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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - II. Race - 5. Race and Ancestry - 6. Miscegenation in Recent Times - 7. “Passing”
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Chapter 5. Race and Ancestry 129
leading to mixed offspring. The scanty quantitative evidence and general
opinion seem to indicate that there has been a decline in the rate at which
white genes are being added to the Negro population.
7. ^Tassing”
Because of the American caste rule of classifying all hybrids as Negroes,
it might be thought that no Negro blood would ever get into the white
population. However, some extremely light Negroes—usually having more
white ancestry than Negro—leave the Negro caste and become ^^white.”
“Passing” is the backwash of miscegenation, and one of its surest results.
Passing must have been going on in America ever since the time when
mulattoes first appeared. Passing may occur only for segmented areas of
life—such as the occupational or recreational—or it may be complete; it
may be temporary or permanent; it may be voluntary or involuntary; it
may be with knowledge on the part of the passer or without his knowledge;
it may be individual or collective.^^ Usually the only kind that is
important for the genetic composition of both the white and the Negro
population is that kind which is complete and permanent.*
Usually only the lighter colored Negroes pass in the United States.
However, some of the darker do also by pretending to be Filipinos, Span-
iards, Italians or Mexicans. Day’s study further reveals how capable of
passing are persons with one-fourth, three-eighths, and even one-half,
Negro blood, not to speak of persons with even smaller admixtures.**®
Because those who pass usually have more white ancestors than Negro, it
is genetically less important that these people go over into the white world
than if they were to remain in the Negro. Passing, therefore, involves far
greater change in social definition of the individual than it does in his
biological classification.
It is difficult to determine the extent of passing. Those who have passed
conceal it, and some who have passed permanently are not even aware of
it themselves because their parents or grandparents hid the knowledge
from them. Census data and vital statistics are not accurate enough to
permit of estimates within reasonable limits. The possible methods for
estimating the extent of passing are: (i) getting at genealogies by direct
questioning or other means; (2) noting discrepancies between the observed
numbers of Negroes in the census and those which may be expected on
the basis of the previous census and birth and death figures for the inter-
censal years; (3) noting deviations from normal in the sex ratio of Negroes.
All these methods have been employed, but—for one reason or another
—
have not permitted us to state the extent of passing.^®
*The cultural, social, and personal problems raised by the phenomenon of passings will
be discussed in Chapter 31.
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