Letter to Ellen Craft

Obviously being white passing helps with a person's status in society, especially a slave society, but to what extent does it influence the way you view yourself and the ways in which you identify? Something that I have always struggled with is how black I am. It's a weird question to ask because how can we really even say I'm half this or half that, but I think that identifying with a particular race and not immediately appearing that way can be hard. Although there are definite privileges to having lighter skin or being white passing, I think there are large impacts on the ways that we view ourselves. What kind of dynamic is there, for you to be a slave as a white passing person, but be surrounded by black people that appear to be black? Is there resentment within the black community?

I think there are a lot of similarities (to a less extreme extent) between the dynamics between white passing black people and black people that don't pass as white.

I think a lot about this notion of "passing" too. This rhetoric perpetuates the idea that white is the normal or desired thing to be.

It's interesting to think about what the dynamics were like between people who were white passing and who weren't, especially for people who were in relationships. What was that power dynamic like being a white passing woman with a dark skinned black man?