Mixed Race Studies

From Necessity to Possibility: Postmodern and Heideggerian Aspects of Passing and Identity in Early African American Novels From 1853 to 1912

Sage Open
October-December 2015
pages 1-15
DOI: 10.1177/2158244015618234

Charles Cullum
Department of English
Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts

This article applies theories of fragmented postmodern identity and Heidegger’s modes of existence and concept of historicality to the issue of passing and traces the treatment of that motif across six African American novels that move from the largely realistic perspective of the 19th century to the subjectivist perspective of the early 20th century. These novels thus foreshadow the postmodernist questioning of the basis of discrete personal identity. The article claims that, across these novels, the act of passing and its relationship to human identity through time and historical circumstance becomes problematized from a necessary tool for escaping slavery, and so sustaining identity in its most basic form as life itself, to a potential existential dilemma of identity as a matter of authenticity and possibility. The article further discusses whether the individual is constrained by his or her background, especially, by race itself, or is a totally free, ungrounded agent.

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When an “Educated” Black Man Becomes Lighter in the Mind’s Eye

SAGE Open
2014-01-14
9 pages
DOI: 10.1177/2158244013516770

Avi Ben-Zeev, Professor of Cognitive Psychology
San Francisco State University

Tara C. Dennehy
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Robin I. Goodrich
University of California, Davis

Branden S. Kolarik
University of California, Davis

Mark W. Geisler, Professor of Physiological Psychology
San Francisco State University

We offer novel evidence that a Black man appears lighter in the mind’s eye following a counter-stereotypic prime, a phenomenon we refer to as skin tone memory bias. In Experiment 1, participants were primed subliminally with the counter-stereotypic word educated or with the stereotypic word ignorant, followed by the target stimulus of a Black man’s face. A recognition memory task for the target’s face and six lures (skin tone variations of ±25%, ±37%, and ±50%) revealed that participants primed with “educated” exhibited more memory errors with respect to lighter lures—misidentifying even the lightest lure as the target more often than counterparts primed with “ignorant.” This skin tone memory bias was replicated in Experiment 2. We situate these findings in theorizing on the mind’s striving for cognitive consistency. Black individuals who defy social stereotypes might not challenge social norms sufficiently but rather may be remembered as lighter, perpetuating status quo beliefs.

Read the entire article here.