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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. Social Stratification - 31. Caste and Class - 4. Crossing the Caste Line
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688 An American Dilemma
This, however, does not necessarily mean that a Negro becomes willing
to disclose another Negro who is passing. The spirit of the protective
community will usually, work to help the ex-member to pass. If a passing
Negro is disclosed by other Negroes, the cause is ordinarily not Negro
solidarity but rather private envy, of which there is a great deal in a frus-
trated lower caste.
As a social phenomenon, passing is so deeply connected with the psycho-
logical complexes—^built around caste and sex—of both groups that it has
come to be a central theme of fiction and of popular imagination and story
telling. The adventures of the lonesome passer, who extinguishes his entire
earlier life, breaks all personal and social anchorings, and starts a new life
where he has to fear his own shadow, are alluring to all and have an
especially frightening import to whites. There is a general sentimentality
for the unhappy mulatto—the ^^marginal man” with split allegiances and
frustrations in both directions® which is especially applied to the mulatto
who passes. From all we know about personality problems there is prob-
ably, as yet, substantial truth in the picture of the passer which our literary
phantasy paints for us. But since there has been little observation of the
personality problems of the passers, the picture of their difficulty is hard to
define.
• See Chapter 32, Section 6.
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