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Why did Sarah Jane feel that she had to try to pass?

posted 10 years ago by joannabaroncelli
11 replies | jump to latest

Why did Sarah Jane feel that she had to try to pass? It may have been more believable in the earlier version of IOL in 1934 but by 1959 we were in the midst of the civil rights movement, so many things were changing, the civil rights act of 1964 was only a few years away. And it was so heartbreakng for Annie to die like that, especially when she wasn't old and they never explained what she died of. Annie could have just hung in there realizing the pace of things that were changing and that within a few years at the most Sarah Jane wouldn't feel the need to have to pass anymore and would accept her mother publicly. Very tragic when we were so close to moving beyond that.

[–] liscarkat (18600) 7 years ago

She wasn't "passing", she actually was white, every bit as much as she was black. Actually more, since she looked completely white. Saying she was white was no more of a lie than it would have been if she had said she was black. It was up to her to decide what she was, and none of anybody else's damned business.