The Office of Historical Corrections

The passing or white-passing narrative is a story that focuses on a character’s efforts to “pass” themselves off as white, utilizing their lighter skin color or mixed-race heritage to live in white society. This type of narrative has roots and a deep history in literature relating to Black Americans and slavery, though it also exists within other cultures as well, like Nazi Germany, where Jewish people attempted to pass as non-Jewish.

Initially, narratives about people passing as white were written by white men. Based on historical instances of enslaved Americans earning their freedom by pretending to be white, these stories center on what has become known as the “tragic mulatto.” The central character, typically a mixed-race woman, hid her heritage to improve her social standing and, typically, married an upper-class white man. However, by the text’s end, her lineage is discovered, and she faces a “tragic” ending—a warning to readers about the dangers of trying to hide one’s skin color and a celebration of the white race’s ability to stay “pure.” This narrative structure continued in the late 19th century as Black authors began writing passing narratives in which the central character’s ethnicity was exposed. However, instead of that exposure rooting out deception or punishing the passing character, it was typically the result of the discovery by that character that their Blackness is important.