Racial Covering

Racial covering occurs when non-whites “act white” by modulating their behaviors. A useful example of racial covering can be seen in Eric Liu’s memoir The Accidental Asian. Liu follows the statement “Here are some of the ways you could say I am ‘white,’” with the following catalog:

I listen to National Public Radio.
I wear khaki Dockers.
I own brown suede bucks.
I eat gourmet greens.
I have few close friends “of color.”
I married a white woman.
I am a child of the suburbs.
I furnish my condo à la Crate & Barrel.
I vacation in charming bed-and-breakfasts.
I have never once been the victim of blatant discrimination.
I am a member of several exclusive institutions.
I have been in the inner sanctums of political power.
I have been there as something other than an attendant.
I have the ambition to return.
I am a producer of the culture.
I expect my voice to be heard.
I speak flawless, unaccented English.
I subscribe to Foreign Affairs.
I do not mind when editorialists write in the first person plural.
I do not mind how white television casts are.
I am not too ethnic.
I am wary of minority militants.
I consider myself neither in exile nor in opposition.
I am considered a “credit to my race.”

Notice how Liu’s list includes all four of the covering axes: appearance (“I wear khaki Dockers,” “I own brown suede bucks”); affiliation (“I listen to National Public Radio,” “I furnish my condo à la Crate & Barrel,” “I speak flawless, unaccented English”); activism (“ I do not mind how white television casts are,” “I am not too ethnic,” “I am wary of minority militants”); and association (“I have few friends ‘of color,’” “I married a white woman”).

Sometimes individuals resist pressure to cover their race, ethnicity, or national origin by bringing lawsuits alleging discrimination. They routinely lose. Examples of such cases include Rogers v. American Airlines (1981), in which an African-American woman was forbidden to wear cornrows, Hernandez v. New York (1991), in which a Latino potential juror was struck for proficiency in Spanish, and several cases which national origin minorities were fired for lapsing into their native tongues in English-only workplaces.