ERIC Number: EJ930616
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0017-8055
EISSN: N/A
Passin' for Black: Race, Identity, and Bone Memory in Postracial America
Fordham, Signithia
Harvard Educational Review, v80 n1 p4-30 Spr 2010
Signithia Fordham challenges the notion that we are living in a "postracial" society where race is no longer a major social category, as indicated by the rising incidence of interracial relationships and the popularity of biracial identities. On the contrary, she contends, a powerful fusion of historical memory and inclusive kinship compels Americans whose ancestors were enslaved to embrace a Black identity even when they have White as well as African ancestors. Fordham identifies this socially constructed racial identity as "passin' for Black." She argues that virtually every socially defined Black person connected to enslavement--regardless of skin color, hair texture, facial features, or paternity--must perform Blackness. Using narratives obtained from a recent ethnographic study of female competition and aggression in a racially "integrated" suburban high school, Fordham's essay documents how the complex, charged matter of racial identity--concurrently biological and social--inflames the lives of adolescents and impairs their ability to navigate the school environment. (Contains 15 notes.)
Descriptors: Racial Bias, Ethnography, Racial Identification, Memory, Educational Environment, Identification (Psychology), African Americans, Whites, Slavery, Individual Characteristics, Personal Narratives, Racial Factors, Multiracial Persons, High School Students, Social Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A