Posted on 06/12/2015 4:59:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Long before Rachel Dolezal, head of the Spokane, Washington NAACP chapter, was outed by her parents for being, um, White, America had a storied history of White folks passing for Black.
Reasons for the transformations range from extreme cultural appropriation, to journalistic and social experimentation, to cultural backlash against affirmative action, among other reasons. To be sure, their stories add another layer to the convoluted and complicated history of race in America. NewsOne dug up a few names:
John Howard Griffin
Some of you may have read Black Like Me, published in 1961, on your own or as a school assignment. Nearly 54 years ago, Griffin, a novelist, darkened his skin and became Black in an effort to comprehend the Civil Rights Movement.
The product was a groundbreaking book that revealed what many Whites still refuse to believe today: Racism is not a figment of the imagination.
“‘Black Like Me’ disabused the idea that minorities were acting out of paranoia,” Gerald Early, a Black scholar at Washington University and editor of “Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity, and the Ambivalence of Assimilation,” told Smithsonian Magazine. “There was this idea that black people said certain things about racism, and one rather expected them to say these things. Griffin revealed that what they were saying was true. It took someone from outside coming in to do that. And what he went through gave the book a remarkable sincerity.”
Grace Halsell
In the December 1969 issue of Ebony magazine, Halsell, a journalist and writer, recounts how she lived for six months as a Black woman. Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, to a family that owned slaves before the Civil War, Halsell was inspired to embark on the experiment by John Howard Griffin’s book. She took pills that were used to alleviate pigmentation problems, supplemented by extensive tanning sessions, to cross the color barrier, according to The New York Times.
She wrote about the experience in her 1969 book, Soul Sister, recounting the degradation of being a Black domestic worker in a world of White employers, one of whom tried to rape her, the Times writes. The book sold more than one million paperback copies and was translated into six languages, the report notes.
Mark L. Stebbins
Stebbins, who had blue eyes and a light complexion, made headlines in 1983 when he campaigned for city council as a Black man in a predominantly Black and Hispanic district in Stockton, California, and won, according to PEOPLE magazine.
“His ancestors were white,” the magazine writes. “His parents are white. His brother and four sisters are white. Yet against the weight of all this witeness, and his own pale blue eyes and light complexion, Mark Stebbins insists he’s black.”
Ralph Lee White, the indisputably Black incumbent at the time, was angry, calling Stebbins “a white guy with a perm,” the report says.
Perm or no perm, Stebbins won a recall election, Jet said at the time.
Philip and Paul Malone
The fair-haired, fair-complexioned identical twins worked for the Boston Fire Department for 10 years until their dismissal in 1988, reports The New York Times.
The firings came after state investigators found that they had lied on their job applications: They both contended they were Black, The Times notes.
The case raised questions about the integrity of the city’s affirmative action policy, and concerns about hiring at the Fire Department, the report says.
”How,” City Councillor Bruce C. Bolling asked at the time, notes the report, ”could twins with Irish names, Caucasian features and no black identification from any perspective get into the force and stay on without collusion? Such misuse denies opportunity to people of color for whom these plans are designed.”
In 1975, the twins took the Civil Service test for firefighters and failed, the report says. They reapplied in 1977, contending they were Black after their mother found a photograph of their great-grandmother, whom she said was Black, the report says. They won appointments in 1978.
David Wilson
The conservative White candidate won a seat on the Houston Community College board in 2013 by a slim margin by reportedly implying to voters in the predominantly Black district that he was Black, according to Politico.
Mailers for his campaign featured pictures of African-Americans that said, “Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson,” the report says. The pictures came from the Internet.
Wilson still holds the seat, according to a website for the community college.
Are you surprised by these stories? If so, why? If not, why? Sound off in the comments.
Dude, be fair, dorks come in all colors!
He died a white woman.
You mean Urkel, Carlton, and Don “No Soul” Simmons are uncle toms?
Meanwhile, we have fauxcahontas out there with nary a mention.
Eddie Murphy passing for white in “White Like
Me”.
“...so much so as to deny her own parents.”
I can’t imagine what the situation is between this woman and her family, but her parents evidently adopted several black children. One of her adopted brothers she presented to the world as her son.
Which is, you know, just taking it all to a whole ‘nother level.
Godfrey Cambridge in “Watermelon Man,” a clever comedy from Melvin van Peebles.
I should read ‘Black Like Me’ again, if I ever dig out my extensive, black history library.
This is one of the funniest stories I’ve heard in months.
What is wrong with being Trans-black? Freeman of choice.
One of the funniest routines ever.
I’m going to register my business as woman owned, minority owned.
It’s a pigment of her imagination.......
True Democrats in Federal law and State law even in Local statutes..
ARE POISONOUS... Toxic.. stupid and moronic..
BUT on most days are also treasonous..
That said; John Boehner and Mitch McConnell... ARE WORSE..
AND on a future day of justice WILL BE HUNG..
According to my DNA analysis at Ancestry.com, I do have some black ancestry, of the Bantu tribe of south Africa.
I should start answering “black” on those demographic questions.
Too bad I’ve already established a career; I could milk that black ancestry for a lot of opportunity, I’m sure.
You could add disabled, too. Government contracts will fall into your lap.
Transdisabled? Interesting idea. Don’t think anyone has thought of that yet.
Why does it work that way? Because there are lots (and lots) of advantages to being black.
Haven't you ever heard of the 'one drop rule'? It's always been that way in America - long before there was any advantage connected to being identified as black.
Lotta folks in my family could have passed for white, so I know a thing or two about this.
Funny you should say that. My business actually fits that very description, but it's never given us any special advantage.
Maybe I just don't know where to apply for my 'special minority benefits'.
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