Race
Racism is a belief a certain race is either inferior or superior to another. Racial separatism is based on an individual’s moral and social traits. Racism has existed all over humanoid history. It is a belief one is either superior or inferior to another based on language, skin color, birthplace, customs, and culture. Racism is an underlying theme in Nella Larson’s passing novel. The novel portrays a divided society made of whites, blacks, and mixed-race characters. The novel is fascinating and continues to be popular despite being written several decades ago. The popularity of Larsen’s Passing is an indication it is relevant in today’s world. Several scholars have analyzed the novel and applied it in their own works. This essay will explore why racism is a social construction by citing Larsen’s Passing as the primary source. However, the information will be drawn from George Hutchinson “Nella Larsen And the Veil of Race,” Jordan H. Landry “Seeking Black Women Anew Through Lesbian Desire in Nella Larsen’s Passing,” And Gabriel Mcintire “Race, And Misrecognition in Nella Larsen’s ‘Passing.’”
The novel centers around experiences of two mulatto women, Clare and Irene, whose identities during Passing are performative. Larsen has primarily explored the theme of race and racial identity in Passing. Moreover, Larsen’s question haw nature shapes people’s experiences and their race. The novel explains race as a social construct by exploring mixed race (African Americans). In the novel, Irene and Clare pass to gain privileges enjoyed by the whites and are not accessible for blacks. In the first chapter, Irene passes as white to be served with tea. The author cites, “Never, when she was alone, had they [White people] even remotely seemed to suspect that she was a Negro” (Larsen, p8). Irene’s actions stress race is a social construct for mulatto people. Irene temporarily avoids her race to acquire privileges enjoyed by white society.
Irene is obsessed about uplifting the black race by engaging as a black woman neglecting; she is an African American woman. It is an indication the society does not recognize mixed-race, thus, requiring mulatto people to choose between black and white races. The narrator says,” the trouble with Clare was not only that she wanted to have her cake and eat it too but that she wanted to nibble at the cakes of other folk as well” (Larsen, p38). Irene criticizes her friend Clare for living as a white who is desiring to pass as a black when the situation satisfies her interests. Irene and Clare are in conflict about how a person can belong to two differing races. It creates a picture the society does not recognize a mixed race. A mixed-race is in a conflict in a society that accepts either white or black race. George Hutchinson claims, “The child of both black and white parents encounters various forms of incomprehension in a society for which ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness’ seem to constitute two mutually exclusive and antagonistic forms of identity” (Hutchinson, p330). Mixed race people, specifically African Americans, have conflict when identifying their race because they do not fit in black and white. In Larsen’s passing Mulatto women experience the challenge of undermining issues such as black identity.
The race is constructed socially in our societies. Gabrielle McIntire says,” “Larsen conveys that perceptions of racial difference inevitably rely on assumptions that are themselves always unstable and ajar… (McIntire, p779). In Passing, the division between blacks and whites is created socially, whereby the whites were viewed as superior to black. Whites were socially ranked higher, and they enjoyed some privileges that blacks could not access. Irene temporarily passes to the white race when she wants to enjoy some privileges associated with whites. On the other hand, Clare has permanently passed to the white society to get married to a white man to be socially ranked higher in society. Jordan Landry claims, draws from the Harlem Renaissance, to explain how African American authors expressed blackness. He says, “the mulatto women extreme femininity bolsters black man’s masculinity confirming his sense superiority, power, and control” (Landry, p25). Superiority enables black men to be proud of African American culture, thus contributing to it. However, the rejection of African American culture by mulatto women traps black men into whiteness. Mulatto women are a cause of conflict because they discard their culture and adopt what the white culture accepts. Mulatto women’s desire for lesbianism is initiated by the white race culture. However, Hutchinson has explored Nella Larsen’s childhood experiences to identify the motive behind her work. Passing of mulatto women as white portrays concepts of racial identities, lesbianism, the power of gender roles, and desire to assimilate into the white society.
Passing has warned against simple racial categorizations through creating confusion. Clare and Irene associate with each other freely despite having passed to opposing races. Clare is not comfortable in the white society, and she craves to be associated with blacks. Clare’s parents belong to opposing races; her father is white, whereas her mother is black. Despite passing to white society, she has a desire to be a part of black society. She confesses to Irene, “l a lonely, so lonely…cannot help again, as I have never longed for anything before; you can ‘t know-how in this pale life of mine I am all the time seeing the bright pictures of that other than I once thought I was glad to be free of… it’s like an ache, a pain that never ceases” (Larsen, p7). Clare enjoys white privileges, but she feels uncomfortable and isolated in society. On the other hand, Irene’s racial wellness is improved by how she compares herself to others in society. Hutchinson cites the differences between the two women, “constitute two mutually exclusive and antagonistic forms of identity” (Hutchinson, p329). Irene passes temporarily while her friend Clare has passed entirely into the white society. However, they are not comfortable in their races, which reveals race is a social and psychological construct. Hutchinson suggests people with mixed race are isolated and traumatized in their reformed white families. As a result, they hide and renounce being associated with their white kin.
In conclusion, the race is a key theme in Larsen’s novel. The racial conflict has left Irene and Clare to be in a dilemma about the race they belong to. The experiences of the two-mulatto woman who have passed have portrayed the race as a social construct. A person is expected to belong to one gender, either black or white. The two women pass from back to white races to acquire privileges associated with the white society. Finally, Larsen attempts to explore the racial performance identity as well as encouraging mixed-race societies.
Works cited
Hutchinson, George. “Nella Larsen and the Veil of Race.” American Literary History, vol. 9, no. 2, 1997, pp. 329–349, www.jstor.com/stable/490290.
Landry, H. Jordan. “Seeing Black Women Anew through Lesbian Desire in Nella Larsen’s Passing.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, vol. 60, no. 1, 2006, pp. 25–52, doi:10.2307/4143877.
McIntire, Gabrielle. “TOWARD A NARRATOLOGY OF PASSING: Epistemology, Race, and Misrecognition in Nella Larsen’s ‘Passing.’” Callaloo, vol. 35, no. 3, 2012, pp. 778–794, www.jstor.com/stable/23274339.