EWRT 1BCLASS 7

QHQ Discussion: Hughes: "Who's Passing for Who?"

Juda Bennett’s ReadingPresentation: Essay 2: The Argument:

Brainstorming with FREECASH

In-Class Writing: Essay 2 Brainstorming

Author Lecture: Toni Morrison

AGENDA

Take five minutes to discuss Hughes’s "Who's Passing for Who?"

GROUP MEETING

QHQ: “WHO’S PASSING FOR WHO?”BY LANGSTON HUGHES

• Why did the black artists choose to ignore the color line? Where they really blind when it came to race?

• Why did Caleb have white folks as visitors in Harlem anyway?

• What was the couple’s and red-headed man’s real purpose of visiting Harlem?

• Why does Caleb often take the side of the white man in social confrontations?

• Is Caleb going to invite people into Harlem again?

Q: Why did the red-haired man stop defending the woman after he found out she wasn’t white? Q: Is it okay for one to ignore a man mistreating a

woman even if she is of the opposite race? Q: Why was the woman infuriated even though the red-

haired man defended her? Q: Should the red-haired man from Iowa be considered

a racist for having a problem with a black man hitting a white woman, keeping in mind that he’s completely okay with having colored friends?

Q: The second couple does not get up to help the man beating his wife and they freely switch between colored and white (even though the truth is still a mystery), but are those facts enough to justify that they are completely a non-racist?

Why did the others questioned Mr. Stubblefield’s motives, when they themselves took no action to help the woman?

• Q. Why did the Iowan couple wish to pass for black?

• Q: How could the white couple pass as [racially] black?• Q: What’s really different between races?

• Q: How did things change for them when they told the people of color that they were colored as well?• Q: Did the white couple tell Caleb and his

friends that they were “colored” as a way to deceive and make fun of them or to make everyone feel more comfortable?

• Q. Would everyone have had as good of a time if the white couple had not mentioned that they were passing?

• Why did knowing/thinking that the visitors from Iowa were blacks passing for whites change the mood of the night from that point on?• If the couple didn’t tell them that they were

[black] passing as white, would they still have had a great time?

• Does being around your own race really change the way you behave in public?

• Why did everyone start laughing once they realized that the husband and wife were passing as white people?

• How does race affect the social gathering between the whites and blacks while drinking with each other at the bar?

Were the man and woman [from Iowa] actually white, or were they black?• If the couple was white why would they lie

and pretend to be black?• If they were black, why would they end the

night by saying they were white?• Why does the white couple decide to tell the

truth to the narrator and his friends finally?

• Was passing for colored a best way to approach the colored writers?

• Would the story change its meaning if the couple were actually black or white?

Q: Did the black people take offense to the fact the white people passed for being “colored” for the night?

Q: How did the people of color react and what did they discuss when they found out the white couple was passing? Did they become more accepting?

Q: If the white couple didn’t say they were colored, would they have been forced out of the get together by racial tensions?

Q: At the end, were the friends really dumbfounded on who the couple really were?

What did “they had had too much fun at our expense–even if they did pay for the drinks.” mean?Will the narrator and his friends regret what

they have done? Will they change their manner when meeting white friends after this experience?

WHO ELSE IS PASSING?

If so, where do you see hints of it?

DO YOU READ QUEER PASSING IN THE

STORY?

Here is his argument

BENNETT, JUDA. “MULTIPLE PASSINGS AND THE DOUBLE DEATH OF LANGSTON HUGHES.” HONOLULU:  FALL 2000.

VOL. 23, ISS. 4;  PG. 670, 25 PGS

BENNETT’S THESIS: “With a sense of the interplay between voyeur and object, homophobe and homosexual, inside and outside, "who's passing for who?" Interweaves the explicit theme of racial passing” with the buried theme of the closet.

 

Bennett writes,

[Assertion] The voice of the narrator is the key to discovering this buried, or closety, theme . Although critics have been surprisingly silent about the narrator's various and potential passings, there are several reasons for reading his character as false or at least layered. [Evidence] He admits, for example , to at least one performance when he states that "we dropped our professionally self-conscious 'Negro' manners... and kidded freely like colored folks do when there are no white folks around" (173). [Explanation] Although Langston Hughes is working within an African American tradition that has often explored the nature of performance as it relates to racial difference and insider/outsider communities, [Analysis] this story further layers that dynamic with other marks of difference.

[Evidence] Before the action begins, the prolix and witty narrator introduces his friends and himself as "too broad-minded to be bothered with questions of color." [Explanation] This statement sets up the dramatic irony that positions the narrator for his ultimate blunder: being fooled by the white Iowans. [Analysis] Although the narrator's bohemian world is meant to stand in contrast to the boring white folks from Iowa, Hughes eventually reverses the roles. The Iowans prove to be the tricksters, and the narrator must confront his own naiveté. That the narrator could not see through the Iowans' dissimulation is funny, ironic, interesting-but in the end, not entirely believable.

What happens, though, if we read the narrator's bohemian world as a homosocial world? [Assertion] When we divide the entire cast of characters into single men and heterosexual couples, we discover that racial passing only occurs within the heterosexual realm. Not only does the Iowan couple pass, but so too does the only other woman, half of the only other heterosexual couple in the story. [Analysis] We might then see these racial passings as deflecting attention from the narrator and his friends, who become boring and unremarkable despite the initial flair with which they are introduced. [Logical Conclusion] Racial passing becomes a decoy, distracting our attention from the performances of the bohemian bachelors.

[Assertion] Before Hughes initiates the drama of racial passing, he comes dangerously close to revealing the "perverse" nature of the narrator and his bachelor friends: [Evidence] “You see, Caleb and his white friends, too, were all bores. Or so we, who lived in Harlem's literary bohemia during the "Negro Renaissance," thought. We literary ones considered ourselves too broad-minded to be bothered with questions of color. We liked people of any race who smoked incessantly, drank liberally, wore complexion and morality as loose garments, and made fun of anyone who didn't do likewise. We snubbed and high-hatted any Negro or white luckless enough not to understand Gertrude Stein ....” (Hughes 170)

[Concession]Although the narrator assumes this affected tone, his dandified attitude and the passing reference to Gertrude Stein hardly mark him fully and definitively as a homosexual. [Assertion] Nevertheless, the title, with its bad grammar calling attention to itself, encourages speculation. Who is passing for whom? [Explanation/Analysis] Surely the author would have planted more and trickier trickster figures than the Iowans to fully justify his title. Furthermore, the narrative has already schooled us in the surprising fluidity of identity, and so readers are encouraged to suspect more revelations and exposures.

[Concession] To those who would argue that the subject of passing lends itself to this kind of wild and speculative reading-after all, everything is performance, and everybody passes-I heartily agree. [Final Assertion] I am finally arguing that in his autobiographies, poetry, fiction, and drama, Hughes returned to the subject of passing throughout his career because he was fascinated with identity as something unstable and "queer." With their emphasis on compensation rather than loss, questions rather than answers, the unknown rather than the known, and curiosity rather than punishment, Hughes's writings on sexual identity invite comparison to his exploration of racial passing.

BRAINSTORMING ESSAY #2

BRAINSTORMING WITH FREECASH

F= Freedom, Fairness, Legality, Human Rights, Social Justice

R = Religion, Morality, Ethics

E = Economics, Monetary Issues, Finances, Expenses

E = Environment (types of environments = natural, rural, urban, workplace, home, school)

C = Convenience, Comfort

A = Appearance, Aesthetics

S = Safety, Security

H = Health, Well Being (types of health = individual, societal, mental, physical, emotional,

spiritual)

CATEGORIES PRO/FOR CON/AGAINST

FREEDOM Students should be free from stigma attached to class.

Students should be free to wear what they want

RELIGION/ MORALITY

ECONOMICS

ENVIRONMENT

CONVENIENCE

APPEARANCE Makes the students look like clones

SAFETY Keeps students safe from gang violence due to colors

HEALTH

PRACTICE ORGANIZING AN ESSAY ON THE ISSUE OF SCHOOL UNIFORMS. USE THE

FREECASH IN THE CHART BELOW .

If passing for white will get a fellow better accommodations on the train, better seats in the theatre, immunity from insults in public places, and may even save his life from a mob,” only idiots would fail to seize the advantages of passing, at least occasionally if not permanently.”

Write an essay of four to six pages arguing for or against William Pickens’s statement . Use support from the texts you have read so far, our discussions, and your own insights.

THE PROMPT

CATEGORIES PRO/FOR CON/AGAINST

FREEDOM

RELIGION/MORALITY

ECONOMICS

ENVIRONMENT

CONVENIENCE

APPEARANCE

SAFETY

HEALTH

LIST ALL THE REASONS TO AGREE WITH PICKENS ON ONE SIDE AND ALL THE REASONS TO DISAGREE ON THE OTHER. THE

SIDE WITH THE MOST OR BEST REASONS WILL PROBABLY MAKE A BETTER ARGUMENT.

Consider which texts will support your ideas.Hughes “Passing,” “Passing,” and “Who’s Passing for Who?”

Chesnutt “The Passing of Grandison”Kennedy “Racial Passing”Pickens “Racial Segregation”Roth The Human StainMorrison “Recitatif”

SUPPORT

WRITING THE THESIS Essay #2

YOUR THESIS

In this case, your working thesis will be your position on William Pickens’s statement and your reasons for your belief: Do you agree with him or not? Why or why not? You may refer to Pickens or not in your thesis.

Racial passing is a personal decision, and people should seize the opportunity if they can in order to defeat racism and discrimination.

Passing is a selfish act that reinforces hierarchy in society, and it should be avoided despite the opportunities it offers the individual.

You may qualify your thesis, for example, by adding a phrase that acknowledges there are exceptions to your assertion.

For example, if you disagree with Pickens in general but want to acknowledge that there are specific circumstances in which passing is acceptable, you might say something like, “While racial passing for personal safety is a necessary and acceptable behavior, passing in general violates community norms and reinforces the social construct of racism.”

If you agree with Pickens but want to acknowledge there are specific circumstances in which passing is unacceptable, you might say something like, “While full time passing violates familial and community connections and should be avoided, the wise person will pass part time to take advantage of the benefits it can reap, including the opportunities to escape racism and oppression.”

Notice that these theses still assert clear stances. Don’t be vague or ambiguous with your position.

Toni Morr ison was born in Lorain Ohio. She is the author of seven novels, a play, and a work of l i terary cr it ic ism. ‘ ‘Recit itaf’ ’ is her only published work of short fi ction. Since 1987 she has focused mainly on writ ing but has also taught classes at Yale and Princeton Universit ies.

Morrison is one of the most loved and respected writers of the late twentieth century. Several of her books have been bestsel lers, and she is the recipient of a number of prestigious l iterary awards. In 1993 Morr ison was awarded the Nobel Pr ize for Literature, becoming the fi rst Afr ican American to win this honor.

TONI MORRISON1931-

The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved. Tar Baby Jazz Paradise, Love, A Mercy, Home

Reading Morrison: “Recitatif.” Post #10: Write a paragraph defending

passing. Try to come up with at least three reasons. Write another paragraph condemning passing using another three reasons. Use evidence from our readings to support your reasons.

Post #11: QHQ: "Recitatif"

HOMEWORK