Analysis Project Allison Parker

Noah Larson's novel "Passing" explores themes of race and intersectionality through the characters Irene and Claire. Claire, who is white-passing, lives her life as a white woman, while Irene embraces her black identity. The novel examines how society's perception of their race affects their lives. Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality is applicable to the experiences of black women like Irene and Claire. Crenshaw argues that the intersectional experience is more complex than just racism and sexism, and ignoring intersectionality fails to address the unique subordination of black women. The analogy of a basement and a ceiling illustrates how privilege and disadvantage intersect. Irene struggles with her intersectional identity, feeling torn between her kinship with Claire as a black woman and her desire to distance herself from her. Claire's choice to pass as white allows her to access privilege and opportunities, but she also experiences conflicting feelings ab Author Noah Larson's novel, Passing, published in 1929, deals with themes of race, particularly between his two main characters, Irene and Claire. Both are Black women. However, Claire is white-passing and lives her life fully as a white-passing woman. The differences in how the world sees these two women affects how each of them lives their life. Therefore, this novel deals greatly with intersectional identities. My name is Allison Herkert, and in this podcast, I will be discussing the novel, Passing, through legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality in her article, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex, a Black feminist critique of anti-discrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and anti-racist politics. Crenshaw's theory focuses particularly on the intersectional identities of Black women, and thus it is majorly applicable to the experiences of the two main Black women in Passing. In her article, Crenshaw states that the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, and any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated. I saw this a lot when I read Passing, as both the identities of Black and women were very relevant to the characters' trajectory. And while not all literature involving Black female characters is primarily focused on the identities of these characters, in these works, their identities will always at least influence the story in some way. In Passing in particular, the women's identities affect the narrative to a large extent as they navigate life as Black women, particularly in the character Claire's case as a passing White woman. The character's intersectional identities as Black women provide them with unique experiences in society, and attempts to separate these identities, or even erase one of these identities as in Claire's case, prove that this is not a possibility. The race and their gender interact in such a way that prevents Irene and Claire from being treated like White women, or being treated like Black men, which are both considered the most privileged groups of people in their respective groups, in this case, which would be women and Black people. Crenshaw illustrates a really useful analogy for the reader when discussing why the whole of intersectional identities is greater than the sum of its parts, and why Black women are torn between, in her words, the interface between anti-discrimination law and race and gender hierarchies. Crenshaw tells the reader to imagine a basement which contains all people who are disadvantaged on the basis of race, sex, class, sexual preference, age, and or physical ability. She continues to paint a picture of these people's stacked feet standing on each other's shoulders, the bottom being the most disadvantaged group of people, and the top, the people right below the ceiling, being the least disadvantaged group in the room of disadvantaged people. On the floor above are advantaged people who do not really face discrimination, which is most likely representing White men. Within this analogy, Crenshaw paints a somewhat simple picture of a hierarchy of advantaged people, however, she also delves deeper by inviting the reader to imagine that there is a hatch developed through which those placed immediately below the ceiling could crawl through. And this is where things get more complicated, this hatch is only really available to those right below the ceiling, which are the people who would otherwise be in a privileged position if it weren't for a singular aspect of their identity, such as their race or gender. And people with more than one disadvantaged identity are left to struggle in pulling themselves up to that hatch or that entry into a more advantaged and privileged world. I also wanted to mention another quote by Crenshaw, which states that the paradigm of sex discrimination tends to be based on the experiences of White women. The model of race discrimination tends to be based on the experiences of the most privileged Black people. So if we think of that analogy again of people stacked on top of each other in terms of their advantages in the world, Black women are below White women or Black men. They experience both disadvantaged groups simultaneously. Because even in disadvantaged groups, there are more advantaged people than others and oftentimes people in society focus on the most privileged people in an advantaged group because it might be easier to understand them and their situation. There are less layers to unravel as there would be with a Black woman. And this is not fair and it creates a surface level way of fighting against discrimination which does not include all the identities that it should. I think both Irene and Claire fit into this analogy and these descriptions super well and I wanted to start with Irene's identity in relation to this. When Irene considers telling Claire's White husband that Claire is actually Black, she feels torn because while she does not want Claire in her life anymore, she feels a sort of kinship with her as another Black woman. Nella Larson writes, Irene Redfield wished for the first time in her life that she had not been born a N-E-G-R-O. For the first time, she suffered and rebelled because she was unable to disregard the burden of race. It was enough to suffer as a woman, an individual on one's own account, without having to suffer for the race as well. To me, this section truly encapsulated the struggles of this intersectional identity that Irene has of being a Black woman and how if we relate it to the analogy, she would struggle to pull herself up to that ceiling of privilege. The way that Larson writes this part of the novel is very telling, specifically with the repetition of the first time. We can see that this moment truly hits Irene really hard and it's a pivotal moment in her understanding her intersectional identity. She realizes she's far from that hatch in the ceiling and she's far from reaching any sort of privilege as hard as she may try to fit in to the norms of either a White woman or a Black man. She realizes that both her identities as a woman and a Black person impact her even more greatly than she realized originally. I also wanted to bring up Claire in this analogy of the basement and the ceiling because I think a lot of her choice in passing as a White woman relies upon this kind of idea of reaching the top of a certain hierarchy or hierarchy of privilege because by passing as a White woman, she erases one of the identities that originally caused her to be further away from that quote-unquote hatch that Crenshaw describes, thus she is able to increase her privilege by being a White woman now. While others, particularly Irene, find this to be disrespectful of Claire's background and her culture, her choice is also understandable and Irene understands this as well throughout the book despite conflicting feelings, but in a world where Claire was born with little to no power, it makes sense that she would sacrifice a part of her identity to be treated as a White woman and therefore, honestly, as someone who is more respected in society. Additionally, she realizes that the power of being able to portray as a White woman also allows her to pass in other ways, especially socioeconomically. Passing as White brings about some opportunities for her that she wouldn't have had if she had presented as Black, such as marrying a wealthy White husband and going to restaurants that are only for White people, among a few examples. Returning to this analogy of the basement hierarchy, Claire not only rises to the top of that hierarchy as much as she can, but she also almost travels back down at points when it's for her benefit and when she wants to experience Black culture and entertainment but not face the consequences of being Black. A very clear depiction of this, let's say, jumping from class to class and identity to identity is when Irene remembered catching glimpses of Claire in the whirling crowd, dancing, sometimes with a White man, more often with a NEGRO, frequently with Brian. The fact that Larson includes all of this information in just one sentence is super telling. It depicts the rapidity at which Claire switches from embracing her Black roots to then being able to become White in basically a matter of seconds. This phrase of a whirling crowd supports this as well because everything is all happening in a moment, in a flash. Claire is able to experience the fun parts of being Black and avoid the serious, discriminatory parts without even batting an eye. This goes to show that Claire is pretty well aware of the hierarchy that's happening and of her intersectional identity and how her being a Black woman is entirely a different identity than being a White woman. This becomes really conflicting for Irene because Larson writes that she was, quote, bound to Claire by those very ties of race, unquote. But I think that's also what's unwritten is that they are bonded by their womanhood and their motherhood and also their past friendship, which reflects back to an idea brought up by Crenshaw, which is that there can be uncertainty among Black women as to if they should challenge gender barriers and questioning if that would conflict with their anti-racism agenda. Crenshaw writes that Black women are caught between ideological and political currents that combine first to create and then to bury Black women's experiences. The reality is that Black women should not have to sacrifice any part of their identity or stop fighting for either part of their identity. It's highly important to understand that these identities are completely and utterly intertwined and that, like in the cases of Irene and Claire in passing, they will continue to impact Black women as a unique and defining aspect of their lives, as Crenshaw describes. Again, my name is Allison Parker, and thank you for listening.