Discrimination In Elaine Ginsberg's Excerpt, Politics Of Passing

Race has always been and will forever be a hot topic. The color of your skin defines peoples first judgements of you. Being the white race comes with its privileges. Throughout history, society would consider the white race as the superior in that, it is the race that indicates freedom. Whereas being black has historically had more of a negative connotation. The One Drop rule mandates any person of any Saharan-African ancestry is legally a part of the African American race, even if their physical appear to have a white man’s complexion. Appearing white gave these black men an opportunity to pass as a white man to achieve their freedom they desired. In Elaine Ginsberg’s excerpt,” Politics of Passing,” she discussed historical cases of racial or gender passing. In her paper she stated, “Passing is usually motivated to gain access to social and economic opportunities” (Ginsberg). If this statement is true, then, why would someone with white privilege pass as black? Ginsberg utilized Edmund Kenney as an example of how he gained white privilege because he was capable of passing as a white free man. He was one of the many thousands of men that broke the legal boundary of race. White men were free and men with African descendants were to
It allows them to experience what the life of another race. Many white people are oblivious of the racial inequality other races have to face on their day to day life’s. People who have white privilege temporarily passing, permits the Ignorant to gain intuition of the racial inequality they were naive of. “Passing does not have to be permanent, it may be brief, situational, or intermittent” (Ginsberg). In the movie, Soul Man, Mark passes as a black man while in Law school. He faces the racial remarks as well exploitation black people have to face. By temporarily passing, he obtained the capability to stand up for the black race and be conscious of how obliged he is to bear his white