I think it would be right to link to his picture on a public forum without his parents consent. Although it’d be interesting to see if you could point out any tell-tale signs, since I can’t see any in him at all. Maybe I can email one. Let me get back to you on that.
Okay that should say I **don’t ** think it would be right…
This was done all the time. Several people in my family did it over the years. My great-great grandfather was a runaway slave from Virginia who settled in midwestern Pennsylvania and went to work for a Mennonite farmer.
He ended up marrying the farmer’s daughter and they had 5 sons. We don’t know exactly what he looked like but figure he had to be fair-skinned because all of his sons were able to “pass.” My great-grandfather incurred the wrath of his brothers and was disowned when he married a half-breed Blackfoot Indian woman.
They had 4 sons. My grandfather married a creole (half black-half french) woman from Baton Rouge. One great uncle (he never passed) became some kind of big-wig in the Philadelphia longshoreman’s union. Another great uncle served (as white) with Teddy Roosevelt in Central America.
Another great uncle passed as white, marrying a fair-skinned black woman from Pittsburgh. They settled in Long Island, New York. They would never have children of their own, afraid that negroid features would emerge, so they adopted a white baby. When this great uncle died, the only brother still alive was the one in Philadelphia and he wasn’t even told of his brother’s death until after the funeral because his family didn’t want any “dark-skinned” relatives showing up at the funeral.
For the most part, the black side of the family (my side) has long lost contact with the white side of the family. My mom “passed” when it was convenient for her to do so, like when she was living with her sister in Washington, D.C. and wanted to see a movie that was only playing in the “white only” theater. She would often sit in the white section of the bus while her darker-skinned sister automatically moved to stand the rear.
Of course, when people know who your family is, you can’t do that, so people who wanted to pass usually moved away from home. Even that may not always work, as my brother (who doesn’t try to pass) found out as he was leaving a restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia (remember we are from Pennsylvania) and the 70-year old white cashier looked up at him and called my mother’s name (whom she hadn’t seen since high school).
I think you would be surprised how many white-looking black people there are walking around. For every “black” person you think you’ve identified, there may be others that you’ve come across that you were totally clueless about. How do you know what your error rate is, unless you’re grilling everyone you meet about their ethnicity?
I have an aunt who can easily pass (but does not). Her hair is naturally straight, her skin is very light, facial features very European. She looks very much like a white lady. Especially since she blondes-up her hair. She has had friends who did not know that she was black until she told them.
When my father was younger, he looked just like a white man. He has wavy hair, very light skin, and just doesn’t have a lot of African features in his face. He also does not possess a very Ebonic tongue. Put him in a group of white folk and he blends in very well (I remember “losing” him as a child whenever we’d go to the beach–all those pale bodies laying on towels look the same!) Nowadays, he maintains a golden tan and that keeps him decidedly “non-white-looking”. But I imagine a lot of people he meets in Cobb County where he works do not know he’s black.
I have a multitude of cousins–the offspring of two of my paternal, light-skinned aunts and their white husbands–who most certainly can pass. For my aunts’ children, their “black” features are vaguely present (hair just a little crinkly, skin a little olive-toned) but easily missed. For those cousins paired up with white people, their children are virtually white, blond hair and all. I guarantee that you would not know their bloodlines just looking at them.
Our family reunions are always a sight to see.
In cases like this one, what makes her “black”? She obviously has a lot of white ancestry. So, why exactky did she decide she was black rather than “white” or “undetermined mix-up”?
Same question as above, except that it’s even more obvious in this case, since apparently they’re white in their father’s line, and partly white in their mother’s line. So, they’re mostly white, with a touch of black. What would “they can pass” mean in this case? Aren’t they rather white people who couldn’t really “pass” as black, despite having some black ancestry?
While this would make the most sense, it’s just part of an American hold over from the slavery and Jim Crow era. People decide what to call themselves based on their experiences and cultural connection. Even if someone were to decide to say he or she was white, people who knew about the black ancestry would tell others. Then others would say, "oh but you’re not *really * white. The article I posted earlier shows that a lot of people aren’t really white in this sense, but that’s just the way it sometimes works here.
Dorjan, I agree witih Monstro, but if you’re really interested, I’ll send you a picture.
Monstro, I don’t disagree with you, that just has not been my personal experience. There are people in my own family very much like you’ve described as well as other people I have seen. If nothing else, the nose was a give-away 
I might just be more sensitive to picking those sorts of things out.
This is all just an exercise really, since there is no such thing as “race”, just various degrees of genetic traits.
Omega, I would still like to see the picture if you don’t mind. You can e-mail it to me, thanks!
See the earlier posts about the “one drop = black” thing.
Doesn’t make sense, but there you are.
In my family, we don’t know where our white ancestry comes from. Ask my father about his background and he will say he’s 100% black. His father looked racially ambiguous (but he was black according to the one-drop rule, having a mother who looked “straight outta Africa”). But his mother looked like a black woman, albeit a light-skinned one.
So, it’s not accurate to say she has more white ancestry than black. It’s not necessarily inaccurate, but we can’t say one way or the other since we don’t know our racial make-up. I’d bet that most black Americans are in the same boat. Why bother keeping “score” with how many white ancestors you have, when at the end of the day you’ll be seen as a plain-ole black person regardless?
At least one of Sally Hemings’ children ‘passed’ and several of her descendants did. Some never passed and identify as black but, because of the skin tone of the people they married, you would be shocked to learn they were African American. There was a documentary done by PBS on the Hemings descendants as well as Jefferson’s legitimate descendants, and with several you do not know whether it’s his wife’s descendants or Sally’s until they’re identified.
I watched an episode of Sanford & Son recently in which Peter Bonerz (best known for The Bob Newhart Show, later a very successful TV director) played a dentist. Fred asked him if he was white or “you can tell me… are you passing?”. It got a huge laugh, but today the show would probably be pulled off the air. (Redd Foxx was more Irish and Cherokee than black and actually had relationships with some of his white relatives.)
Was it Jefferson, or Washington or one of the other founding fathers? One who said he intended to free (some of?) his slaves on his death and then his heirs reneged on the deal, apparently a fairly common occurrence back then. IIRC Dred Scott had the same issue, and it crops up in fiction too.
What would the freedom fee be? If it was more than the cost of a slave (which was quite high after a while) then no wonder the heirs were not keen on spending a large sum on freeing papa’s slaves.
This thread was bumped after 15 years by someone who withdrew their post, so I’m going to close it. If someone actually has a factual question on this, they can open a new thread.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator