Sean Tarjoto
Prof. E.F. White
Boundary Crossings
12 Oct 2000
Between Larsen and Griffin: 
The Mechanics of Passing and Black Like Me 
	Passing is a social phenomenon where boundaries between class, gender, race, sex are actively or non-actively blurred so that the distinctions allow an individual to intermediate or solely exist within two or more social contexts. A black female with light skin color may pass into the identity of a white female. Separately, a white male with feminine features may pass as a woman; or a high-income, upper-class Chinese male may choose to pass as a low-income lower or middle-class Chinese male by dress, appearance, living within a poor neighborhood.  The determining elements of successful passing can exceed as many as the individual is capable of manipulating, and all are malleable because of their superficial nature. The question as to what extent a person can control their identity is directly related to the subconscious elements, the understanding of what defines the boundaries they are crossing, and how they relate to that individual’s deeper psychological history. Passing may be a conscious effort although the non-passer is not necessarily a volunteer to his or her own category. In this paper I will explore the mechanics of Nella Larsen’s fictional characters, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry in Passing to the experience of novelist John Howard Griffin as a passing black man in the Deep South, in his account, Black Like Me.
	The worlds of Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield seem gulfed from Griffin’s in both scenario and character, but share the same racial undercurrents.  Irene Redfield is a bourgeois African American woman whose light-skin allows her the privileges of passing into the white American society of the 20s.   Clare Kendry is Irene’s psychological polar, pushing the limits of her identity to cross permanently into White America. “...Clare Kendry. Stepping always on the edge of danger.  Always aware, but not drawing back or turning aside. Certainly not because of any alarms or feeling of outrage on the part of others” (Larsen 9).  Griffin’s account is inspired by an attempt to understand the plight of the black man, in 1959, and is by no means fictional. Even as fictional characters Irene and Clare exist in Larsen’s historical world, with which Griffin could co-exist. 
	Griffin underwent medical treatment to darken his skin pigmentation to enter New Orleans, 1959, and position himself as a low-income black man as part of a personal inquiry into the world of the powerless and segregated. Though Griffin made no active attempt to conceal anything but the color of his skin, the effect was essentially the disenfranchisement of his privileges as a white male. The loss of power, and the conversion of identity were only an imagination, and the actual process proved curious and compelling enough to place Black Like Me atop the international bestseller list. 
	Though Griffin is an observer of his own uncontrolled situation, Irene has developed an instinctive ability to wield her white identity.  Irene occasionally passes, she remains within the African-American community, and has a slightly less comprehensive color-consciousness than Clare (Davis xiii).  Clare has taken pains to obscure her past entirely, even to her white husband.  Though Clare is motivated by the same social privileges, protections and entitlements of whiteness in all facets of their daily existence (Davis xi) as Irene, she does so with an radical attitude similar to Griffin’s, though because the acceptance of her identity are the opposite of Griffin’s, the effects are directly the inverse. Clare’s passing is one of upward mobility, further radicalized by her sexual allure which has the potential of jeopardizing the black man and his family in the process (Davis xiv).  Griffin is moving from the unmarked, more powerful position in the American class stratification to one of its least, and only through consummate bravery but also naiveté of the dangers.  The dangers of entering the world as a black man are understood as physical and psychological in nature, although there is really only one instance where the physical threat is apparent.  It is also theatrical in gesture on the part of the white boys who stalk Griffin into an alley. No physical harm was ever seriously considered by the boys as they are easily frightened by Griffin’s bluff to actually engage in a fight.  But this kind of scenario is more difficult to imagine in 1959 New Orleans had Griffin’s color was white, the boys were white; or if the boys were black, and Griffin white.
	The danger toward Clare’s identity is tied to her sexual nature, where the presence of a black child in the family could disrupt the entire infrastructure of their identities. Clare admits, ‘I nearly died of terror the whole nine months before Margery was born for fear that she might be dark.’” (36)  Irene does not acknowledge her sexual nature, or at least use it in the same manner as Clare who exudes it consciously.  Irene’s power in the gender stratification is less than Clare’s, although she does not share the danger Clare does. The difference of dangers between the white passing black male and black passing white female (both either heterosexual or not) nevertheless converge at the sexual because it relates the randomness of the color of posterity.  Had Griffin been seeking permanent identity as a black male this would have caused the same disruption, but the unlikely possibility of such a choice exposes yet another level of power between white and black society.  The widow woman’s attraction to Griffin, while interesting, more importantly provides a context which at first seems humorous, and then tragic.  
	The crux of position of the African-American, or any non-white, to American society is that the suppression of that individual is actually from white society - which has attempted to place the image of whiteness inseparably from the image of American.  The conditioning of the African-American into accepting their identity as a Negro is what makes the act of passing intertwined with an interpolation between politics and their individuality.   This is done because they cannot possibly be accepted as white, beyond the superficial meaning.  Passing does not necessarily occur with much foresight of theoretical nature, one does not understand the academic dynamics of racist America before they pass, and although this opinion is founded upon the actions of fictional characters, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, the fact they are part of a critical novel is what validates their reality.