"Washington's appearance -- her blue-gray eyes, white complexion, and light brown hair -- and her compelling performance in
Imitation of Life led some of her fans to presume that Washington had first hand experience with passing [as a white woman]. Washington explained, "If I made
Peola seem real enough to merit such statements, I consider such statements compliments and makes me feel I've done my job fairly way," but she was clear that
her "private life is in no way similar to that of Delilah's daughter." When the German philanthropist Otto Kahn saw Washington dancing at
Club Alabam in Manhattan and suggested she change her name and pass as French, she responded, "I want to be what I am, nothing else." Washington was often asked why she chose not to pass. She would reply, "Because I'm honest, firstly, and secondly, you don't have to be white to be good. I've spent most of my life trying to prove that to those who think otherwise. ... I am a Negro and I am proud of it." Washington would allow whites to speak disparagingly about African Americans and then shock them with the truth about her racial identity. In the presence of whites who assumed she was white too, Washington remarked, "I give them plenty of rope. . . .
.I let them talk, hang themselves, and then I quietly say, 'I'm Negro.' ""
A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life.
Hobbs, Alyson
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