1. CLASS 7 EWRT 1B

2. AGENDA
QHQ Discussion: Hughes: "Who's Passing
for Who?"
Reading Queerness with Juda Bennett
Presentation: Essay 2: The Argument:
Brainstorming with FREECASH
In-Class Writing: Essay 2 Brainstorming
Author Lecture: Toni Morrison

3. “WHO‟S PASSING FOR WHO?”
BY LANGSTON HUGHES
• What is the story trying to imply?
• Why did Caleb like hanging around white
people so much?

4. • What made the [Iowan] couple say they were blacks passing as
white people?
• Are they really passing as white?
• Why do you think the [Iowan] couple claimed to be passing ?
• What was the couples‟ intention in changing their identity?
• Was the couple purposely showing the three African American
men a taste of the confusion white folks feel when they find
out an African American is passing as a white folk?
• It seems almost cruel what the “light-colored” folk did, but
were they wrong or was there a new perspective due to
passing as white then black then white again?
• Did the couple gain anything from that situation other than
fooling a group of people for evening and having a chance to
taste what it was like to live in their shoes? Did they begin to
treat [the African-American] people with more respect and
decency?

5. • Why did knowing/thinking that the visitors from Iowa
were blacks passing for whites change the mood of the
night from that point on?
• If the couple didn‟t tell them that they were [black] passing
as white, would they still have had a great time?
• Does being around your own race really change the way you
behave in public?
• Why did everyone start laughing once they realized that the
husband and wife were passing as white people?
• How does race affect the social gathering between the whites
and blacks while drinking with each other at the bar?

6. • What was the [Iowan] couple‟s true race?
• If the couple was white why would they lie and pretend to be
black?
• If they were black, why would they end the night by saying they
were black?
• Why does the white couple decide to tell the truth to the narrator
and his friends finally?
• Are they truly white people like they said at the end?
• Is the “white” couple really white? Or are they just playing tricks
on everybody by claiming they are really white in the end?
• Would the story change its meaning if the couple were actually
black or white?

7.  Why did it matter whether the [blond] woman in the restaurant
was black or white?
 Do you think after what happened, the red haired man will change
his morals on protecting any helpless woman, colored or not, in
the future?
 Should we feel a connection to someone in order to give aid to
someone, or should we just do it out of the goodness of our
hearts?
 Why did the red haired man get upset?
 After the woman was being hit by her husband, why did she
get up and defend her husband ?
 What did Mr. Stubblefield [the red haired man] get out of this
experience? did he learn from this?
 How would society in that day view the red haired man in 2
separate scenarios: He intervenes when a black man beats a white
woman, and he intervenes when a black man beats his black wife.
Is one “just/accepted” and the other not?

8. • In the story the the three black men get upset when
one of the characters refrains from his previous
interference with a domestic violence situation due to
the discovery of the female‟s true race. Would the black
men have intervened if the couple in the fight been
white?
• Why did the others questioned Mr. Stubblefield‟s
motives, when they themselves took no action to help
the woman?
• Why is there a double standard and why can‟t people
judge themselves more critically?
• How were the [black] artists different from Mr.
Stubblefield regarding how they acted toward the other
people?

9. • What did “they had had too much fun at our expense–even if they
did pay for the drinks.” mean?
• Will the narrator and his friends regret what they have done?
Will they change their manner when meeting white friends
after this experience?
• Is it acceptable to pass as something that you are not, when it is
a sensitive topic (such as race), only for the purpose of fun and
not for the purpose of survival or positive benefits in your life?
• How important is race to human beings?
• In the end, did race really matter?
• If people can already pass as another color and you can have
a good time with them, why does their color matter at all?
• At the end, did race really matter to them [the Iowans]?
• Will prejudice perpetually exist? If so, will its effect be dramatic?

10. If so,
DO YOU READ QUEER where do
you see
PASSING IN THE STORY? hints of it?

11. BENNETT, JUDA. “MULTIPLE PASSINGS
AND THE DOUBLE DEATH OF
LANGSTON HUGHES.”
HONOLULU: FALL 2000.
VOL. 23, ISS. 4; PG. 670, 25 PGS

12. BENNETT‟S THESIS: WITH A SENSE
OF THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN
VOYEUR AND OBJECT,
HOMOPHOBE AND
HOMOSEXUAL, INSIDE AND
OUTSIDE, "WHO'S PASSING FOR
WHO?" INTERWEAVES THE
EXPLICIT THEME OF RACIAL
PASSING WITH THE BURIED
THEME OF THE CLOSET.

13.  Bennett writes,
[Assertion] The voice of the narrator is the key to
discovering this buried, or closety, theme . Although
critics have been surprisingly silent about the narrator's
various and potential passings, there are several
reasons for reading his character as false or at least
layered. [Evidence] He admits, for example, to at least
one performance when he states that "we dropped our
professionally self-conscious 'Negro' manners... and
kidded freely like colored folks do when there are no
white folks around" (173). [Explanation] Although
Langston Hughes is working within an African American
tradition that has often explored the nature of
performance as it relates to racial difference and
insider/outsider communities, [Analysis] this story
further layers that dynamic with other marks of
difference.

14. [Evidence] Before the action begins, the prolix and witty
narrator introduces his friends and himself as "too broad-
minded to be bothered with questions of color."
[Explanation] This statement sets up the dramatic irony
that positions the narrator for his ultimate blunder: being
fooled by the white Iowans. [Analysis] Although the
narrator's bohemian world is meant to stand in contrast to
the boring white folks from Iowa, Hughes eventually
reverses the roles. The Iowans prove to be the tricksters,
and the narrator must confront his own naiveté. That the
narrator could not see through the Iowans' dissimulation is
funny, ironic, interesting-but in the end, not entirely
believable.

15. What happens, though, if we read the narrator's bohemian
world as a homosocial world? [Assertion] When we divide
the entire cast of characters into single men and
heterosexual couples, we discover that racial passing only
occurs within the heterosexual realm. Not only does the
Iowan couple pass, but so too does the only other woman,
half of the only other heterosexual couple in the story.
[Analysis] We might then see these racial passings as
deflecting attention from the narrator and his friends, who
become boring and unremarkable despite the initial flair
with which they are introduced. [Logical Conclusion] Racial
passing becomes a decoy, distracting our attention from
the performances of the bohemian bachelors.

16. [Assertion] Before Hughes initiates the drama of racial passing,
he comes dangerously close to revealing the "perverse" nature
of the narrator and his bachelor friends:
[Evidence] “You see, Caleb and his white friends, too, were all
bores. Or so we, who lived in Harlem's literary bohemia during
the "Negro Renaissance," thought. We literary ones considered
ourselves too broad-minded to be bothered with questions of
color. We liked people of any race who smoked incessantly,
drank liberally, wore complexion and morality as loose
garments, and made fun of anyone who didn't do likewise. We
snubbed and high-hatted any Negro or white luckless enough
not to understand Gertrude Stein ....” (Hughes 170)

17. [Concession]Although the narrator assumes this affected tone,
his dandified attitude and the passing reference to Gertrude
Stein hardly mark him fully and definitively as a homosexual.
[Assertion] Nevertheless, the title, with its bad grammar calling
attention to itself, encourages speculation. Who is passing for
whom? [Explanation/Analysis] Surely the author would have
planted more and trickier trickster figures than the Iowans to
fully justify his title. Furthermore, the narrative has already
schooled us in the surprising fluidity of identity, and so readers
are encouraged to suspect more revelations and exposures.

18. [Concession] To those who would argue that the subject of passing
lends itself to this kind of wild and speculative reading-after all,
everything is performance, and everybody passes-I heartily agree.
[Final Assertion] I am finally arguing that in his autobiographies,
poetry, fiction, and drama, Hughes returned to the subject of passing
throughout his career because he was fascinated with identity as
something unstable and "queer." With their emphasis on
compensation rather than loss, questions rather than answers, the
unknown rather than the known, and curiosity rather than
punishment, Hughes's writings on sexual identity invite comparison to
his exploration of racial passing.

19. BRAINSTORMING ESSAY
#2

20. BRAINSTORMING WITH FREECASH
F= Freedom, Fairness, Legality, Human Rights, Social Justice
R = Religion, Morality, Ethics
E = Economics, Monetary Issues, Finances, Expenses
E = Environment (types of environments = natural, rural, urban, workplace, home, school)
C = Convenience, Comfort
A = Appearance, Aesthetics
S = Safety, Security
H = Health, Well Being (types of health = individual, societal, mental, physical, emotional,
spiritual)

21. PRACTICE ORGANIZING AN ESSAY ON THE
ISSUE OF SCHOOL UNIFORMS. USE THE
FREECASH IN THE CHART BELOW .
CATEGORIES PRO/FOR CON/AGAINST
FREEDOM Students should be free to Students should be free from
wear what they want stigma attached to class.
RELIGION/MORALITY
ECONOMICS
ENVIRONMENT
CONVENIENCE
APPEARANCE Makes the students look like
clones
SAFETY Keeps students safe from
gang violence due to colors
HEALTH

22. L I S T A L L T H E R E A S O N S T O AG R E E W I T H P I C K E N S O N O N E S I D E A N D A L L
T H E R E A S O N S T O D I S AG R E E O N T H E O T H E R . T H E S I D E W I T H T H E M O S T
O R B E S T R E A S O N S W I L L P R O B A B LY M A K E A B E T T E R A R G U M E N T.
CATEGORIES PRO/FOR CON/AGAINST
FREEDOM
RELIGION/MORALITY
ECONOMICS
ENVIRONMENT
CONVENIENCE
APPEARANCE
SAFETY
HEALTH

23. WRITING THE THESIS Essay #2

24. YOUR THESIS
In this case, your working thesis will be your
position on William Pickens’s statement and
your reasons for your belief: Do you agree with
him or not? Why or why not? You may refer to
Pickens or not in your thesis.

25. TONI MORRISON
1931-
 To n i M o rri s on wa s bo rn i n Lo ra i n
Oh i o . Sh e i s t h e a ut h o r o f s eve n
n ovels, a pl ay, a n d a wo rk o f
l i te rar y c ri t i c i sm. „ „ Re c i t i t af‟ ‟ i s h e r
o n l y publ i s h e d wo rk o f s h o r t
fi c t i o n. Si n c e 1 9 87 s h e h a s fo c us e d
m a i nly o n w ri t i n g but h a s a l s o
t a ug h t c l a s ses a t Ya l e a n d
P ri n c eton Un i ver sit ies .
 M o rri so n i s o n e o f t h e m o s t l ove d
a n d re s pe c te d w ri te r s o f t h e l a te
t we n t i et h c e n t ur y. Seve ra l o f h e r
bo o k s h ave be e n be s t s e lle r s, a n d
s h e i s t h e re c i pi e nt o f a n um be r o f
pre s t i gious l i te ra r y awa rds . In 1 9 9 3
M o rri so n wa s awa rde d t h e N o be l
P ri z e fo r Li te ra t ure , be c o m i ng t h e
fi r s t Afri c a n Am e ri c an to w i n t h i s
h o n o r.

26. HOMEWORK
 Reading Morrison: “Recitatif.”
 Post #10: Write a paragraph defending passing.
Try to come up with at least three reasons. Write
another paragraph condemning passing using
another three reasons.
 Post #11: QHQ "Recitatif"
 Use evidence from our readings to support your
reasons.