Suzanne Morris
Passing in Chicago...Then and Now
1929
Irene and Clare shared a
dangerous secret
on that August day when
they encountered each other
after many years
of separation
in the rooftop dining room of
the luxurious Drayton hotel.
As they sipped iced tea among
the other women patrons
sprouting like hothouse orchids
from discreetly distanced tables,
each took measure of how
the other had succeeded
in concealing the truth
of her racial identity–
one here in Chicago, the other
in New York.
Clare was half-black,
her complexion so pale
you would never guess
while Irene–darker and
somewhat exotic looking–
had more reason to fear
the indignity of
being discreetly escorted by
a stiff hotel attendant
back out onto the
sizzling pavement
she was desperate to escape.
Though neither Clare nor Irene
would be exposed that day
their shared secret would
entangle their destinies
leading one to destroy
the other by the story’s end.
2024
Kamala Harris for President
supporters
arriving at the high entrance doors
of the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons
during the week of the
Democratic National Convention
were about to enter into
the intoxicating atmosphere
of real-life luxury and status:
each hotel a five-star jewel in
Chicago’s towering skyline
with a panoramic view of
Lake Michigan
where lobbyists and job seekers
tagged governors and senators
in the gilded hallways
and wealthy donors and top fund-raisers
dreaming of ambassadorships
worked their charms on
key campaign officials.
Meanwhile, right-wing
provocateurs
claimed to have traced the family tree
of Harris’s Jamaican father
and discovered that the
African American Vice President
who has generated enthusiasm
not seen since Barack Obama
was not really Black,
but only passing as a
descendant of the enslaved
in order to burnish a
political story
they were plotting to end
well short of the White House.
1929 After the novel, PASSING, by Nella Larsen, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1929; film produced by Rebecca Hall, 2021
2024 “As Democrats Convened, Hotel Lobbies Doubled as Halls of Power,” by Michael D. Shear and Theodore Schleifer, and “The Black Identity in Harris’s Jamaican Roots,” by Brent Staples, The New York Times, 8/24/24
