant to unite the people and break any racial lines. African Americans had to use tricks such as passing for them to enjoy the same privileges as their white counterparts. According to calculations by one of the most renowned sociologists, Charles S. Johnson, more than 350,000 African Americans passed as whites from 1900 to 1920. In her novel Passing, Nella Larsen explains the concept of passing while also combining it with aspects of racism by using the lives of two women, Irene Westover and Clare Kendry. Passing was a response that helped to showcase how insecure the African Americans were about their ethnic background despite it being propagated by the vicious and open racism at the time. However, there is a strength in wanting to be identified with one’s race and unlike the past, the African American community has accepted and is fighting for their identity more viciously and with a sense of purpose.
Knowing and accepting one’s identity is essential to overcoming the racial walls that the world has intentionally and unintentionally erected. In the 1920s, being white was the only way that one could get some privileges and also be allowed to visit some places. It was a ticket to some events, the pass to some restaurants, and for some, the license to live in some places or be a politician. Everything about being white was made to look unique and worthy of doing everything to be recognized as white. In the novel, Irene represented all that Clare never had and yearned for. Clare even confessed to Irene once when she said, “You had all the things I wanted and never had. It made me all the more determined to get them, and others” (Larsen, 159). Backed by the government, the whites were by default the superior race while the African Americans were meant only to serve like they did during the slavery era. Clare always admired the life of Irene and even wanted to be like her, that is, be accepted as white. She knew that to lead a life like Irene’s she had to be her, and since plastic surgery was not invented yet, Clare had to settle for passing.
By adopting passing, Clare had to suspend her race and true identity, but according to the novel, it was not as easy as she had first thought. Clare was involved in a tug of war game because she was caught up between her adopted white identity and her black heritage. She did not know how best to hide her black heritage and permanently maintain her new white identity. However, as per the book, she always seemed to maintain her love and always felt irritated whenever someone would talk or say things that seemed derogatory about blacks. At one instance, Bellow greeted her and said, “Hello, Nig” (Larsen, 66) and when Clare brought him his tea, Irene noticed “a queer gleam, a jeer, it might be,” in her eyes. Clare, like the other 350,000 African Americans was trying to escape from the maltreatment and oppression that her color seemed to bring upon her people. However, it became increasingly hard, but her surrounding could never allow her to be black as Jack’s words suggested “No niggers in my family. Never have been and never will be” (Larsen, 68). The implication of Jack words was that the whites were not ready to accept the African Americans in their circles and this meant that the likes of Clare were just supposed to keep lying and never reveal their identity.
The world has witnessed and on separate occasions how bad some African Americans have tried to be white. However, it has somehow never dawned on some people how hard it is to be another race particularly black. In the 1920s for example, according to LaFosta, the activities of the Ku Klux Klan intensified, and there emerged “a wave of violent racial confrontations.” Passing increasingly became an option for most African Americans. Irene never understood the aspect of passing and as per the novel struggled to comprehend it. She “wished to find out more about this hazardous business of passing, this breaking away from all that was familiar and friendly to take one’s chances in another environment, not entirely strange, perhaps, but certainly not entirely friendly” (157). Irene simply did not understand the concept of identity conflict, and according to Davis (29), she was “fascinated with this reality of passing” because according to Davis (1), she lived as a black woman but still strived to remain “a part of the black community” albeit superficially. Currently, the racial perpetrators simply do not understand the impact that they have on African Americans, Africans, Asians, Latinos, etc. Some people are even forced to question their identity and take extreme measures like plastic surgery as they try to be accepted by some social circles. In identity, there is no liminal space, and thus it is increasingly becoming common to see people switch from one racial group to another.
Currently, there are no laws that seem to directly be in support of segregation like the Jim Crow Laws. However, people are not yet welcoming to other races. In the US, for example, some schools are predominantly white while others are predominantly black. The Jim Crow Laws in the South only but affirmed what many whites were looking forward to. Racism has managed to make people associate anything evil and wrong with the African Americans. Segregation was propagated as a way to prevent the African American community from contaminating the white people. In their eyes, the white people were without blemish and could only be polluted if they mixed with other races particularly the African Americans. Today, people live in denial of the idea of the existence of racism. When one observes the churches, for example, some churches have a white pastor and the congregation is thus predominantly white and the same can be said of the African Americans. Even though racism can be said to be mild and not as open as it was in the 1920s, it still exists.
In the 1920s, the skin of an African American was associated with lowliness and subservience. African Americans were seen to be only good at following orders, and while this mentality was propagated during the slavery era, no effort was put to help change this. According to Davis (2), “race is assessed based on skin color, ” and racists often judge people of color without ever wanting to know more about them. In one instance, Bellew remarks, “And I read in the papers about them. Always robbing and killing people” (Larsen, 70). The above shows that some people often have pre-conceived ideas about other races without having ever interacted with them. The aspect of generalizing is also evident even today. According to Blow (2014), racial bias informs a majority of the statements and statistics with regards to crime in the US. Anderson (2014) also stated that a “vast ma...