it would be so funny (if it didn't suck) how much the term "white passing" is now just a term used by mostly white people as shorthand for one or more of the following: 1) "you, person of colour, have challenged assumptions i had about race and i don't like that so i am going to attempt to invalidate your point by erasing your identity" OR 2) "I am a white person who doesn't interact with people of colour therefore i have no idea what a person of colour looks like" OR 3) "i think white passing just means having white/light skin and you have white/light skin therefore you are white passing" OR 4) "you are not performing your culture in a way that is obvious or legible to me, a stranger, therefore i assumed you were white because that is more comfortable for me" and the most insanity-inducing part of all this is that if you are levelling the label of "white passing" at someone in this way then they're not white passing. if someone is passing for white then you would not clock them as doing so, by definition. passing for white is a verb, not a noun. it really annoys me, deeply actually, that these terms Black people and people of colour coined to describe things culturally specific within our own communities, then got bastardised by white people to the point that these culturally specific terms essentially become derogatory and used to discredit us.
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