Ann Morning, James Weldon Johnson Professor of Sociology and Divisional Dean for the Social Sciences, New York University
Title: Crossing the Color Line: From Passing to Transracialism
Abstract: In the early 21st century, Americans are experimenting with new ways to claim membership in racial groups. Genetic genealogy tests, cosmetic transformations, and deep-seated feeling are increasingly considered by some to constitute evidence of authentic racial belonging. Debates about how to discern an individual’s “true” race are further complicated, moreover, by disagreement over whether it is possible to change one’s race—that is, to become “transracial.” This possibility is often foreclosed, however, by a tendency to equate transracialism with passing. In this talk, I define the two as distinct phenomena and argue that social scientists need to expand their theoretical frameworks in order to empirically investigate a broadened contemporary range of purported racial transformations. In other words, a notion of passing rooted in the 19th and 20th centuries is inadequate for understanding attempts at race change today. Yet exploring our modern-day beliefs about racial malleability is vital for identifying the fundamental concepts of race that Americans hold. As much as it may seem we are in a new era of racial fluidity, there are unmistakable continuities with the racial conceptualization of old.
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