EWRT 1BCLASS 7

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

Reading Queerness with Juda BennettPresentation: Essay 2: The Argument: Brainstorming with FREECASH

In-Class Writing: Essay 2 Brainstorming

Author Lecture: Toni Morrison

AGENDA

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

• What is the story trying to imply?

• Why did Caleb like hanging around white people so much?

• What made the [Iowan] couple say they were blacks passing as white people?• Are they really passing as white?• Why do you think the [Iowan] couple claimed to be

passing ?• What was the couples’ intention in changing their

identity?• Was the couple purposely showing the three African

American men a taste of the confusion white folks feel when they find out an African American is passing as a white folk?

• It seems almost cruel what the “light-colored” folk did, but were they wrong or was there a new perspective due to passing as white then black then white again?

• Did the couple gain anything from that situation other than fooling a group of people for evening and having a chance to taste what it was like to live in their shoes? Did they begin to treat [the African-American] people with more respect and decency?

• 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?

• What was the [Iowan] couple’s true race?• 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 black?• Why does the white couple decide to tell the truth to

the narrator and his friends finally?• Are they truly white people like they said at the end?• Is the “white” couple really white? Or are they just

playing tricks on everybody by claiming they are really white in the end?

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

Why did it matter whether the [blond] woman in the restaurant was black or white? Do you think after what happened, the red haired man

will change his morals on protecting any helpless woman, colored or not, in the future?

Should we feel a connection to someone in order to give aid to someone, or should we just do it out of the goodness of our hearts?

Why did the red haired man get upset?

After the woman was being hit by her husband, why did she get up and defend her husband? What did Mr. Stubblefield [the red haired man] get out of

this experience? did he learn from this? How would society in that day view the red haired man in

2 separate scenarios: He intervenes when a black man beats a white woman, and he intervenes when a black man beats his black wife. Is one “just/accepted” and the other not?

• In the story the the three black men get upset when one of the characters refrains from his previous interference with a domestic violence situation due to the discovery of the female’s true race. Would the black men have intervened if the couple in the fight been white?

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

• Why is there a double standard and why can’t people judge themselves more critically?

• How were the [black] artists different from Mr. Stubblefield regarding how they acted toward the other people?

• 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?

• Is it acceptable to pass as something that you are not, when it is a sensitive topic (such as race), only for the purpose of fun and not for the purpose of survival or positive benefits in your life?

• How important is race to human beings?• In the end, did race really matter?• If people can already pass as another color and you

can have a good time with them, why does their color matter at all?

• At the end, did race really matter to them [the Iowans]?

• Will prejudice perpetually exist? If so, will its effect be dramatic?

If so, where do you see hints of it?

DO YOU READ QUEER PASSING IN THE

STORY?

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 diff erence and insider/outsider communities, [Analysis] this story further layers that dynamic with other marks of diff erence.

[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 to wear what they want

Students should be free from stigma attached to class.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

Post #11: QHQ "Recitatif" Use evidence from our readings to support

your reasons.

HOMEWORK