I don't know what to think...

So, I just finished reading Passin' by Karen Quninones Miller a few days ago and I am officially stuck. I don't now what to think or what to say. I know the thoughts that the idea of passing brings to my mind. I've had them before, I've thought about them when reading other books about the same act, though they are in different contexts. In this instance, its in today's time. This century, 2007-2008 to be exact and, for me, the idea of a black person making the conscious decision to pass, for whatever reason, stumps me mentally. Partially because I have truly not thought of a person opting to do that in today's time. I, like many of us, would like to think that the time where passing is needed has passed. We, as a race, don't face many of the issues in today's world that many of our parents grandparents and great grandparents faced. We can shop and try on clothes without being forced to buy them if we touch them. We can use the same public facilities as other races. We aren't forced to take on menial and often times manual labor jobs to support our families because of the color of our skin and what that implies for today society. Is it a perfect society? No. There are many faults that still exist, some by the thoughts of others and some by the thoughts of other African Americans. I'm also stumped because I truly cannot fathom denying, or taking the risk of having to deny, my family. I can't imagine taking the 1st gift my parents gave me, my name, and changing it to fit into someone else's mold of what a more proper, non-ethnic, name would be. Something that would otherwise be seen as so trivial, made such a difference in the story. The change of a name from Shanika, to Nikkie, to Nicole is a big step to being disassociated from those who raised you and loved your light, bright, damn near white tail from birth. So, those are a couple of the reasons why this book has stumped me. Not to mention that it ends so incompletely. I'm hoping there's a sequel somewhere because I was looking for more story...not the reading group discussion questions on the last page. But anyway, I'm still pondering this. Even as I read another book in my collection, I'm trying to make this book, which was a good read, make sense to me. I just can't imagine a black woman today, no matter how white she may look, choosing to pass. Especially when looking at the character in the book, who never hesitated to tell people as she was growing up that she was not white, she was black, born to 2 black parents. I just can't picture it. Probably because I've never encountered it personally. I've heard stories of people passing. I've heard of and read about the fear they always had of being found out, and in the days where there was no plastic surgery to hide the more ethnic features, that was a constant fear. The isolation that many of them felt after choosing, not to leave, but to abandon their families and relocate to keep the farce alive. I've heard it all. But none of it occurred in 2007. Heck, none of it occurred in 1987! I guess the sign of a good literary encounter is how long you think about it after the reading is done. If that is the case, this book is better than I thought it was...and I thought it was good, except for the ending. I do need to watch "Imitation of Life." I've never seen it. Never thought about seeing it. Its really not my kind of movie. But after reading this book, I think I need to have a seat and see how it goes. It's amazing, I never thought about the other passing story lines I've read so much as I have this one. But they were all set in the time between post slavery and pre-civil rights movement America. Are there more books out there based on this subject set in the time of the 21st century? I need to look into that as well.