What does it mean to pass? In Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half, Nina Simone’s “Four Women,” and Doechii’s “Black Girl Memoir,” passing is more than a disguise–it is a doorway to freedom. Whether it be Stella, Jude, Peaches, or Doechii herself, each work points to one truth: passing is freedom.

Who is Black? William Darity Jr. proposes this question in his article “Passing and the Costs and Benefits of Appropriating Blackness,” where he delves deeply into the concept of passing–not the passing of black to white that is ingrained in our history–but rather passing into Blackness.