Exploring themes of racialization in “The Vanishing Half”: Is the term “white passing” a useful way for psychotherapists, counsellors and psychological therapists to conceptualise racial identity?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper draws on themes from The Vanishing Half and intersectionality theory to evaluate the usefulness of the term ‘white passing’ for psychological therapists, counsellors and psychotherapists exploring racial identity phenomena in their practice. The context for ‘white passing’ as a historic method for surviving racial injustice is discussed. This will involve consideration of how the systematic invisibility of whiteness has been a cause for harmful racialization of individuals past and present. The conclusion is that ‘white passing’ as a flattened identity label contains dangerous rhetoric about how far racialized individuals are allowed to ‘fit’ into society by those that oppress them.