The section in Chapter 3 in Deborah Gray White’s Too Heavy a Load about light-skin black women being able to pass as white and the reactions that these women had within black organizations such as NACW. I noticed how much of the discourse surrounding white passing and the backlash received from both darker-skinned black women and white people is very similar to modern day trans passing discourse.
	For starters, white passing black women such as Mary Church Terrell were often propped up by the community to serve in prominent leadership roles in organizations for fears of dark-skinned women coming across as more threatening to white feminists, which angered a lot of darker-skinned black women who felt that this ignored their concerns and perpetuated colorism and stereotypes about negative darker-skinned black women since they weren’t allowed to be seen as activist types. This is similar to nowadays where many of the more prominent transgender activists are conventionally cis-passing while trans people who do not pass as well or who are gender non-comforming are not often given as prominent speaking roles within the community or media representation.
	Also, both the colorism that darker-skinned black women faced within black organizations and the disdain some darker-skinned black women had towards white passing black women are similar to dynamics currently facing the trans community. For example, the colorism darker-skinned women faced from lighter-skinned women are similar to the ways that transmedicalists look down on trans people who either choose not to medically transition can not transition due to concerns of safety or financial stability. Conversely, there has been a smaller pushback against conventionally passing trans people from non-conventionally passing trans people that is similar to the ways that some darker-skinned women harbored distrust for lighter-skinned women for trying to “act white”. A very small subsection of the trans community has argued that medically transitioning and trying to pass are transphobic because they are conforming to cisnormative standards for gender.
	Finally, the concerns that white people had that light-skinned black women that passed as white were trying to infiltrate white spaces and were seen as threatening are similar (albeit different because white passing women were not white whereas transgender women are women) to trans-exclusionary radical feminists viewing trans women in women’s spaces, especially transgender lesbians in lesbian spaces, pose a threat to cis women.