“Wait is she Black?”: Unsuccessful Racial Passing in Tiffany D. Jackson’s The Weight of Blood

Abstract

In this thesis, I analyse Tiffany D. Jackson’s young adult novel The Weight of Blood (2022) as a neo-passing narrative that interrogates and problematises the neoliberal colour-blind ideology and the idea of post-racial society. I study these elements through the biracial character, Maddy Washington, while analysing her existence in a liminal space as well as how the aftermath of her failed racial pass challenges the colour-blind ideologies of her hometown, Springville. To offer a better analysis of the novel, I also discuss the race formation in the United States, and how race is understood. My analysis, then, is divided into two sections. First, I examine Maddy’s intimate connections with her heritage and explore why achieving a white passing identity is unattainable for her. This analysis draws upon W.E.B. Du Bois’s concepts of the “colour line” and “double consciousness,” elucidated in his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk. Furthermore, I incorporate studies on biracial identity development and delve into the complexities of passing, challenging conventional understandings of identity. Second, I focus on the broader implications of Maddy’s racial passing and its revelation of a society that pretends to be post-racial. In parallel, I draw upon the insights of scholars such as Michael Omi and Howard Winant and other social scientists to further study the dynamics of race formation, black-white racial hierarchies, and the persistence of colour-blindness within contemporary American society. I examine that, like other passing narratives, Maddy’s pass signifies the futility of racial categories and the racial black-white binary. As I probe, her imposed white identity remains unattainable for her, because a successful racial pass is always dependent on the very same racial binary it seemingly rejects.