Fredi Washington (IF You Know? Book Excerpt)

“It is the glory of (YAH) God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.”

Proverbs 25:2

This scripture has been impactful in my life, leading me to ask many questions about my experiences.

Fredi Washington was an unexpected person, drawing focus to my family.

I started seeing things in a new way.

Fredi Washington (IF You Know? Book Excerpt)…

I could substitute my aunt’s physicality for Washington in the role of Peola onscreen and it would be believable.

Was there a reason for that?

Was my aunt “light-skinned” or “mixed?”

As my husband and I watched “Imitation of Life,” when Fredi Washington first appeared on camera, I asked him, “Do you think the actress looks white?”

He responded, “Yes.”

This was before I knew her backstory.

Immediately after I asked the question, my husband grabbed his laptop, searched for her bio and confirmed, “Yes, here it is. She was light-skinned.”

And then he read me her life story.

To my husband, to the average stranger, and to myself, viewing my aunt’s appearance, asking that same question, “Do you think she looks white?” again, perhaps, overwhelmingly so, the answer would be a definitive “Yes.”

And there, in my opinion, lies so much of the crux of the issue.

Beyond features and skin colors, to me, the appearance issue is all about how one “presents.”

Presentation, indeed, is supercharged with power and possibility.

If a person “presents” one way, in a particular setting, and a different way, in another, perception, therefore, dictates what happens, either to the individual’s advantage...or disadvantage.

Again, so many conversations with Raqel flooded my mind.

She’d tell me about the “radar” that black people, herself included, possessed when it came to identifying someone who was “passing.”

She told me about encounters with anxious women who clearly were passing, and wanted their secrets kept.

She could have revealed those secrets but chose not to.

She knew- and these women knew she knew.

Their silent exchange happened in seconds.

Raqel recognized she needed to preserve that secret and allow their passing to go undisturbed.

 Copyright © 2025 by Sheryle Cruse