Class 6EWRT 1B

AGENDA Exam 1: Vocab and Terms

Discussion:

Kennedy

QHQ: The Human Stain

QHQ: "The Passing of Grandison”

Presentation: Introduction to Essay 2:

In-Class Writing: Essay 2 Brainstorming

Terms Exam 1

You have 20 minutes to complete the exam.

Death Penalty

Discussion:

“Racial Passing” Randall KennedyThe Human Stain Phillip Roth

"The Passing of Grandison” Charles Chesnutt

Why do People Pass?Stories of Randall Kennedy

One extraordinary instance occurred in 1848 when Ellen Craft—the daughter of a master and his slave mistress—escaped from bondage by train, boat, and carriage on a four-day journey from Macon, Georgia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[12] Ellen Craft pretended to be white. Her slave husband was part of her disguise; he pretended to be her servant. And there was one more twist: Ellen Craft traveled not as a white woman but as a white man. To obtain freedom for herself and her husband, she temporarily traversed gender as well as racial lines.[13]

To Escape Bondage

Walter White, working on behalf of the NAACP, gathered facts about lynchings and other atrocities and carefully publicized them in an effort to arouse American public opinion. However, the daring way in which he pursued this task brought him close to danger. In 1919, he traveled to Phillips County, Arkansas, to investigate the deaths of some 250 blacks killed in an effort to discourage collective organization by African American cotton farmers. When whites in Phillips County became aware of White's purpose, he was forced to escape hurriedly. “You’re leaving mister, just when the fun is going to start,” White recalls being told by the conductor of the train on which he made his getaway. “A damned yellow nigger is down here passing for white and the boys are going to get him.”

To Get Information

Goaded by false stories of Negro men raping white women, a white mob terrorized blacks in Georgia’s capital. Caught in town amidst marauding whites, two African Americans escaped serious injury only because of their light skin. They witnessed, however, terrible crimes: “We saw a lame Negro bootblack . . . pathetically try to outrun a mob of whites. Less than a hundred yards from us the chase ended. We saw clubs and fists descending to the accompaniment of savage shouting and cursing. Suddenly a voice cried, “There goes another nigger!” Its work done, the mob went after new prey. The body with the withered foot lay dead in a pool of blood in the street.

For Safety

Some passed as white during the workday, while presenting themselves as African American outside of the workplace. Chronicling this phenomenon in White By Day . . . Negro by Night, a 1952 article in Ebony magazine relates the following story: One girl who passed to get work as a clerk in a Chicago loop department store thought she had lost her job when an old-time, well-meaning friend of her mother came in and said in happy surprise, “Well, Baby, it sure is good to see this store is finally hiring colored girls.” Fortunately she was overheard only by one other clerk who was a liberal and a good friend of the girl who was passing and the secret did not get out.

To Advance Occupational Ambition

Prevented by state law from freeing his slaves, Michael Healy sent his children to the North where they could be educated and also be free of bondage in the event of their father’s demise. James Augustine Healy (1830–1900) was a member of the first graduating class of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He pursued clerical studies in Canada and France, became a priest in Boston, and served for twenty-five years as the Catholic bishop of Portland, Maine.

To Pursue Education

To shop, sleep, or eat meals at racially exclusive establishments

Hospitals were divided into two sections. The white section was clean and renovated; the black section, dirty and dilapidated. The physician took a light-skinned man to the white section of the hospital. Before long, though, a visit by a son-in-law apprized the hospital staff of their “error.” His son wrote that his father “was snatched from the examination table lest he contaminate the ‘white’ air, and taken hurriedly across the street in a driving downpour . . . to the ‘Negro’ ward” where he died sixteen days later.

To Get Access to Services

Rachel Kennedy passed as white not visually but aurally.

When pressed to talk on the telephone with some authority on an important matter—a consumer complaint, dealing with police, seeking employment or educational opportunities—she would adopt an accent that most listeners would associate with the speech of a white person. She put on countless stellar performances before an appreciative household audience that viewed these affairs as comical episodes in the American racial tragedy.

To Establish Credibility

St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Cayton report that some light-skinned Negroes in Chicago they interviewed in the forties spoke of going to white establishments “just to see what they are like and to get a thrill.”

Curiosity and Fun

The non-fiction literature by and about passers is full of references to passing as a mode of resistance or subversion.

Ray Stannard Baker noted that passing awakened glee among many Negroes because they viewed it as a way of “getting even with the dominant white man.”

Langston Hughes repeatedly defended passing as a joke on racism.

Gregory Howard Williams relates that his father derived great psychic satisfaction by defying the rules of segregation when he lived in Virginia as the husband of a white woman and the President of a (supposedly) lily-white chapter of the American Legion.

Williams also relates that his brother got a thrill from romancing white girls who would surely have spurned him had they perceived him to be a Negro.

More Reasons to Pass

The Human StainColeman and the Charges of

Racism• Do you think that Coleman Silk had the intention to

insult the students by saying “Do they exist or are they spooks?”

• Why wouldn’t Coleman’s [African American] friend at the meeting stand up for him, knowing his friends true feelings?

• Why couldn’t Coleman reveal that he was black at the time he was getting fired?Do you think that Coleman Silk overreacted to the judgment by the school?

• Did he ever reveal to his wife that he was black? It seems like he did and she accepted it when they have that talk before she dies.

Coleman and Steena

• Why did Coleman introduce […] Steena to his mother, knowing that she might leave him for that?

• Why was Coleman sure that Steena would stay with him after learning his lineage?

• Why did Coleman not tell his girlfriend about his mother being black before they met in person?

• After Steena expressed how much she loved Coleman. Why did she leave him after finding out he was passing as a white male?

• Will Steena regret her decision? Will she be better off without Coleman?

• Why didn’t Coleman go after Steena and try to make things right when she got up and left?

Coleman and Faunia• What made Coleman so attracted to Faunia Farley and

why would he continue to stay with her even after discovering all the trouble she brings?

• Why did Coleman decide to tell Iris that his parents were dead, and completely reject his racial background but reveal his racial identity to Faunia?

• Would Faunia have stayed with Coleman even she had found out he was black since the beginning rather than the end? Why?

• Lester continually attributed part of his anger to Faunia “fucking an old Jew”, which shows that he never realized that Coleman was biracial. Would this knowledge have changed his attitude, or did it purely have to do with Faunia being with another man?

• When Coleman was a young man, before he brought Steena home, did he take an active role in his passing for white?

• How did Coleman feel about passing? And was it easier emotionally to pass as a white man after his father died?

• Did Coleman actually benefit from passing? It almost seems that passing made things worse for him.

• After Coleman’s girlfriend told him that she could not be with him, Coleman hits his opponent like he hates black people: is he just mad that he can’t be with his girlfriend because he is black?

• Can society lead you to hate your own race?

Anger, Fear, and Regret

Larger Issues• Does color make that much difference to change

your love for the person just because of your color?

• Can you really love someone if you don’t know everything about them?

• Assuming we all think it is moral to allow everyone to have equal opportunity, is it moral to still make/have/keep racial distinctions ?

• Is there a difference between intentionally passing and allowing others to believe you are something or someone you are not?

"The Passing of Grandison” • What is the significance behind Grandison’s passing?• What would ever be a good reason for someone to

stay enslaved when they have the opportunity for freedom?

• Was Grandison’s well mannered behavior a part of his plan to escape?

• Why did Grandison take so long to take the opportunity to escape?

• Would Grandison want to leave if there was no chance to see his family again or was his family greater than freedom?

• Grandison being the loyal slave he was, when did he decide to part away and plan against his master for the well being of his family?

• Was Grandison really kidnapped or was that part of his plan?

• Since Dick has a wealthy dad and will inherit his fortunes, why does he go so far to impress his girlfriend when he could get any other girl?

• Does the extreme severity of pushing to illegally freeing a slave at the time, put Dick in the right light but for the wrong reasons?

• Dick’s intentions of setting Grandison free was good, but was it right?

• How did dick feel after knowing that the whole family was gone and knowing he was a part of why it happened?

Essay #2The Argument Essay

Introduction to Essay 2:

“If passing for white will get a fellow better accommodations on the train, better seats in the theatre, immunity from insults in public places, and may even save his life from a mob,” wrote William Pickens, “only idiots would fail to seize the advantages of passing, at least occasionally if not permanently” (“Racial Segregation,” Opportunity, December 1927 (3).

Write an essay of four to six pages arguing for or against William Pickens’s statement. Use support from the texts you have read so far, The Human Stain, our discussions, and your own insights. Remember to format your essay in MLA style. This essay will require citations and a works cited page.

The Prompt: If passing for white will get a fellow better accommodations on the train, better seats in the theatre, immunity from insults in public places, and may even save his life from a mob,” only idiots would fail to seize the advantages of passing, at least occasionally if not permanently.”

Do you agree with Pickens's statement?If yes, why?If no, why not?

HOMEWORK

Reading: Hughes: "Who's Passing for Who?”

Post #9 : QHQ: “Who’s Passing for Who?”

Think about Pickens’s statement and whether you agree with it or not. Consider which texts you might use to support your beliefs. How would you use them?