Exploring themes of racialization in “The Vanishing Half”: Is the term “white passing” a useful way for psychotherapists, counsellors and psychological therapists to conceptualise racial identity?

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on themes from The Vanishing Half and intersectionality theory to evaluate the usefulness of the term ‘white passing’ for psychological therapists, counsellors and psychotherapists exploring racial identity phenomena in their practice. The context for ‘white passing’ as a historic method for surviving racial injustice is discussed. This will involve consideration of how the systematic invisibility of whiteness has been a cause for harmful racialization of individuals past and present. The conclusion is that ‘white passing’ as a flattened identity label contains dangerous rhetoric about how far racialized individuals are allowed to ‘fit’ into society by those that oppress them.

ABSTRAKT

Dieser Beitrag stützt sich auf Themen aus The Vanishing Half und der Intersektionalitätstheorie, um die Nützlichkeit des Begriffs “White Passing” für psychologische Therapeut*innen, Berater*innen und Psychotherapeut*innen zu bewerten, die rassische Identitätsphänomene in ihrer Praxis untersuchen.Der Kontext für “White Passing” als historische Methode zum Überleben von Rassenungerechtigkeit wird diskutiert. Dabei wird auch die Frage hinterfragt, inwiefern die systematische Unsichtbarkeit des Weißseins eine Ursache für eine schädliche Rassifizierung von Individuen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart war. Die Schlussfolgerung ist, dass “White Passing” als abgeflachtes Identitätsetikett eine gefährliche Rhetorik darüber enthält, wie weit rassifizierte Individuen von denen, die sie unterdrücken, in die Gesellschaft “passen” dürfen.

RESUMEN

Este artículo se basa en temas de “The Vanishing Half” y la teoría de la interseccionalidad para evaluar la utilidad del término “paso blanco” para los terapeutas psicológicos, consejeros y psicoterapeutas que exploran los fenómenos de identidad racial en su práctica. Se discute el contexto del “paso blanco” como un método histórico para sobrevivir a la injusticia racial. Esto implicará la consideración de cómo la invisibilidad sistemática de la blancura ha sido una causa de racialización dañina de individuos pasados y presentes. La conclusión es que el “paso blanco” como una etiqueta de identidad aplanada contiene una retórica peligrosa sobre hasta qué punto los individuos racializados pueden “encajar” en la sociedad por aquellos que los oprimen.

RIASSUNTO

Questo articolo si basa su temi trattati nel romanzo “The Vanishing Half” (La metà scomparsa) e sulla teoria dell’intersezionalità per valutare l’utilità del termine “white passing” per psicoterapeuti, counselor e psicologi clinici che esplorano i fenomeni di identità razziale nella loro pratica. Viene discusso il contesto del “farsi passare per bianchi” come metodo storico per sopravvivere all’ingiustizia razziale. Ciò comporterà la considerazione di come l’invisibilità sistematica della bianchitudine sia stata una causa di razzializzazione dannosa degli individui del passato e del presente. La conclusione è che lo “white passing” come etichetta di identità appiattita contiene una retorica pericolosa su quanto gli individui razzializzati siano autorizzati ad “adattarsi” alla società da coloro che li opprimono.

ΠΕΡΊΛΗΨΗ

Αυτό το άρθρο βασίζεται σε θέματα από το «Αόρατο Μισό» και τη θεωρία της διαθεματικότητας για να αξιολογήσει τη χρησιμότητα του όρου «λευκό πέρασμα» στους ψυχολόγους, συμβούλους και ψυχοθεραπευτές που εξερευνούν φαινόμενα φυλετικής ταυτότητας στην πρακτική τους. Το πλαίσιο για το «λευκό πέρασμα» συζητείται ως ιστορική μέθοδος για την επιβίωση της φυλετικής αδικίας. Θα εξεταστεί ο τρόπος με τον οποίο η συστηματική αορατότητα της λευκότητας ήταν αιτία για επιβλαβή ρατσισμό των ατόμων στο παρελθόν και το παρών. Το συμπέρασμα είναι ότι το «λευκό πέρασμα» ως ισοπεδωτική ετικέτα ταυτότητας εμπεριέχει επικίνδυνη ρητορική σχετικά με το κατά πόσο άτομα που έχουν υποστεί ρατσισμό επιτρέπεται να «χωρέσουν» στην κοινωνία εκείνων που τους καταπιέζουν.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial identity
• white passing
• whiteness
• psychotherapists
• counsellors
• intersectionality

SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER:

• Rassische Identität
• White Passing
• Weißsein
• Psychotherapeut*innen
• Berater*innen
• Intersektionalität

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Identidad racial
• Paso Blanco
• Blancura
• Psicoterapeutas
• Consejeros
• Interseccionalidad

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• Parole chiave: identità razziale
• white passing
• bianchitudine
• psicoterapeuti
• counselor
• intersezionalità

ΛΈΞΕΙΣ-ΚΛΕΙΔΙΆ:

• Φυλετική ταυτότητα
• λευκό πέρασμα
• λευκότητα
• ψυχοθεραπευτές
• σύμβουλοι
• διαθεματικότητα

Introduction

This paper explores the usefulness of the term ‘white passing’ for psychotherapists conceptualising racial identity. Unless otherwise specified, ‘psychotherapists’ encompasses psychotherapists, counsellors, psychological therapists and practicing psychologists. These professionals share fundamental goals and practices in terms of addressing clients’ psychological suffering, dilemmas and crises through listening-and-talking based methods (Feltham et al., 2017). In addition, their fields share commitments to social justice principles, including understanding and challenging where injustices affect clients within and outside the therapy room (Paré, 2019).

Drawing on aspects of The Vanishing Half (Bennett, 2020), I will identify ‘white passing’ as a historic practice of survival that has been flattened to an identity label in contemporary discourse, with some problematic effects. These effects include, but are not limited to, the racialization of individuals through the reification of whiteness, internalized racism and colourism, and robbing of personal agency in how individuals may wish to define their racial identity. This paper is novel in unpicking a term that has been used with little critique for some time in psychotherapy literature and discourse. It also considers the differences between ‘white passing’ conceptualised as an action versus a label. I will conclude ‘white passing’ as a redundant term in a society striving for racial justice, as it positions whiteness as desirable, dominant and only permitted to individuals by white systems of oppression and power.

“White passing” as a historical practice

‘White passing’ is a centuries-old survival strategy that African Americans with less visible African ancestry used in the United States of America (USA) to escape racial marginalization and oppression by living as white (Hobbs, 2014; Khanna & Johnson, 2010). Though ‘white passing’ was also a method used in South Africa during the time of apartheid (Gaist, 2018), its association with segregation regulations in the USA is more prominent (Khanna & Johnson, 2010). This is partly due to the ‘one drop’ rule; which meant people with any amount of African ancestry were categorised as black by Jim Crow laws (1877–1950); rendering passing as white to be a form of resistance for those living in a segregated society (Khanna & Johnson, 2010; Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2003). Estimations indicate that between 1900 and 1920, 10000–20,000 black individuals may have disappeared into the white population each year in the USA (Williamson, 1980). This context for ‘white passing’ is often forgotten today, when meanings have been conflated with being ‘white assumed’ (Bueno-Hansen & Montes, 2019). When this conflation occurs, ‘white passing’ becomes a label rather than an action. This treats a person’s appearance as a passive subject ‘achieving’ a certain level of whiteness, instead of regarding ‘white passing’ as an agentic action taken by an individual to survive racial injustice. This problematic flattening of identity experiences informs the rationale for this paper in unpacking some of the meanings around ‘white passing’.

The Vanishing Half is a multi-generational family saga set between the 1940s and 1990s that exemplifies ‘white passing’ as a practice in the USA (Bennett, 2020). The novel explores experiences of two light-skinned black women twins, Stella and Desiree, who lead markedly different lives when Stella eschews her family to live as a white woman. This story encapsulates themes around a black woman’s experience of ‘passing over’, including internalized racism and colourism, intersections of privilege between race, gender and class, and the inherent pain and loneliness in rejecting one’s cultural history to fit whiteness norms.

Stella’s journey to passing begins when she finds herself treated with warmth and respect in her early adulthood in Louisiana by shop owners, receptionists and managers who mistake her for a white woman. Realising this, she tries her luck and lands a job as a typing assistant to a wealthy white businessman. She and her twin sister, Desiree, are struggling to make ends meet working illegally in a laundrette, and the income from Stella’s new job is welcome, despite Desiree disparagingly referring to her as ‘White Stella’ when she sets off for work (Bennett, 2020, p. 197). When Stella’s boss, who later becomes her husband, offers her a position as his assistant in Los Angeles, Stella agrees and leaves New Orleans; vanishing from her sister’s life.

Hence, Stella uses ‘white passing’ as a practice to escape the systemic under-privilege and trauma that she and her family have been subjected to because of their race; including the lynching of Stella and Desiree’s father when they were young children. This trauma is compounded by having to leave school to help their mother earn money doing housework for a white family, where the husband habitually sexually assaults Stella. Initially, the twins run away to New Orleans as teens, fleeing their individual and shared traumas, and the backward Mallard, their hometown of light-skinned African Americans residents who are obsessed with skin lightening:

Maybe she would have been able to endure all this if it weren’t for everyone’s obsession with lightness … or people believing ridiculous things, like … eating chocolate while pregnant might turn a baby dark. Her father had been so light that, on a cold morning, she could turn his arm over to see the blue of his veins. But none of that mattered when the white men came for him, so how could she care about lightness after that? (Bennett, 2020, p. 9)

Bennett illustrates internalized racism in the fictional town of Mallard through the constant devaluing of dark skin as inferior to light skin in the residents’ discourse. Despite claiming to not care about lightness in this extract, Stella understandably also internalises the attitudes that surrounded her growing up. These arguably influence her ‘white passing’ later in the book. This gives some context for the argument presented in this paper that ‘white passing’ as a term ultimately represents an over-valuation of whiteness and light skin.

Use of the term “white passing” in psychotherapy

Definitions of ‘white passing’ in modern psychotherapy literature and discourse often characterize the term as a label rather than an act. This could be due to attempts to unpack white systems of power within the profession. Bartoli and colleagues conducted a study in the USA into things that white counsellors and psychotherapists should know about race (Bartoli et al., 2015), which explicitly positions whiteness in the spotlight of racial justice work in psychotherapy. Strong arguments are presented in favour of this positioning, including useful critique of the ‘multicultural’ lens that burdens racialized and minoritized¹ groups with educating white individuals on racial injustice, and fails to acknowledge the role whiteness plays in perpetuating that injustice. However, it does arguably mirror a larger trend identified in psychotherapy research for focussing in a binary way on whiteness and white people as oppressors, and non-white individuals as oppressed (Burman et al., 1998). This has a problematic side effect of racially categorizing and problematizing the very people psychotherapists seek to support. This can even spur hostility towards those professionals who have been labelled as ‘white passing’ (‘white assumed’), for not identifying as white. This criticism of such individuals usually surrounds a belief that they are not acknowledging privileges associated with looking white (Walker et al., 2002).

The perpetuation of the identity phenomenon of ‘white passing’ as a label may therefore be argued to have been inappropriately co-opted as a way to package levels of privilege; to use passive phenotypic racial characteristics to distinguish who is the most privileged and who is the most oppressed. This fundamentally undermines the historical context of ‘white passing’ as a verb, not a label; and a verb which was both a practical and personal response to societal racism. Many clients will have difficulties with defining and expressing their racial or cultural identity (Aitken & Burman, 1999; Walker et al., 2002), and it is important that psychotherapists have a critical awareness of the historical and contemporary context for the ways in which people define, or are forced to define their racial identity.

Intersectionality as a frame for critique

Regarding the limitations of the binary appropriation of the ‘white passing’ phenomenon by the psychotherapy professions, an intersectional lens that seeks to undo narrow reductions of human identity is useful. Intersectionality is an analytic framework specifying oppression and disadvantage as operating across multiple axes, including race, gender and class, meaning no such phenomena may be considered in isolation (Carastathis, 2014; Crenshaw, 1990, 2005). Kimberlé Crenshaw is a prominent founding figure for theorizing this concept as a key paradigm in feminist theory, particularly in relation to violence against women, requiring a social and systemic lens that incorporates factors such as the racialized identity of victims and perpetrators (Crenshaw, 1990). Crenshaw’s framework helps describe experiences of characters in The Vanishing Half, where racialized identity plays out in troubling ways into the violence Stella and Desiree are subjected to as young women. Stella is sexually assaulted by the white man that employs her family. In this power bind, her only option to escape the situation is to run away with Desiree to a risky job in an unknown city. Desiree is later physically abused by her black husband in New Orleans, eventually fleeing with her child to seek refuge back in the hometown she hoped never to return to. Most disturbing is the response she anticipates from her mother: ‘Of course that dark man beat you’ (Bennett, 2020, p. 18). This reflects Crenshaw’s research showing the reluctance many black women feel in exposing their attackers for fear of inviting further racism towards their community, including fuelling stereotypes about black violence. Crenshaw therefore argues that it is impossible to regard matters like violence against women without considering racialized identity and other axes of discrimination. In relation to ‘white passing’, intersectionality potentially offers a sophisticated framework for considering inter-relational aspects of identity and structural positioning that are highly relevant to the dynamics of therapy-seeking.

Unpacking the “white passing” identity phenomenon

Next, I evaluate key themes around the ‘white passing’ identity phenomenon: the invisibility of whiteness as a backdrop to racialization, the agency around ‘passing’ as opposed to ‘white passing’, and the pain of eschewing one’s identity to fit into systems governed by whiteness.

The privileged invisibility of whiteness

Arguments for the invisibility of whiteness, which is situated as the ‘norm’ in many places, including psychological practice and research, are regularly upheld in the literature as a contributor to white privilege (Ahsan, 2020; Bartoli et al., 2015). Conversely, racialized people must constantly be visible, having been positioned against whiteness. As Frantz Fanon emphasises in his book Black Skin, White Masks (Fanon, 2008), his desire was ‘to be a man, nothing but a man’ (Fanon, 2008, p. 85) but instead ‘my body was given back to me sprawled out, distorted, recolored, clad in mourning in that white winter day’ (Fanon, 2008, p. 86). This analogising of the white winter day as the white backdrop that Fanon as a black man is positioned against illustrates the harmful racialization of people who are not white. Fanon argues that this constant visibility warps the bodily schemas of black men, who would otherwise ‘have no occasion, except in minor internal conflicts, to experience his being through others’ (Fanon, 2008, p. 82). This reflects manifestations of white privilege, which affords individuals the opportunity to be defined through characteristics other than race. For example, Ahsan (2020) interviewed white clinical psychologists in the United Kingdom (UK) and found participants had often been operating within environments where they did not have to consider the relevance of their racialized positioning on their professional journey, with one participant reporting that their ‘friend of colour got on the first year, when no one else got in. She joked at her own expense, about it being the fact that she was black’ (Ahsan, 2020, p. 48). This highlights where white psychotherapists may more easily be able to attribute their professional success to hard work or talent, whereas psychotherapists of colour, who are widely under-represented in psychology professions in the UK – more so than psychotherapy and counselling professions (Coldridge & Mickelborough, 2003) – may feel they have succeeded through tokenism, or even in spite of their racialized identity. Ahsan insists this points to a need for white psychologists to hold up the mirror to their own whiteness and consider how they may have benefitted from the invisibility of their race.

Indeed, the choice of words for the title of The Vanishing Half implies something about Stella’s invisibility when she ‘vanishes’ into her life as a white woman. This is emphasised by ‘white passing’ affording her the ability to pursue comfort, employment, security and wealth, and, crucially, the freedom to move through life without fear of racial discrimination or violence. This safety element around invisibility can be seen to contribute to the common perception that being ‘white passing’ is an indisputable privilege that is somehow set in stone. Fanon makes a somewhat controversial comparison of himself as a recipient of racism to Jews, who he argues suffer antisemitism as a form of racism that is less rooted in skin colour: ‘I am the slave not of the “idea” others have of me but of my own appearance’ (Fanon, 2008, p. 116). Whilst Fanon has indisputably been subjected to racism because of others’ attitudes to his blackness, it is prudent to consider that speculation about which groups have undergone the most oppression based on their phenotypic appearance may be of limited value (Burman et al., 1998; Bush, 2021).² As Ahmed shrewdly observes in her paper on the phenomenology of whiteness (Ahmed, 2007), the risk of focussing so narrowly on individual whiteness as a contributor to systems of oppression is being ‘endlessly caught up in describing what we are doing to whiteness, rather than what whiteness is doing’ (Ahmed, 2007, p. 150). It is next therefore useful to consider the level of agency that individuals have in ‘white passing’ as a practice rather than a prescribed identity, the latter of which merely reifies whiteness.

Agency in “white passing” versus “passing”

Ahmed implies ‘white passing’ has been rendered a passive product of one’s appearance as permitted by white systems, rather than an agentic act by individuals to survive white-dominant societies. This suggests diminished agency for clients that may be seen to choose a ‘white passing’ path, creating a bind for psychotherapists between honouring that agency and not forgetting that the person’s hand is somewhat forced. Indeed, a person would feel no need to ‘pass’ as white unless whiteness was somehow more desirable in their society. For Stella, her act of ‘white passing’ is guided by forces of discrimination and disadvantage that mean taking the opportunity to disappear into a white middle-class life is her only escape. She would not need to take such action in a society where it was safe to not be white. Therefore, it is hardly a ‘free’ choice that she makes, because her access to this life is dependent on the acceptance by the white people and systems that she comes across; that see her as white and consequently offer her respect, job promotions and marriage opportunities. This is where we begin to see a problem with the use of the term ‘white passing’, as it infuses white-dominant systems with the power to allow people to pass the test of being white. This supports Ahmed’s argument for being mindful of what whiteness is doing. In this scenario, whiteness is reifying itself through allowing Stella to have it; not ‘as an ontological given, but as that which has been received, or become given, over time’ (Ahmed, 2007, p. 150). Ahmed highlights that the invisibility of whiteness in its own reification processes makes that reification more insidious, and the consequence of racialization, as emphasised by Fanon, more pronounced.

The difficulty of identifying the reification of whiteness, by nature of its own invisibility, could explain why ‘white passing’ as a term has not been extensively critiqued in psychotherapy literature. Ahsan’s aforementioned study claims interviewing ‘white other, white-passing or working class’ participants was beyond the scope of research into the attitudes of white clinical psychologists (Ahsan, 2020, p. 53). This may be critiqued for presenting such historically loaded terms without offering the reader any context for their use, as well as mirroring the typical exclusion of these groups from studies about the attitudes of both white psychotherapists and racialized psychotherapists. In addition, examination of racial identity in psychotherapy literature may fail to acknowledge the impact of racialization for individuals. For example, psychotherapeutic interventions intended to assist individuals with racial identity development have been critiqued by Clarke for assuming ‘that an exclusively Black identity was healthy and that negative mental health outcomes could be associated with internalizing negative views about Blackness’ (Clarke, 2021, p. 120). This is a prime example of the embedded whiteness norm dictating who is and is not allowed to be white, and who should have a racialized identity. For mixed-race individuals, this struggle for acceptance is amplified from multiple angles, as they may experience pressure to racialize themselves, or fit whiteness norms. Studies have shown that mixed-race individuals often suffer exclusion and rejection from both white and black peers and family members, who may even insist they choose which ‘side’ they identify with (Clarke, 2021; Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2003). These examples illustrate a powerlessness around being racially positioned by others that points to the importance of the person’s individual agency in deciding how positive or negative the identity label of ‘white passing’ may be to them.

Indeed, some research indicates that individuals nowadays may find the ability to choose and manipulate their racial appearance empowering. Khanna and Johnson interviewed black-white biracial adults, who reported a felt sense of agency in expressing their preferred racial identities; through methods such as selective disclosure, manipulating their phenotypic appearance and magnifying or downplaying symbols of culture and identity (Khanna & Johnson, 2010). This points to the importance of distinguishing where the ‘white passing’ identity phenomenon is freely adopted by the individual or enforced by whiteness norms. In this study, more individuals reported intentionally passing as black than as white. Khanna and Johnson additionally observed that individuals expressed less desirability around being monoracial. This might indicate a shift in the context of the term ‘passing’ in the 21^st century, where whiteness is no longer positioned as the necessary desirable outcome of ‘passing’, but one of multiple options for expressing cultural identity. Therefore, automatically coupling ‘white’ with ‘passing’ is an outdated use of terminology that wrongly assumes whiteness is always preferable. This leads me to conclude that psychotherapists should regard personal agency as key for individuals seeking support with self-defining their racial identity.

‘Passing’ should not necessarily be problematised provided it is chosen practice in cultural identification observed by the individual themselves and not imposed by others.

Intersectionality and the pain of passing

This shift in the context of ‘passing’ in different identity contexts points to the relevance of an intersectional frame when examining nuances in identity choices. Khanna and Johnson argue for a ‘nuanced and fluid analysis’ (Khanna & Johnson, 2010, p. 381) of the act of ‘passing’, to broaden sociological definitions of this complex term. This emphasises the need to consider multiple axes of identity in picking apart the ‘white passing’ phenomenon. Ahmed highlights that to be ‘white passing’ does not just involve the simple factor of light skin: ‘To follow one line (say whiteness) will not necessarily get you too many points, if you do not or cannot follow others’ (Ahmed, 2007, p. 159). In The Vanishing Half, Stella experiences the cruel reality of the exhausting pressure to conform in multiple ways: ‘At first, passing seemed so simple … She hadn’t realized how long it takes to become somebody else, or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you’ (Bennett, 2020, p. 178). For example, as a result of having to keep her blackness secret, Stella feels alienated from other women in her white neighbourhood who dislike her closed-off manner. This indicates that Stella’s identity as a woman, including the associated pressure to always be open and sociable (Proudfoot & Kay, 2022) affects her experience of ‘white passing’ (Larsen, 1926).³ It also mirrors ways in which whiteness spreads across multiple domains that people who are attempting to pass as white must conform to, as seen in organisational settings today. Diversity and inclusion initiatives often drive recruitment of people of colour to white-dominant organisations, who paradoxically then feel a necessity to supress their racial identity expressions to mould themselves to white workplaces (Ahmed, 2007). Therefore, ‘white passing’ as an identity phenomenon can again be seen to symbolize little agency for the person involved; with the parameters of whiteness reifying an institutional status quo that dictates how much that person is permitted into white spaces.

Indeed, over the course of The Vanishing Half, Stella loses more than she gains by ‘white passing’. Her impoverished background has an important intersect with her experience, in that she continually reflects on the comforts of her new life, such as never going hungry and being able to buy clothes that fit her; privileges that she had previously gone without. In some ways, Stella has twisted the story of her blackness to be conflated with poverty. This explains some of Desiree’s contrasting feelings of resentment and abandonment, as she too has adopted that story and believes Stella has left her to a life of low socioeconomic status that they both associate with blackness. However, despite Stella’s poverty being alleviated, she begins to understand that she has missed out on many things in her quest to conform to whiteness. This is especially played out in her motherhood experiences. Stella experiences relief that she will not be discovered for her blackness when her daughter, Kennedy, is born with ‘milky skin, wavy blonde hair and eyes so blue’, but finds she sees Kennedy as a ‘daughter who belonged to somebody else’ (Bennett, 2020, p. 158). When Kennedy gets older, she accuses her mother of never sharing anything of herself. Stella’s necessary secrecy to maintain her whiteness therefore deprives her of a close mother-daughter bond with Kennedy. This loss is experienced as the most painful one by Stella, on top of her emotional isolation from her husband and neighbours. Conversely, although Desiree has concerns about her daughter, Jude, who is dark-skinned and experiences excessive discrimination, she does have a positive relationship with her. Desiree also receives help in raising Jude from her own mother, whereas Stella has cut ties.

The pain of ‘white passing’ for people like Stella mirrors a key point by Hobbs, who states she has no interest in what can be gained by achieving whiteness in the scenario of ‘white passing’; but more so what has been lost in the rejection of a black racial identity (Hobbs, 2014). This reflects over-emphasising the privilege element of ‘white passing’ is in itself over-valuing whiteness, because it ignores the significant loss of cultural identity that has occurred. The fear, anger and confusion around this loss for Stella is manifested in her hostility towards people of colour that she comes across later in her life. She prevents her daughter playing with the black child across the road, but later takes a cake round to the mother and befriends her, whilst keeping that friendship secret from her husband. Here, Stella is enacting the internalized racism around the rejection of her cultural identity that contextualizes her ‘white passing’ choice. Such a context emphasises the toxicity of the term ‘white passing’ in its association with rejecting or losing racial and cultural identities that are not white. Indeed, Gaist explores sociological theories of ethnic identity to suggest ‘white passing’ is a conformist defence used when black clients have internalized depreciation of blackness and appreciation of whiteness (Gaist, 2018). This suggests ‘white passing’ may even go so far as to enact societal racism. Gaist additionally proposes that it is important to conceptualise identity phenomena such as ‘white passing’ using ‘fluid, non-binary identity logic’ (Gaist, 2018, p. 55), which again implicates intersectionality as a key framework for contextualising this identity phenomena. This, again, emphasises the role of agency in ‘white passing’, and the relevance of appropriating ‘passing’ in a younger, more diverse generation of people wishing to define their own racial identities. It is crucial to remember this piece of the ‘white passing’ phenomenon even when unpacking its problematic, racist elements, and to not restrict exploration to binary identity definitions.

Conclusion

The Vanishing Half offers a useful context for uncovering some problematic themes around the ‘white passing’ identity phenomenon (Bennett, 2020). Stella’s reasons for ‘white passing’ being rooted in internalized, societal racism are particularly telling of the associations the term has with fitting into white systems of power and losing non-white identities (Ahmed, 2007; Gaist, 2018). Intersectionality provides a helpful framework for understanding how these oppressive white systems cut along multiple axes of identity including gender and class, and make ‘white passing’ on the whole a painful process involving a huge denial of self (Gaist, 2018; Hobbs, 2014). However, the role of agency is a key mediating factor in whether ‘white passing’ can be considered a useful term for psychotherapists to use in their practice. Psychological research and practices that pressure individuals to choose one way or the other with regards to their racial identity are harmful and perpetuate racialization (Clarke, 2021; Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2003). Ultimately, ‘passing’ may only be considered a useful term when it is based entirely in individuals’ choices in how to express their racial identity; and when it is not always geared towards whiteness as the only desirable outcome (Khanna & Johnson, 2010). Therefore, ‘white passing’ as an automatically conjoined term should be regarded with caution by psychotherapists seeking to explore racial identity in their research or work with clients.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my research supervisor at the University of Manchester, Erica Burman, for her support in writing this theoretical paper as part of the Counselling Psychology doctorate unit on Challenging Oppression, Discrimination and Inequality.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olivia Mohtady

Olivia Mohtady is a doctoral student in Counselling Psychology at the University of Manchester. She has worked across organisational psychology settings with a social justice focus as well as having a clinical background supporting individuals with psychological difficulties.

Notes

1. Racialized and minoritized groups may in fact belong to a global majority (i.e. people of colour), but have been marginalised and/or discriminated against by the oppressive ‘majority’ system (i.e. whiteness) to the extent that they have been classed as a minority or had the salience of their racial profile emphasised due to it deviating from whiteness (Ahsan, 2020).

2. It is also important to note here that Fanon misses the mark in suggesting Jews form a uniform, white group in terms of skin colour, given that there are huge and diverse communities of Jews of colour worldwide. A recent report made by Stephen Bush to the Board of Deputies of British Jews highlights some of the issues around racism and stereotyping of Jews, and advocates greater racial inclusivity within Jewish organisations and culture in the UK.

3. Similar experiences are reflected in Nella Larsen’s (1926) novel Passing, adapted to film in 2021.