I've never really understood the concept of white passing in the 21st century (I get the historical purpose though, when being 1/8th or 1/16 black, asian, etc. could significantly change your life). Especially as the Latino population increases in America, the term white passing has been thrown around throughout my life. When exactly though does being "passing" just turn into you being white? For example, I've seen people with 90% European heritage use that term to identify themselves, and I've found that a bit hard to understand. I thought maybe I could atleast get a few good answers on here. I don't mean this in a shady way, and I'm definitely open to hearing other views. 

White passing is Black Americans who decided to live as white. It's a verb.

 

White presenting is more of what you're describing and idk. I usually attribute that to people who are biracial but might not look like their POC side, but with the way White people adopt more grey area appearance choices it's hard to say.

 

 

When twitter activists say so

white passing means you are a black person who aligns & associate themselves closer to whiteness than their own culture.

 

this character flaw is typically found in lightskin black folks. idk why any non-black european would even use that term. 

I thought "white passing" was used in the third-person, referring to someone else who's not white but could easily be mistaken for white by the average person?  Am I the only one?

4 minutes ago, Kurt Hummel said:

I thought "white passing" was used in the third-person, referring to someone else who's not white but could easily be mistaken for white by the average person?  Am I the only one?

I’ve heard it used this way as well. I think it’s important to not be too inflexible with many of these terms. They often don’t have ironclad definitions.

  get educated before posting 

 

11 minutes ago, Kurt Hummel said:

I thought "white passing" was used in the third-person, referring to someone else who's not white but could easily be mistaken for white by the average person?  Am I the only one?

Same

 

Always thought it was someone from a foreign or ethnic group being "white enough" 

 

The term is disgusting from any angle tho

24 minutes ago, Devin said:

white passing means you are a black person who aligns & associate themselves closer to whiteness than their own culture.

 

this character flaw is typically found in lightskin black folks. idk why any non-black european would even use that term. 

It's not a term that is used in Europe, at least to my knowledge, but the sentiment can definitely apply for Europeans from southern Europe/the Mediterranean. There has been a lot of mixing throughout the centuries. I'm Greek but my features look nothing like ppl from central or northern Europe despite my skin tone being similar to theirs and I have cousins whose skin tone is very close to that of a light-skin black person but they have zero African ancestry.

I'm a full Palestinian with very white skin and dark blonde/light brown straight hair and turquoise eyes. Nobody would imagine I 'look' Palestinian or a non-European mostly at that. So I guess that's an anecdote. In a sense if I looked more 'stereotypical' the treatment and experience will differ by quite a bit. 

White passing isn't just referenced for black people. 

I kind of think white passing is just being white and "race" as a concept breaks down quickly when its brought up. No one is thinking of your genetic makeup unless they're an actual scientist or a racist freak.

2 hours ago, TedLasso said:

I've never really understood the concept of white passing in the 21st century (I get the historical purpose though, when being 1/8th or 1/16 black, asian, etc. could significantly change your life). Especially as the Latino population increases in America, the term white passing has been thrown around throughout my life. When exactly though does being "passing" just turn into you being white? For example, I've seen people with 90% European heritage use that term to identify themselves, and I've found that a bit hard to understand. I thought maybe I could atleast get a few good answers on here. I don't mean this in a shady way, and I'm definitely open to hearing other views. 

The reason why it will always be, in American at least, due to slavery there are plenty of black americans who are 100% black American but 50-60% European genealogy. My Great grandparents and grandparents were white passing but have never considered themselves anything other than black and neither should their descendants be forced to either. 

I've heard people say Olivia Rodrigo is white passing, so yeah it's definitely not used just for black people.

22 minutes ago, Acuminatus said:

I've heard people say Olivia Rodrigo is white passing, so yeah it's definitely not used just for black people.

I feel like people use the word white passing for someone that people accept, which is bizarre

 

Olivia Rodrigo will not face discrimination and dating preferences will be in her favour, which leads people to call her white passing, but she doesn't look white

Olivia Rodrigo definitely looks white sometimes. 

1 hour ago, Trent W said:

Same

 

Always thought it was someone from a foreign or ethnic group being "white enough" 

 

The term is disgusting from any angle tho

There's nothing disgusting about the term, it's a simple way to describe someone who's biracial but looks/can be mistaken for white - like Mariah, Olivia, Logic, Rashida Jones, Wentworth Miller, etc. 

 

IMO it "becomes" white when you are 75% or more white like Halsey and Kid Laroi. Halsey going around saying she's a black woman is embarrassing and

I'll never forget when that white Nicki stan tried to say Laroi was a POC when he's like 1/8th indigenous. A mess  
 

 

I once saw someone on Twitter say Michael Cimino from Love Victor was white passing. 
 

if he's white passing then that must make me white passing too.  

14 minutes ago, Saintlor said:

I feel like people use the word white passing for someone that people accept, which is bizarre

 

Olivia Rodrigo will not face discrimination and dating preferences will be in her favour, which leads people to call her white passing, but she doesn't look white

You can see Olivia's Filipino features when you really look but she can pass for a white hispanic just like Mariah. 

 

White passing people very rarely look fully white and always have a feature that gives them away - which is why MJ's kids for example aren't white passing but clearly just white. 

1 hour ago, Kurt Hummel said:

I thought "white passing" was used in the third-person, referring to someone else who's not white but could easily be mistaken for white by the average person?  Am I the only one?

I always thought this too, and I've seen other people use it like that. But I guess we learn something new every day.

7 minutes ago, CaptainMusic said:

You can see Olivia's Filipino features when you really look but she can pass for a white hispanic just like Mariah. 

 

White passing people very rarely look fully white and always have a feature that gives them away - which is why MJ's kids for example aren't white passing but clearly just white. 

what about Mark-Paul Gosselaar? I never knew he was half white thought he was just white

It's usually used to refer to people who are biracial/half or part white. And those people are technically white (Obama for example is a white man just as much as he is a black man, he just isn't "white passing"), but most ppl still subconsciously adhere to the one drop rule

Edited July 4, 20251 yr by Orsay

13 minutes ago, Ryuuchan_X said:

I once saw someone on Twitter say Michael Cimino from Love Victor was white passing. 
 

if he's white passing then that must make me white passing too.  

Found the tweet and omfg, only the first picture in the wife beater one could argue as white passing and it's purely just because of the aggressive natural light in the photo. 
 

the rest, I have to laugh.

 

 

8 minutes ago, Josh said:

what about Mark-Paul Gosselaar? I never knew he was half white thought he was just white

Just checked and his Mom is half Dutch half Indonesian so he's only a 1/4 Asian and falls into the Halsey category.

 

Id consider him white. 

12 minutes ago, CaptainMusic said:

Just checked and his Mom is half Dutch half Indonesian so he's only a 1/4 Asian and falls into the Halsey category.

 

Id consider him white. 

Does Spencer from Pretty Little Liars fall into the Halsey category? her dad is white and her mom is biracial i think