Racial ‘passing’ is still a reality. Here’s why I embraced my complex identity

The origins of passing <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/passing-passing-peculiarly-american-racial-tradition-approaches-irrelevance/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">stretch back</a> to our country’s founding. For some Black people, <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/8417" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">crossing the color line</a> meant a chance to improve their social status, economic opportunity, and marital prospects. Some scholars claim passing is no longer a phenomenon because of greater economic opportunity and stronger legal protections for Black Americans. But passing has never gone away. <a href="https://www.health.com/mind-body/health-diversity-inclusion/white-passing" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">For many</a>, it is a reality — but one that can be transformed into a powerful way to embrace our true identities. For much of my life, I’ve passed as white. My “high yella” skin, as my grandmother called it, along with gray-green eyes and straight hair, hid the fact that I am mixed race. So did my family. In 1967, a year after I was born, the Supreme Court ruled in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/us/50-years-after-loving-v-virginia.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Loving v. Virginia</a> that laws banning interracial marriage were unconstitutional. Still, mixed-race relationships remained socially unacceptable in some parts of the country. For me, growing up in a small town in western New York, my very existence as a mixed-race person was a personal affront to some. <a href="https://600mildollarman.medium.com/racial-passing-is-still-a-reality-here-s-why-i-embraced-my-complex-identity-884c06f6b416">Click Here</a>