How Jurisprudence Encouraged Whites to ‘Reverse Pass’ as Black

Remember Rachel Dolezal? An instructor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University and president of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Dolezal hid her racial origin until 2015 when an intrepid reporter unmasked her. A follow-up with her parents revealed the truth: Dolezal isn’t black, she’s white.

The public has largely forgotten this incident, but scholarly work has just begun. Research by Khaled A. Beydoun and Erika K. Wilson focuses on how the story of Rachel Dolezal is actually much broader and more complex than it initially appears; her story provided a starting point for a broader theory linking the historical phenomenon of passing, centuries of jurisprudence eroding white privilege, and the increasing prevalence of reverse passing.

Passing is understood as non-whites successfully presenting themselves as white. Passing hides one’s identity rather than changes it. Historically, non-whites were incentivized to engage in passing because of the pervasive and pernicious hierarchical structure of white privilege. With time, some features of passing changed while others did not. For example, the purpose of passing within the racial hierarchy created a racial middle between being black and being white. New laws and court decisions also subtly changed the process of passing. As individuals were asked their race rather than told, the concept of “elective race” was born.

Jurisprudence grounded in the 14^th Amendment continued to erode white privilege, particularly in the establishment of affirmative action for higher education. But as calls of “reverse racism” grew louder in the late 20^th century, later rulings eviscerated the racial remediation argument for affirmative action, enshrining diversity as the new guiding principle. Now, with affirmative action firmly embedded in American law, real benefits exist for whites who legally and culturally self-identify as non-white.

Rachel Dolezal’s racial self-identification as black exemplifies reverse passing—whites passing as non-white. Through methods such as “box checking” and “strategic performance,” whites can procure benefits in education and employment intended for minorities. Similarly, cultural passing allows whites to gain political and social benefits that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Beydoun and Wilson explain that “diversity” and its preferential benefits for people of color incentivize whites to reverse pass to gain admission at prestigious universities, obtain high-paying jobs, receive scholarships, or head the local NAACP chapter.

This is not to say that legislation and jurisprudence created reverse passing. For example, in the mid-20^th century, a former Alabama Klansman named Asa Earl Carter refashioned himself as Forrest Carter, a Cherokee. Carter traded his white identity for a Cherokee identity to gain visibility and traction for his Native American-themed novels, which became bestsellers and were adapted into Hollywood blockbusters. Another famous example comes from the 1970s, when two white brothers took an entrance exam for the Boston Fire Department, scored poorly, and were rejected. Undeterred, they reapplied, but this time checked the box for “black.” They were accepted despite scoring far below the lowest-scoring white applicant to earn a position.

Yet the authors submit that jurisprudence incentivized reverse passing. Just two weeks after the outing of Rachel Dolezal, a blog exposed Andrea Smith—a professor of Native American Studies at the University of Michigan who never corrected others’ assumptions that she was of Cherokee descent—as white. In 2013, Tyrone Jones submitted false statements to the Small Business Administration in order to obtain government contracts through the “Small Disadvantaged Business” program, directed exclusively toward non-whites. Reverse passing is especially prevalent in virtual settings such as online dating.

The Supreme Court did not intend to encourage reverse passing. However, jurisprudence derived from the 14^th Amendment has eroded white privilege, not just by disincentivizing passing, but also by igniting the emergence of reverse passing beyond a few isolated occurrences. While the increased value afforded to non-white identities is important, Beydoun and Wilson remain skeptical of the argument that non-whites are accruing gains from affirmative action and other diversity initiatives in an unmitigated manner. Rather, they contend that through reverse passing, whites still have an advantage in a system that ostensibly uses diversity to serve non-whites, divorcing restorative justice from its role in addressing historic racial discrimination.

Article source: Beydoun, Khaled A., and Erika K. Wilson. “Reverse Passing.” UCLA Law Review, Vol. 64 (2017): 282-354.

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