the passing Novel: Danzy Senna's Caucasia

Kathryn Rummell

passing (here, signifying African that this notion has been the "common Americans passing fOr whites) has long understanding" of passing: "The one been a fixture of the American social who passes Is...really, Indisputably landscape. Passers have masqueraded black; but the deceptive appearance of fOr a variety of reasons, the most com­ the body permits such a one access to mon being to flee from slavery, to the exclusive opportunities of white­ Improve their economic sItuation, and ness" (1261. The narrator In Johnson's of course to escape racism. The prac­ EX-Coloured Man, fOr Instance, after tice of passing, accordIng to Werner divulging the "truth" to his beloved, Sollors In Neither Black Nor WhIte, Yet confesses: "This was the only time In my Both, reached the heIght of Its popular­ life that I ever felt absolute regret at Ity from the nineteenth through the being coloured, that I cursed the drops middle of the twentieth century of African blood In my veins and wished (Sollors 247), and the majority of narra­ that I were really white" (205; emphases tives of passing were written during mIne). More subtly, In Passing, Irene this era. These narratives were espe­ Redfield laments her loyalty to the cially popular during the Harlem black race, which In her mind Includes Renaissance, when writers such as Clare: "That Instinctive loyalty to a race. Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen, and James Why COUldn't she get free of It? Why Weldon Johnson employed the motif of should It Include Clare? ..What she felt passing to explore the psychological, was not so much resentment as a dull emotional, and Intellectual dilemmas despair because she could not change Involved In passing fOr white. NovelS of herself In this respect, coUld not sepa­ passing typically share several charac­ rate Individuals from the race, herself teristics: Interracial sex, fear of discov­ from Clare Kendry" (100). To Irene, and ery, feelings of guilt and betrayal, and to the other characters In the novel, the struggle to find and claim an Identi­ Clare Is "really" black and sImply "pass­ ty. perhaps because of the Renais­ Ing" fOr white. Thus, these novels rein­ sance's emphasis on racial pride and fOrce the one-drop rule of blackness as solidarity, these novels of passing often well as the notIon of "blackness" Itself. Indict the passers, portraying them as And, while the novels may argue that so-called tragic mUlattoes or racial sell­ IndIviduals should be able to choose outs. For Instance, Clare Kendryfalls (or their racial Identity, they nonetheless Is pushed) to her death at the end of reduce the choices to whiteness or Larsen's PassIng, and Johnson'S blackness. unnamed narrator In AutobIography Of More recent novels of passing, an Ex-Coloured Man wonders If by pass­ however, have seemingly moved Ing he "sold [his] birthrIght fOr a mess beyond this either/or racial binary and of pottage" (211). These portrayals have worked to promote a differently highlight the raclallzed social structure configured racial Identity. one such of the early twentIeth century: mixed­ narrative Is Danzy Senna's 1998 debut race Individuals often felt trapped In a novel, Caucasla, whiCh rewrites the tra­ society that recognized only two racIal ditional passIng narrative to reflect a IdentitIes: White and black. late twentieth-century perspective on The usually-tragic ends of these racial Identity. Caucasla chronicles the characters, however, do little to chal­ childhood and adolescence Of Birdie lenge that social structure; these Lee, the product of a 1970'S biracial mixed-race characters are viewed by marriage. Birdie'S father, Deck, Is a others. and seem to view themselves, black Intellectual WhO believes rhetoric as "really" black. Samlra Kawash argues can win the war against racism. Sandy,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. white mother, takes a more radical Of the novel, Birdie refuses this nega­ approach, fighting violence with vio­ tion. Instead, she embraces what David lence. Birdie and her older sister Cole A. Hollinger calls a "postethnlc" per­ are caught In the middle, suspended spective. Postethnlc theory works between action and words, whiteness against multicultural theory In that the and blackness. Birdie physically favors former recognizes and celebrates mUl­ her mother's side Of the family (Boston tiple Identities (which Hollinger terms bluebloods who can trace their ances­ "affiliations" to Indicate their voluntary, try back to Cotton Mather), while Cole Is not prescribed, nature). These affilia­ decidedly darker-skinned. When black­ tions, however, are not limited by stable power pOlitics split up their parents, ethno-raclal boundaries. postethnlclty Cole follows her father and his new proffers that IndIVIduals may occupy black girlfriend to Brazil, and Birdie dis­ and claim multiple affiliations at once appears underground with her mother, (106). Hollinger elaborates: who Is running from the law. Through­ outthe novel, Birdie struggles to define A postethnlc perspective her racial self In a world that seems to recognizes that most Indi­ offer only two choices: blackness or viduals live In many circles Whiteness. In Boston, she studies how simultaneously and that the to be black like her sister; In New actual living Of any Individual Hampshire With her mother, she learns life entails a shifting division Whiteness from her friend Mona. Only Of labor between the several when she Is at Aurora, a women's com­ "we's" Of which the IndIVId­ mune, Is Birdie able to escape racial cat­ ual Is a part. HOW much egorization, but her time at Aurora Is weight at what particular short. For most Of her young life, Birdie moments Is assigned to the Is, to borrow from Werner Sollors, "nei­ fact that one Is pennsylvania ther black nor white yet both"; she has Dutch or Navajo relative to no solid fOOting on either side Of the the weight assigned to the color line, and must learn to negotiate fact that one Is also an this line carefully In order ultimately to American, a lawyer, a woman, forge an IdentItY that Is neither black a Republican, a Baptist, and a nor White. In this way, Caucasla differs resident of Minneapolis? It Is slgnlflcantly from earlier novels Of pass­ this process Of consciously Ing. and critically locating oneself Senna accomplishes the revision Of amid these layers Of "we'S" the passing narrative by refusing the that most clearly distinguiSh­ racial binary that earlier narratives Insist es the postethnlc from the on, thereby rejecting the notion that un-reconstructed universal­ Identity can be reduced to one position Ist. (106) within a stable raCial binary. Indeed, theories Of difference that depend on Hollinger Is not arguing that the traditional either/or racial model boundaries and groups do not eXist; on pose slgnlflcant prOblems for Individu­ the contrary, he affirms their very real als like Birdie. Even multicultUral theo­ presence In our lived world. But he ry falls to address adeQuately the Issues advocates an appreciation for multiple Birdie faces: though It extends racial affiliations, and more Importantly, the categories to Include more than just ability for the Individual (rather than "black" and "white: multiculturalism the group) to emphaslze-or de­ nonetheless foregrounds race by emphasize-these affiliations at Will. assigning Identity on the basis of Thus, postethnlclty Is a productive lens ethno-raclal criteria. Hence, multiCUl­ through which to view Senna's novel Of turalism stili operates under the passing. Throughout the novel, Birdie assumption that there are mutually moves through numerous "circles" and, exclusive (and Interdependent) defini­ as she does so, constantly shIftS her tions Of race. But for an Individual like affiliations. For Instance, unlike earlier Birdie. such definitions reQuire that she passing characters, Birdie passes for negate a part Of herself, and by the end both White and black, undercutting the

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that she Is "really" black (or (105). Yet neither of these scholars "really" white, for that matterl. Interrogates the notion of passing for Additionally, the novel adheres to what black: how can one pass for something feminist scholar Klmberle Crenshaw one supposedly IS? Reading through refers to as "IntersectlonalltY: the Idea the lens of earlier passing narratives, that racial Identity Is part of a larger, the question becomes: How can Birdie Intertwined complex of Identity slgnl­ pass for White and also pass for black? flers, slgnlflers which Include both gen­ As Elaine Ginsberg maintains, "the pos­ der and sexual Identity. Because of this sibility of passing challenges a number complex and sophisticated approach to of problematic and even antithetical Identity, Birdie's experiences of racial assumptions about Identities, the first passing cannot be separated from her of which Is that some Identity cate­ gender and sexual Identities; she does gories are Inherent and unalterable not pass for 'whlte," for Instance, but essences: presumably one cannot pass rather for "White, heterosexual girl." for something one Is notunless there Is The pairing and tripling of Identi­ some other, pre-passing, Identity that ties Is not new to passing studies, of one Is" (4). Birdie's ability to pass for course; Elaine Ginsberg writes that gen­ black and White, then, pOses even more der and racial Identities have 'a dual significant problems for Identity, aspect" (2), and Juda Bennett argues because by passing for both, she Is In that 'passlng Is possible because defini­ effect claiming neither. Such double tions of race and sex rely on faulty blna­ passing enables senna to explode the rlsms" (113). Indeed, by drawing on ear­ myth of the racial binary that organized lier passing narratives' connections earlier passing narratives, and to open between race, gender, and sexuality, readers' eyes to a more complicated Senna moves toward a postethnlc per­ racial Identity that Is only possible In a spective by demonstrating the multiple postethnlc world. Or, phrased another affiliations-racial, gendered, and sexu­ way, the double passing In this novel al-that Birdie adOpts. Ultimately, Bir­ 'has the pOtential to create a space for die chooses "mlxed"ness at the end of creative self·determination and agency: the novel (413), and In doing so rejects the opportunity to construct new Iden­ the Imposed, deflnltlonally-dependent tities, to experiment With multiple SUb­ Identity binaries that characterize both ject positions" (Ginsberg 16l. We might racial and sexual Identity. WIthout sta· think of these "multiple subject posi­ ble binaries, passing narratives them­ tions" as synonymous with Hollinger'S selVes cannot fUnction, because pass­ postethnlc "affiliations" as we consider Ing Is always structurally dependent on how Birdie passes for black. a stable and defining opposite. The Birdie's passing for black reverses deconstruction of these multiple bina­ the usual passing dynamic: though she ries and Birdie's rejection of traditional looks White, she conVinces her Nkru­ racial categories mark Caucasla as a mah schoolmates that she Is black sole­ postethnlc work, and Illustrate the ly through her performance of black­ ways that the novel undoes the passing ness. In earlier studies, critics applied narrative Itself by reading the genre Judith Butler'S theory of the performa­ against Itself. tlvlty of gender to racial Identity; Elaine Ginsberg and cayle wald are among Passing for Black those who Incorporate this theory Into caucasla's most striking departure their examinations of passing. Bou­ from the traditional passing narrative Is dreau, writing about Caucasla, also In Birdie's "double" passing-before points out the performatlve nature of passing for white, she passes for black. race In this novel (61). However, these other critics have gestured towards critics are discussing characters who Birdie's passing for black, but none has pass for White, notfor black. None-the­ fUlly explored It. Brenda Boudreau, for less, In their discussions, skin color Is Instance, discusses Birdie's "pretend­ the visible sign that makes the per­ Ing" to be black (62), and Sika Alaine formance believable. When Birdie pass­ Dagbovle writes that Birdie 'also passes es for black, though, the oppOsite Is for something she Is and Is not (black)" true: her White skin color works against

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. consequently, her performance passing for blaCk constitutes must be so convincing that It trumps Birdie'S ticket to survival at Nkrumah the visible; she must perform well just as passing for White served as a enough for spectators to stop believing survival mechanism for earlier passers. their own eyes, which contributes to Because Birdie looks White, though, she the novel's deconstruction of stable has to demonstrate her "blackness" In race categories. other ways In order to be accepted by Birdie's passing for black differs her peers. For Instance, when Cole tells from traditional passing In other ways, her, "we talk like White glrls...We don't as well. From her first day at Nkrumah, talk like black people" (53), Birdie Birdie realizes that she has to convince decides to teach herself black speech. her classmates that she belongs at the Thus language becomes the first way of Black Power school. Her decision to performing blackness, and we see pass for black Is motivated not only by Birdie practicing saying "nlgga" rather her desire to fit In With her peers, but than "nigger" In front of her bathroom also by her desire not to "lose IColel for mirror (63). Significantly, Cole also has goOd" (62). In this respect, Birdie Is to "learn" blackness to an extent, even passing for black In order to keep her though she Is more visibly black than "black" family ICole), rather than pass­ Birdie. Boudreau maintains that Cole's Ing for white and having to reject that "attempts to 'become' black are...con­ family. Additionally, while many tradi­ nected to Visibility" much like Birdie's tional passers did so In order to Im­ are (63). Cole's ashy knees and her too­ prove their economic situation, Birdie nappy hair Inspire laughter from the actually fantasizes that her economic other children, so she learns to apply situation Is deteriorating: while at her lotion and goes to a black hair salon for friend Marla's house, Birdie Imagines cornrows ISS). But there Is a difference that her "mother worked the late shift between Cole and Birdie here: cole's and Iher) daddy stole TVS" (71). Here, darker body Identifies her as black In a Senna links the economics of passing to way that Birdie'S doesn't. Cole Is not color, but her reversal of the usual pat­ passing for black; Instead, she Is In a tern lpasslng from lower-class black­ sense enhancing her blackness. She ness Into upper-class whiteness) merely needs to learn "tricks of the deconstructs racial categortes fUrther. blackness trade"-a generous dose of A defining moment for Birdie lotion on specific "trouble spots" 1491­ comes In her first class at her new In order to be accepted as black. Cole's school. Her teacher explains, "at the need to "learn" blackness comes not end of each class, everyone stands and from a tOO-White physical body, but says, 'Black Is beautiful.' Loud and clear" from a white·Inflected cultural up­ (44). But when Birdie'S turn comes, she brtnglng. As she tells her father, "MUm only manages to question, "Black Is doesn't know anything about raising a beautiful?" 1451. Immediately after­ black child" (53). Telllngly, nobody In wards, a student confirms Birdie'S the family refers to Birdie In a similar Whiteness by taunting, "Ouess you must statement, just as nobody doubts be ugly" 1451. Birdie'S external "White" cole'S blackness. Birdie describes Cole features, especially her "long, stringy as Deck's "young, gifted, and black" hair" (46), cause her schoolmates to tor­ "prodigy" 155), the "proof that his ture her before Cole threatens them: blackness hadn't been completely "Birdie Isn't white. She'S black. Just like blanched...that his body stili held the me. So don't be messing with her again power to leave Its mark" (56). When or I'll cut Off all your hair for real this she Is With Cole and her father, Birdie time" (48). And though Cole asserts understands that she simply "dlsap· Birdie'S blackness, the text suggests peared" (56) because of her not-black­ that the real reason the girls subse­ enough body. Ultimately, Cole'S black quently leave Birdie alone has more to body legitimizes her attempts to learn do With Cole's bOdily threat than her blackness and renders her "perform­ assertion of Birdie'S race. After all, the ance" of blackness somehow more girls Ignore Birdie afterwards; they authentic, at least In the minds of her don't Include her In their group. family and schOolmates.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. almost-white body, though, "knighted black by Marla" (6411 does not means that she needs more than just mean, however, that she Ignores Jergen's to pass fOr black. In a desper­ Birdie'S visible Whiteness. on the con­ ate attempt to "blend In" (621, Birdie trary, Marla sees the visible differences sports tight braids to hide her halr's and tries to help Birdie minimize them: straight, smooth texture; wears gold "we're gonna have to do something hoops In her ears; and updates her about your hair" (691, she tells Birdie, wardrobe to Include "Sergio valente and then proceeds to cut and curl It. jeans, a pink vest, a jean jacket with When Birdie sees her curly hair In the sparkles on the collar, and spanking­ mirror, she Is better able to see herself white Nlke sneakers" (631. These acces­ as black; she Imagines that Marla Is her sories, along with her mastery of cousin, her own name Is Yolanda, and "black" speech, finally earn her notice she Is Cape Verdean (691. This Imaginary from her peers. As BIrdIe reports, her IdentificatIon With Maria'S ethnic back­ "work paid off" (631-and the word ground Is significant because It IndI­ "work" Indicates the constructedness cates that despite her efforts to the Of the actiVity. Birdie does not label this contrary, Birdie recognizes that her process Of transfOrmation as passing, blackness Is simply "Imagined" (691. but Instead calls It "the art Of changing" That Is, she Is passing here-this (621, which further highlights the per­ evening wIth Marla Is justanother game fOrmatlvlty Inherent In Birdie's Identity. Of make-believe. She ascribes her success at changing to Birdie'S response to her successful her early days Of playing dress-up with passing echoes that of earlier passers' Cole: "Cole and I had gotten a thrill out In Its anxIety; she confesses, "But I of changIng-spending our days never lost the anxlety...a fear that at dressed In old costumes, pretending to any moment I would be told It was all a be queens Of our make-believe nation. bIg joke" (641. Most passers fear dIscov­ But only at Nkrumah did It become ery, fear being "fOund out." Senna, more than a game" (621. While acknowl­ though, rewrites the passing narrative edging that It Is "more than a game," by turning this fear upside-down: while Birdie nonetheless compares her current traditional passers fear their exposure performance Of blackness to her child­ as "really" black, Birdie fears being hood performances Of make-believe. exposed as white. The consequences Thus Senna Interrogates the category Of Of exposure fOr earlier passers are dire, blackness: by Implying that It Is nothing and Often point to the stereotype of more than make-believe, a costume to the tragic mUlatta. Rena walden, fOr be donned and dOffed at Will, she sug­ example, from Chesnutt's House gests that the category IS empty at Its Behind the Cedars, Is abandoned by her core. Birdie does not share an Ineffable white flanc~e and eventually dies from "blackness" with earlier passers, because the emotional stress and guilt Of pass­ Senna shOWS us that blackness, like Ing. In larsen'S passing, Clare Kendry Whiteness, can (or even mustl be fabri­ falls to her death when her White hUS­ cated at will and with great effort. band discovers her racial secret. In BirdIe's "success" at passing fOr each case, and In virtually all passing black Is confirmed when Marla, the narratives, exposure Of the character's bully who threatened Birdie on her first blackness culminates In the loss Of fam­ day at Nkrumah, takes Birdie under her Ily (and Often Of life Itself). For Birdie, wing. Having noticed Birdie's changes, the consequence of being "exposed" as Marla asks, "So, you black?" (631. When White Is equally severe. Despite her BIrdie "nodls), slowly, as If unsure Of It" persIstent effOrts to pass fOr black, (631, Marla willingly brings her Into the Birdie eventually loses part of her fami­ fOld: "I got a brother just like you" (631. ly when Deck chooses Cole, not Birdie, Marla's Identification Of Birdie with her to accompany him to BraZil. "Cape Verdean" brother not only marks Senna rewrites the passing narra· Birdie as black, but also Includes Birdie tlve In an IronIc way. Usually the Visibil­ In a symbolic "black" family, one where Ity Of a passer's Whiteness Is an asset she visually resembles a sibling. Marla's eventually betrayed by some evidence acceptance Of Birdie (Birdie has been Of the one-drop rule (getting "caught"

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. one's darker-skinned family, as senses that race and sexuality cannot Rena walden does, for Instance). But In be separated. At this juncture, the Birdie's case, just the opposite Is true. novel accommodates a postethnlc per· Her parents reject the one·drop rule In spectlve, because It collapses the artlfl· favor Of the visibility rule: Birdie looks Clal boundaries between these con· white, and therefore Is white; Cole structed categories. looks black, and therefore Is black. When Deck chooses Cole over Birdie, Passing fOr White Senna reverses the usual passing Soon after Birdie begins to pass dynamic; here, the black family rejects successfully as black at school, her the "white" relatIVe, rather than the father takes Cole to Brazil and sandy'S white family rejecting the black one. radical activities cause her to run from That senna consistently undercuts the the law, taking Birdie with her. For the traditional passing narrative by revers­ next several years Of her life, and for Ing the raCial positions Illustrates her the majority Of the novel, Birdie passes desire to challenge the myth Of the for White. A key difference between racial binary, and we see her continuing Caucasla and earlier passing narratives, this challenge when Birdie successIVely though, Is the age Of the passer. In passes for white. most narratives, the character who Though Birdie Is too young at passes Is an adult, and as such has at Nkrumah to have much Of a sexual least a limited understanding Of the Identity, the novel does suggest the supposed benefits and conseQuences Intersectlonallty Of race and sexuality of passing. For example, the narrator here. For Instance, one factor that In Johnson's EX·Coloured Man crosses helps Birdie become accepted as black the color line multiple times as an adult, Is All's desire for her. Since All was the and realizes what he Is gaining and giv­ student Who most viciously accused Ing up by doing so. Similarly, In passing Birdie Of Whiteness, his desire to date Clare Kendry chooses to pass once her-hls pronouncement that She Is she'S old enough to marry, hoping to "pretty" (64l-lndlcates his acceptance escape an oppressive household and Of her blackness. This desire earns gain economic status and security. In Birdie an Invitation to Join the Brown both Of these cases, and In numerous Sugars, a group of girls who have others, the adult Individual chooses to bOYfriends (64). On a subseQuent Sleep­ pass based on his or her own experi­ over at Maria'S house, Birdie not only ences. Senna's Birdie, on the other gets a makeover' (which Includes beau­ hand, Is a child Of eight when she first ty tricks to make her appear more passes for White. She has no choice In black), but also experiences sexual the matter, especially since her mother desire for the first time. The two girls tells her that passing Is the only way to take a bath together, and Birdie "stud­ save both Of their lives: "The FBI would Ied Maria'S nude body," noting her be looking for a white woman on the "small perfectly shaped nipples like lam With her black child. But the fact Hershey'S Kisses· (70). AS they dry off, that I could pass, she explained, with Birdie "looked out Of the comer Of my my straight hair, pale skin, my general eye atthe soft brown slope Of her body. phenotypic resemblance to the I felt ashamed for looking, and hid my CaucaSOid race, would throw them Off face In the wet tangle Of my hair" (71). our trall... MY bodY was the key to our Maria'S black, sexualized body, and the going Incognito" (1281. Four years later, hint Of homoerotic desire It Inspires, Is once they have settled In New at once a source Of envy, desire, and Hampshire, sandy warns Birdie that the shame for Birdie. Not sure how to danger Of exposure Is stili present: respond to her desire, Birdie masks It "when are you going to understand and her shame with her hair, the mark that this Isn't a game?" (1651. Birdie's Of her Whiteness, as If she's hoping that passing ensures her mother'S freedom her visible race will hide her homoerot­ as much as It does her own. The threat Ic desire. This cOnflatlon Of Whiteness Of exposure, common In passing narra­ with heterosexuality will surface later tives, Is doubled for Birdie, and In the novel, but at the moment Birdie reversed from earlier narratives:

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. usually the parent avoids his Jews have sometimes" and for whom or her exposure for the sake Of the "Judaism was more like a cultural thing" child (as In the Ex-Coloured Man, for (1311. As Lori Harrison-Kahan argues, In examplel, here the child dodges expo­ choosing Jewlshness Senna makes sure for the sake Of the parent. Hence another Important change to the tradi­ Birdie's "choice" to pass for white Is not tional passing narrative, because really a choice at all, and the responsi­ "whiteness Is not represented as a bility for her mother'S safety marks her monolithic category" 121. Birdie Is not as distinctively different from earlier lit­ just White, but a particular kind Of erary passers. White, and one that Is convenient for a Not only Is Birdie denied the choice young girl who Is passing because to pass, but she Is also denied the Jewlshness can be a "cultural thing" opportunity to create her own "White" that Jews can choose to embrace or Identity. Instead her mother chooses not. That Is, Birdie can explain her everything, from her new name to her slightly darker hue with the genetic genetic and racial background. sandy marker Of Jewlshness, but does not christens Birdie "Jesse," after sandy'S have to bone up on rabbinical law great-grandmother, a suffragette; this because she can reject the cultural/reli­ name connects Birdie not only With gious aspect Of her new "race: This Whiteness, but also with her mother's form Of passing Is Ingenious. One can racist ancestors (1281. Such renaming be a non-practicing Jew, but what does links Caucasla to earlier passing narra­ It mean to be a non-practicing black? tives, In which characters changed their Birdie's performance Of Whiteness names to ensure anonymity (Johnson's also resembles her performance Of EX-Coloured Man, for Instancel. blackness because, In each case, the When sandy ponders Birdie's racial performance Of race Is tied to gender history, she looks at her daughter and and sexuality. Much as she passes for says, almost enviously, "You've got a lot black and White, Birdie also passes for Of choices, babe. You can be anything. female and heterosexual. For Instance, Puerto Rican, Sicilian, Pakistani, Oreek. I when she enters school In New mean, anything, really" (1301. But as Hampshire, she spies a group Of girls Quickly as she Invests Birdie with this and sees "In their reflections the girl I power Of choice, she takes It away; failed to be" 12191, "a girl who dressed In Birdie suggests Italian, but Sandy Inter­ oversized tomboy clothes" 12201. once rupts: "Jewish Is better, I think: and she makes friends In the New Birdie realizes that "the decision had Hampshire town, she seizes the oppor­ been made" (1301. Once again, the tunity to make up for lost time: "I was peculiar dynamic of Birdie's youth and playing catch-Up With Mona, learning Sandy'S status as mother renders Birdie how to be a girl" 12271. Birdie's lan­ powerless In her own self-definition guage here supports Butler'S theory Of and, as Boudreau attests, Birdie Is the peformatlvlty Of gender In Its sug­ "stripped Of the agency to define her­ gestion that gender Identity Is some­ self" 1641. The lack of such agency high­ thing to be learned, a way Of doing that lights the way Birdie's racial Identity Is becomes a way Of being. It also Indi­ constructed from without rather than cates that there are several kinds Of chosen from within at this point In the "girl," just as there are several kinds Of novel. In this way, senna connects skin color and racial Identities. Birdie'S Birdie to earlier passers like Clare language connects her gender "pass­ Kendry, whom Cheryl Wall argues SUf­ Ing" to her racial passing: "I was usually fers from "the Impossibility Of self-defi­ performing: she confesses; "It must nition" 1981. Unlike these passers, how­ have looked like I was changing Into ever, Birdie will eventually break free Of one Of those New Hampshire girls" the restrictive categories In order to (2331. Oender and racial passing are not claim her own self-definition. merely parallel; they are Intimately sandy creates an entire family his­ Intertwined. Boudreau traces this Idea tory for Birdie, complete With a Jewish In Caucasla, affirming that racial Identity classicist father Iremlnlscent Of sandy'S "cannot be separated from gender" own fatherl who had "an afro, the way 1651.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sexual, and gender Identi­ pretend you're the boss: ties collide In Birdie's first sexual And I would hold her down encounter with Nick, her white New and rub my body against Hampshire neighbor. Nick relates the hers, my face hot and moIst story Of his loss Of virginity to a black In the crook Of her neck, prostitute In Amsterdam by pairing while I felt a sharp pleasure racial and sexual commodification and that turned to melting exploitation. He "bought" a black pros­ between my legs. (198-99) titute because white ones "cost more than we had" and because he "heard In these pre-adolescent sexual that black girls were supposed to be experiments, Birdie Is clearly acting the gOOd" (199). He thus welds together "guy's" part; she Is on top, the "boss: race, gender, and sexuality as markers while the "girl" Alexis Is on bottom. The Of Identity that can't be separated, notion Of acting underscores the per­ despite his attempts to "lclose hlsl formative nature Of gender and sex eyes" and "forget about It" (200). roles, and we see here that biological Shortly after this confession, Nick licks sex does not necessarily determine Birdie's face and laughingly tells her, these rOles. Although Birdie and Alexis "You have a mustache" (200l. On the Invent a heterosexual framework to one hand, Nick's remark about her mus­ organize their same-sex encounter, tache Identifies Birdie as maSCUline, and Birdie'S confUsion about her role In this thus not sexually desirable. Later, how­ experience Is evident In her descrip­ ever, he Invests this mustache With tion: these games were "strange racial meaning, adding: "It makes you things." look dirty, like I could lick you clean" This confusion also appears earlier (200). Whiteness here can "clean" away In the novel as Birdie describes the faint traces Of darkness or blackness, story she wrote about Richie, a somewhat like closing one's eyes can Mexican-American rebel-wlthout-a­ make blackness disappear; If Birdie's cause. She confesses that she was "In mustache were removed, she would love with Richie and dreamed Of him become both white and female. each night: but she also dreams about Further, the process Of moving from "his sexy, abused girlfriend" (172). black to White through licking Is a sexu­ Gender and sexual Indeterminacies alone In this Instance, drawing the abound as Birdie relates her sexual fan­ moment Of sexuality towards the tasies about this couple: "It wasn't clear moment Of racial and gender IdentItY. to me which one Of them I was sup­ Nick's confession Of his first sexual posed to be Identifying With-the burly, experience prompts Birdie to remem­ macho Richie, who lay on top, or his ber her own, and this Juxtaposition sOft, ultrafemlnlne girlfriend With the demarcates the ways In which racial, pink lipstick and matching toenails, gender, and sexual ambiguity underpin who lay on bottom" (172). The binary Of Birdie'S erotic life-an opposite sexual Identity Implodes here, as Birdie response to Nick's, In which Identity fantasizes about sex With and as both stability seems to be a prereQuisite for genders. With Alexis, however, It Is the pleasure. Nick asks Birdie, "Are you stili masculine role that Birdie performs, a virgin, or What?" (198). This Question and her response to her "honeymoon" calls forth the following memory for games With Alexis demonstrates the Birdie: anxiety she feels: "Afterward I always felt a little bit nauseous and would pre­ I had done some strange tend to be asleep so she WOUldn't talk things With Alexis at Aurora. to me" (199). The text Is unclear about Some nights, on the mat­ the source Of this nausea. While It tress we shared, I had strad­ might stem from the someWhat usual dled her In a game we called embarrassment Of first sexual experi­ "honeymoon." She would ences, It seems more likely to stem say, "You be the guy, and I'll from Birdie's anxiety over a same-sex be the girl. Pretend you sexual experience, especially If we have to hold me down. remember her earlier shame when

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Maria's body. Fantasies are one quickly extinguished when Nick pushes thing, but lived reality Is another, even her head down his body (203). At that In an environment where same-sex moment, she realizes that If she relationships are the norm. engages In sex With Nick, her Identity as This shame manifests Itself again In Jesse Goldman, White heterosexual girl, the text when Birdie denies to Nick the will be sealed: Importance Of her relationship with Alexis. In answer to his question, she But touching him felt too replies, "Yeah, I'm a virgin" (199). Her real, proof that the game response Indicates that Birdie does not had gone too far. It wasn't fully understand her "strange" experi­ Birdie, but Jesse, who lay ence With Alexis, but nonetheless beneath him, who held him knows that It conflicts With the hetero· In her hand, who made his sexual norm she sees In the world out­ eyes turn all glassy and his side Of Aurora. Later, In Nick's room, he breath come out uneven. I compliments her kissing technique and nodded that yes, I wanted to asks, "Where'd you learn to do that?" stop. I wondered If he'd (203). Birdie "picked up the Tlntln comic think I was a baby, or a crazY that had fallen on the floor, and hid dyke, as my mother had put Iher) face behind It as (she) said. 'WIth It about the women of this friend Of mine, Alex. We used to Aurora. (203) make out all the time'" (203·04). In an attempt to "normalize" her sexual Birdie realizes that It Is her per­ experience, Birdie shortens AlexiS'S ceived Identity as a White heterosexual name to mask her gender (nowhere that excites Nick; Jesse, not Birdie, else In the novel does Birdie refer to turns him on. If she touches the part Of Alexis by this nickname>. This scene, him that Indicates With certainty his too, functions as a kind Of passing. In Identity as a White boy. she will cement shortening Alexls's name, Birdie masks her Identity as a White, heterosexual her as a boy, and passes the moment Of girl. More than simply refusing the sex­ homoerotic desire Into heterosexual ual act, Birdie Is refusing the Identity desire, much like the "honeymoon" that accompanies that act fOr her: her game. This scene echOes the earlier rejection Of sex with Nick mirrors her one With Marla, too, because here rejection of the racial and sexual bina­ Birdie hides behind a "raced" comic ries that organize her life In New book-Tlntln /n the Congcr-rather than Hampshire. the "raced" sign Of her straight hair. Such connections between race This moment can be read In two ways. and sex are common In many narratives If Birdie Is IdentIfYing With Tlntln, the about passing. For Instance, Siobhan B. White Belgian colonialist, then she uses Somerville argues that Johnson'S Ex­ Whiteness here once again to mask her Coloured Man flees his engagement to homoerotic desire fOr Alexis. If. howev· the black schoolteacher because mar· er. Birdie Identifies With the Congolese rylng her "would have committed the (as she does shortly after by referring narrator to a permanent Identity within to them as "US" (204», then she Is put· a black middle-class community" (123). tlng on the face Of blackness In order to This Identity would be both black and more closely resemble the sexualized heterosexual. For Birdie, sex With Nick black woman Nick has already slept would make real her Identity as white With. and heterosexual, and she fears taking Moments later, Birdie explicitly this step even as she worries that Nick connects whiteness to heterosexuality. will label her a "crazy dyke." AS As she and Nick begin kissing, she com· Harrlson·Kahan notes, Birdie "expresses pares this experience to the ones with a resistance to heterosexuality that Is Alexis, but finds that she doesn't know explicitly connected to race" (14)' As how to respond (203). As she touches Birdie passes fOr White, then, she also Nick'S penis, she begins to feel "a slight passes for heterosexual, and Senna tingling between my legs, the kind I had connects the two types of passing by felt with AleXis," but this feeling Is using the language of perfOrmance.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Birdie tracks down Ronnie, All's place In the novel where Birdie doesn't father, later In the novel, he condemns have to pass or perform. The Inclusion of his heterosexual passing In earlier Aurora separates caucasla from tradition­ years: ·1 could do what I did for all those al passing narratlVes-here, race disap­ years and play the straight man...Shlt, I pears entirely, an Impossibility for earlier got so good at playing the part of the narratives that reinforced the positive black brother I could have won whlte/black binary. an Emmy· (350). Tying together these Interestingly, the disappearance of two types of passing (racial and sexuall race at Aurora proVides a space that nor­ enables Senna to highlight the one malizes homoerotic desire. For Instance, place In the novel where passing of nei­ Birdie'S mOther finds ·sapphlc bliss· In an ther sort occurs: Birdie's time at Aurora. affair with Bernadette (136), and It Is here that Birdie experiments with Alexis (198). passing No More Late In the narrative, when Birdie visits Significantly, Birdie's homoerotic the father of her first boyfriend, All, and desires and experiences are normalized hears his story of ·passlng· for straight, at Aurora, a women's-only commune she remembers life at Aurora: where race Is completely erased. Surprisingly, though critics like Harrison­ The women at Aurora Often Kahan, Boudreau, Hunter, and DagboVie had talked about what lies comment extensively on the racial they had lived as StePford dynamics of Caucas/a, none critically wives-before they had examines Birdie's time at Aurora. yet become real, roaring, natural Aurora functions as a·place of possibility women. I thought about for Birdie, a space where passing Is not Bernadette and my mother, necessary because Aurora, as Birdie their blatant kisses and hugs relates It; Is completely raceless. Telllngly, and nude romps to the lake. Aurora Is the only space In thetext where About Alexis and me, our Birdie does not classIfY others according games of honeymoon. In the to their race, and where her own body Is context of Aurora, It had not racially scrutinized. More Important· come to seem as natural as Iy, Alexis Is Birdie's only friend whose race anYthing else. (350) Is not revealed. OlVen their-Intimate rela­ tionship, surely this omission on Birdie's This memory Is Significant because It part Is Intentional. Illustrates the ease with which homo­ At Aurora, Birdie does not analyZe or erotic desire Is normalized at Aurora, and agonize over race. In her recollecttons because It further underscores Birdie's about Aurora, she Identifies two women own homoerotic desire. The world of by nationality rather than race Aurora provides a safe space for these (Bernadette Is Australian; Zoe Is Israelll women to express their sexual desire and Birdie's choice to emphasize nation­ that the outside world condemns. By ality over race seems ImportantgIVen the creating Aurora as a raceless space, emphasis on race throughout the narra· senna plays on Deborah McDOwell's read· tlve. The only other ·raced· moment In Ing of Larsen's passing. McDOwell argues Aurora comes from sandY's comment to that Larsen uses the relatively ·safe· pass­ zoe that feminism was ·an excuse for Ing narrative as a way to conceal a more 'White, bourgeois bitches to complain ·dangerous· plot of homoerotic desire about something" (173). While sandY's (160). By stripping Aurora of race, howev­ remark seems to Indict the women of er, Senna suggests that such a strategy Is Aurora for their whiteness (a whiteness, no longer necessary: her paSSing narra­ we should remember, that she shares), tIVe ceases to be a passing narratIVe pre­ Birdie as narrator Is only reporting what cisely when homoerotic desire becomes sandY has said; Birdie herself seems to be •natural." consciously excluding race as afeature of Aurora promises a space where Identity at Aurora. ·Whlteness· doesn't race does not exist and where same-sex exist at Birdie's Aurora, nor does ·black· desire freely Is expressed. But the text ness.· Color, In fact, disappears altogeth· reminds us that such a space, a utoplc er, and thus Aurora becomes the one vision, can only exist temporarily:

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and her mother leave Aurora me now" (3501. Birdie'S language here after one year (1361. This year proves points to a postethnlc perspective: she prOfOundly Influential on Birdie, as eVI­ Inhabits not one, but multiple, worlds­ denced by the way In which she nar­ worlds that overlap With one another. rates her time spent there. As opposed No longer content to pass fOr either to the primarily linear fashion In which black or White, she flees both New she narrates the rest of the novel Hampshire and Boston, the sites Of her (beginning In early childhood and pro­ dual passing, and lands In CalifOrnia, ceeding chronologically until the end reunited With her sister Cole. This Of the narrative, when she Is fOurteen), scene, then, represents her "hOme­ Birdie's narration Of her time at Aurora coming." deviates from chronological order. We Harrlson·Kahan explicitly links the read about Aurora several times moment Of Birdie'S homecoming to throughout the text but never get a scenes In prior passing novels; In these description Of the full year unfOlding as earlier novels, she writes, this home· time was spent there. This sense of coming Is "sometimes understood as a time transpires only In Birdie's memory reassertlon of essential Identity" (121. and Is accessible only through But, as Harrison-Kahan cautions, to read metonymic chains Of association. Thus Birdie'S homecoming In this misguided the time at Aurora takes on an almost fashion would preclude the post-ethnic dream-like qualltv, becoming a hazy perspective Birdie has been working montage Of memories that reproduces toward (12). When she reunites With the utoplc qualities of Aurora. Cole, she Identifies With her mixed· We also never get an uninterrupt­ race, yet Visibly-black, sister, and Cole ed view Of Birdie's time at the com­ tells her, "[If] you ever thought you mune. Instead, Aurora enters the nar­ were the only one, get ready. we're a rative In bits and pieces, fragmented dime a dozen out here" (412), Birdie Is through Birdie's memory and experl· finally "home" In a place where she ence. As we have seen above, Birdie doesn't have to pass and where she'S describes her games Of "honeymoon" no longer limited by the black-white with Alexis when she and Nick explore a binary that Imprisons earlier passers. sexual relationship (198-991. Similarly, The novel Itself undoes the notion Birdie remembers Aurora when she Of passing In Its postethnlc perspective. relates her mother's early loneliness In In her reunion With Deck, when Birdie New Hampshire (173). Aurora creeps tells him that she "passed as white" Into her consciousness when Sandy (391), he argues that passing doesn't laments missing Cole'S first period eXist: "there'S no such thing as passing. (1571. Birdie'S memories Of Aurora flow We're all Just pretending. Race Is a Into and out Of the text sporadically complete illusion, make·believe. it's a until the end Of the narrative, disrupt· costume. We all wear one. You Just Ing the linear development Of the novel switched yours at some point. That'S and demonstrating their power to Just the absurdity Of the whole race organize Birdie's life. Further, Birdie'S game" (391). Cole and Birdie agree with narration Of Aurora disavows the tern· Deck's latest theory, but also recognize poral order (then/now) upheld In the that theories don't always function rest Of the novel, and this shifting Of fully In the real world. Cole affirms that boundaries mirrors the shifting Of defl· race Is constructed, but adds: nltlonal boundaries that Birdie desires. "But...that doesn't mean It doesn't Most significantly, however, Aurora eXist" (4081. AS mixed-race Individuals, signals the possibility Of a postethnlc Cole and Birdie refuse to be circum· perspective. Toward the end Of the scribed by one racial category, but real· novel, when Birdie Is talking to Ronnie Ize that such categories nonetheless and All, she realizes that while Aurora eXist. AS Hollinger notes, "Boundaries represents a separate world, that world are necessary. A postethnlc perspec· stili eXists fOr her: "I wondered If All tlve understands this. Which bound· would turn against me If he knew my aries, and where? We are all left With full story, If he knew all the worlds I had the responsibility fOr deciding where to lived In, worlds I stili carried Inside Of try to draw what cIrcles With whom,

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and around what" 11721. And, since "mlxed"ness, rather than blackness, these boundaries are constantly being Birdie rejects the racial binary that lim­ redrawn by Individuals as they shift Ited earlier passers In favor of a affiliations, the notion of passing takes postethnlc affiliation. Senna here on new meaning: no longer "perma­ rewrites the ending to the traditional nent" and fixed, passing In a postethnlc passing narrative. Rather than sketch world means floating Into and out of her protagonist to suffer the plight of Individually-drawn circles of affiliation. the tragic mulatto, Senna Invests Birdie The last scene In Caucasla shows with a self-chosen Identity denied earli­ Birdie affirming her post-ethnic Identi­ er passers. Significantly, her narrative ty, connecting to others like herself. ends not with death, but With dawn: When she sees a young girl on the bUs, "the skY above was a bruise of colors she sayS the girl "was black like me, a from the Just-rising sun" 14131. Such an mixed girl" (413). This pronouncement ending Invokes Aurora Ithe goddess of Is significant, because It signals the only the dawn), and promises a symbolic time Birdie has fully defined herself on new beginning as well as a postethnlc her own terms. Throughout the rest of space for Birdie and others like her. By her life, she let others define her­ rewriting the traditional passing narra­ Marla, her mother, Nick, Mona-but tive, Senna Imagines a new social land­ here she chooses her affiliations and scape where Individuals are allowed to decides where to draw her own bound­ create their own "circles" and claim aries. By choosing to affiliate With their own affiliations.

Works Cited

Bennett, Juda. The Passing Figure: Racial Ginsberg, Elaine K., Ed. passing and the Confusion In Modern American Fictions Of Identity. Durham: Duke Literature. NY: Peter Lang, 1996. university press, 1996. Boudreau, Brenda. "letting the BOdy Harrison-Kahan, LorI. "passing for White, Speak: 'Becoming' White In caucasJa." Passing for Jewish: Mixed Race MOdem Language studies 32.1 Identity In Danzy Senna and (2002): 59-70. Rebecca walker: MEWS 30.1 (2005): Butler, JUdith. Gender Trouble: 19·48. Feminism and the Subversion Of Hollinger, David A. Postethnlc America. Identity. NY: Routlege, 1989. NY: Basic Books, 1995. Chesnutt, Charles W. The House Behind Hunter, Michele. "Revisiting the Third the Cedars. 1900. Athens: U of Space: Reading Danzy Senna's Georgia P, 1988. Caucasla. " Literature and Racial Crenshaw, Klmberle. "Intersectlonallty Ambiguity. Eds. Teresa Hubel and and Identity Politics: Learning from Nell Brooks. Amsterdam: Rodopl, Violence against women of Color." 2002. 297·316. Feminist Theory. Eds. Wendy K. Johnson, James Weldon. The Autoblogra­ Kolmar and Frances BartkowskI. phV Of an EX-Coloured Man. NY: Boston: MCOraw-HIII, 2005. 533-541. VIntage Books, 1989. Dagbovle, Sika Alaine. "Fading to White, Kawash, Samlra. Dislocating the Color Fading Away: Biracial Bodies In Une. Stanford: stanford UniversItY MIChelle Cliff's Abeng and Danzy press, 1997. Senna's caucasla." African American Larsen, Nella. QuiCksand and Passing. Review 40.1 (2006): 93-109. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1986.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Deborah E. "'That nameless... SOmerville, Siobhan B. Queering the Color shameful Impulse": Sexuality In Line. Durham: Duke University Nella Larsen's Quicksand and Press, 2000. passing." Studies In Black American Vourvoullas, Bill. "Talking with Danzy Literature Vol. III: Black Feminist Senna: Newsday 29 Mar. 1998: B11. Criticism and Critical Theory. Eds. wald, Gayle. Crossing the Une. Durham: Joe welxlmann and Houston A. Duke University Press, 2000. Baker, Jr. Greenwood: The Penkevlll Wall, Cheryl."Passing fOr What? Aspects Publishing Company, 1988. 139-163. Of Identity In Nella Larsen's Novels." Senna, Danzy. Caucasla. NY: Black American Literature Forum Riverhead Books, 1998. 20.1 (1986): 97-111. SOllors, werner. Neither Black Nor White webb, Frank. The Garles and Their Friends. Yet Both. Cambridge: Harvard UP, NY: Arno press, 1969. 1997.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. olaylnka Agbetuylls an Instructor Of History at Lane College In Jackson, Tennessee.

Miller W. Boyd III Is an Independent historical and political conSUltant who works prima­ rily In st. Louis, MissourI.

Jerry Komia Domatob Is an Assistant Professor In the Department Of Mass Communications at Alcorn state University In Lorman, MississippI.

Tameka Bradley Hobbs Is the Historian fOr the Valentine Richmond History center In Richmond, VIrginia.

Ambrous Jacobs Is an Assistant prOfessor and Chairperson Of the Department Of Political science, Social Work and Sociology at Bennett College In Greensboro, North carolina.

Judson L. Jeffries Is a Professor In the Department Of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University In Columbus, Ohio.

James Jones Is an Assistant PrOfessor Of History at Prairie View A and M University In prairie View, Texas.

Emmanuel Mablengwa Nanluzeyl Is an Associate PrOfessor Of political Science at savannah State University In savannah, Georgia.

Jackie C. Robinson Is an Assistant PrOfessor Of psychology at Florida A and M University In Tallahassee, Florida.

Kathryn Rummell Is an Associate PrOfessor Of English at CalIfOrnia Polytechnic State University In San Luis Obispo, CalifOrnia.

LaQulta SIngleton, a graduate Of Berea College, works at the National Civil Rights Museum In Birmingham, Alabama.

Leonard A. Slade, Jr. Is a PrOfessor Of Afrlcana Studies at the State University of New York at Albany In Albany, New York.

James N. upton Is an Associate PrOfessor In the Department Of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University In Columbus, Ohio.

Jeanna Fuston White Is an Assistant prOfessor Of English at East Texas Baptist university In Marshall, Texas.

**** ••• ****.*•••••***.*.*•••••••• * •••*.***.*.* ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• IN ANCIENT AFRICA... 'GRIOr WERE THE COUNSELORS OF KINGS, THEY CONSERVED THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KING· DOMS BY MEMORY ALONE... IT WAS FROM AMONG THE GRIOTS THAT KINGS USED TO CHOOSE THE TUTORS FOR YOUNG PRINCES... FOR WANT OF ARCHIVES (THEY) RECORDED THE CUS· TOMS, TRADITIONS AND GOVERNMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF KINGS... SUNDIATA, DJIBRIL T. NAINE

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