Journal Entry for Linha de Cor
Team Quicksand thought it would be fun to further explode Nella Larsen’s novels by stepping into the Passing game. I read through the introductions and moves through the afternoon of Sunday, November 25 to identify topics to respond to. I was thunderstruck by Brian Redfield’s assertion that the color line doesn’t exist in Brazil. As if! At least I was pretty sure that was an outrageous statement, so I searched my favorite database and found the book The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil, which confirmed that colorism is alive and well in Brazil and was in vogue in the early twentieth century, as well as today.
I used some of the words for Black people from ZNH’s Glossary of Harlem Slang to infuse a little early twentieth century diction into the move.
“Glossary of Harlem Slang by Zora Neale Hurston.” AALBC.Com, the African American Literature Book Club, https://aalbc.com/content.php?title=Glossary+of+Harlem+Slang+by+Zora+Neale+Hurston. Accessed 10 Nov. 2018.
Mitchell-Walthour, Gladys L. “Introduction.” The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil, Dec. 2017, doi:10.1017/9781316888742.001.
Playing Passing | Playing Larsen’s Fiction. https://playingpassing.commons.gc.cuny.edu/games/playing-passing/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2018.