Commentary: What exactly is ‘Passing’? A film brings to light a historical conversation deeply buried in American culture

Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut, “Passing,” now streaming on Netflix, strikes at the core of the divisive argument about race in mainstream American culture. Adapted from Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen’s work of the same name and set in 1920s New York City, the film’s examination of “passing” reaches deep into a buried racial history specific to America and vital to our understanding of race in today’s cultural moment.

So what exactly is “passing,” and what is its buried racial history?

“Passing” is grounded in a complex net of laws created over