The Root: When Biracial Means Black : NPR: Ever heard of Barack Obama? You know, the first black president? The one who won an election and near-deity status in the African-American community while openly discussing his white mother in books, interviews and stump speeches?
Yeah, me, too. This is just one of the reasons I'm scratching my head at the findings of a new study that people with one white and one black parent 'downplay their white ancestry,' in part to gain the acceptance of other black people. The authors dub this phenomenon 'reverse passing' and call it 'a striking phenomenon.' I'm beyond stumped. In a summary of the results, the sociologists behind 'Passing as Black: Racial Identity Work Among Biracial Americans' report that this occurs especially in 'certain social situations' — ostensibly, around other black people — where having a white parent 'can carry its own negative biases.
