i'm getting ahead of myself now.

[subjective]

hi. please help me make a bibliography about passing & the politics related to it. passing of any sort. fiction, biographies, histories, theory, everything. not just good things, things that suck too. even if you think i've read it, write it down anyway so i can compile a thorough list.

okay thanks.

Comments

more on passing

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Tobes,

To add to your bibliography on passing, let me add:

"Passing for White, Passing for Black" by Adrienne Piper (which is an excellent essay, and I can get you the full citation when I unpack my books again -- moving soon so everything's in boxes)

Someone mentioned Pinky which is indeed a 1950s film about an African-American nurse who passes in order to work in a white hospital. Strangely enough there are several films dealing with similar subject matter in this time period. One whose name is escaping me at the moment is about a black doctor who passes as white in order to work in a white hospital and is based on a true story. Argh, I wish I could remember the name! I'll write you again when I do. It has this amazing scene when the passing doctor and a white nurse have this intense standoff because the doctor won't segregate blood donations by race, and rather than accept this, the nurse drops the bottle of blood that can from an African-American on the floor and breaks it.

Brainflash -- the film is called "Lost Boundaries." What a great title!

You could devote an entire section of the course to filmic representations of passing since it seems there are so many -- those mentioned above, The Crying Game, Boys Don't Cry, etc, etc

Also I agree that I thought that the Diane Middlebrook biography of Billy Tipton was EXTREMELY problematic, but that wouldn't preclude it being a useful addition to a course, especially if you paired it with something like "Stone Butch Blues" or another autobiography written by someone who did/was pass(ing).

One last thing: can I take this course when you teach it?

xoxoxo,
Abby