A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life

A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life

Countless African Americans have passed as white, leaving behind families and friends, roots and communities. It was, as Allyson Hobbs writes, a chosen exile. This history of passing explores the possibilities, challenges, and losses that racial indeterminacy presented to men and women living in a country obsessed with racial distinctions.