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In her book A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, Allyson Hobbs delves into the personal histories of light-skinned African-Americans who, because of their fair complexions and social circumstance, were able to "pass" as white. Code Switch's Karen Grigsby Bates spoke with Hobbs who explained that, in the past, passing was really a group effort that involved the complicity of a person's family and community. We wondered what passing means now, not just for African-Americans, but for others who want to live beyond the social boundaries of group identity.

Passing today, many folks explained, was less about accurately identifying themselves as one race versus another, but rather giving other people one identity to wrap their minds around.

[View the story "Twitter Recap: What Does Racial "Passing" Look Like Today?" on Storify]

Three different themes came up in our discussion:

People choosing to pass, depending on the situation.

People who identified as multiracial sometimes presenting one aspect of their multi-ethnic heritage, while being encouraged to hide others.

Strangers assuming that a person has a racial identity that they don't have.

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates Yes, one passed to play professional baseball during segregation.

— Sonya Alexander (@wordslinger1) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch in Italy my Iranian family passed as Italian. In Spain nobody thought we were Spaniards. In Germany we were seen as Turkish,

— sabuki (@srsos) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch which is why we left. In the states, it was easier to situationally pass for white when I was younger.

— sabuki (@srsos) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates Me and my siblings were raised to pass and not disclose having a biracial Dad or a Jewish mother.

— Lillian Cohen-Moore (@lilyorit) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates i was at the gym and a woman started talking to me in Spanish. I answered in English and she was offended. +

— Anna Lynn Martino (@annalynnmartino) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates + then she asked "Aren't you Mexican?" I said "No, I'm Filipina."

— Anna Lynn Martino (@annalynnmartino) October 8, 2014

@CharlesPulliam @NPRCodeSwitch Interestingly, it was my dad (Korean) who wanted to erase Korean identity from his kids.

— /mieszanej krwi (@pointfivekorean) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates @katchow @RadioMirage Passing requires others' perceptions, I think who I am with also reveals my identity.

— Stephanie M Rushford (@SMRushford) October 8, 2014

No, no, I promise: This is not about Derek Jeter. May bats fly down my chimney and trolls enter my door if I inflict any more Derek Jeter farewell upon you. But, of course, I am a sentimental creature, and the player whose name dare not be spoken again did gush forth memories of other grand finales.

I think the most dramatic leavetakings were those accomplished by athletes who made their ultimate bow a championship. Norm Van Brocklin, the Dutchman, led the Eagles over Vince Lombardi's Packers in the NFL title game of 1960, then hung it up. Poor, gruff Van Brocklin would die young but, oh, my, what an exit for an athlete.

And then there was Bill Russell, who left the court forever in 1969 after winning his 11th championship in the seventh game of the NBA finals, beating Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Two basketball coaches, Johnny Wooden of UCLA and Al McGuire of Marquette, not only won the NCAAs in their swansong, but had previously declared this would be their goodbye. I telegraphed Al afterward with just the name of a country-western song he liked: "The girls get prettier at closin' time."

Because an individual sport is the most intimate, perhaps the dearest going-away victory was by Pete Sampras in the 2002 U.S. Open final. Supposed to be a has-been, a second-round loser at Wimbledon, seeded 17th, Pete beat Andre Agassi, then never played again.

And the saddest: Probably a guy you never heard of, Wayne Estes, an All-American basketball player at Utah State. On Feb. 8, 1965, he won his last college game, scoring 48 points. Afterward, Estes stopped at the scene of an accident, and because he was so tall, his head brushed against a downed live wire, and he was electrocuted only hours after his beautiful valedictory.

Ah, but the sweetest goodbye is part of the tradition of wrestling. When Rulon Gardner, who'd won the gold at the 2000 Olympics, only won the bronze in '04, he just sat down, took off his shoes and left them there in the middle of the mat. Hail and farewell.

I was covering Secretariat's last race at Woodbine in Toronto in 1973. After he won, I went down to the finish line and snatched up the very grass where, best I could tell, the supreme champion's hooves had last touched a race track. I stuffed it in my pocket and took it home. Told you I was a sentimental fool.

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Andre Agassi

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Frank DeFord

Every now and then you can see a short story come to life right in front of you.

We were on a train this week while a man in a seat nearby spoke in a voice loud enough to carry above the whoosh of the rails to a man whose name we have changed to Phil, to tell him that the company had deliberated and decided they had to make "a transition" in his department.

Phil was being fired.

And, the man on the phone asked Phil to stay on to help hire and train his successor.

"Now Phil, I don't want you to feel bad about this tonight," he told him. "Go home, talk it over with your girlfriend, have a good night ... " He even added, "I hope we'll always be friends."

I wonder how Phil feels about that ...

The man's tone was considerate. His words may have sounded a little scripted, but he was essentially polite.

It was the setting that made you squirm: firing a man not to his face, but in a mobile phone call; made from a crowded train car; between stops.

At first I felt I shouldn't listen — for Phil's sake. But it was irresistible to hear one side of the dialogue and not try to imagine the drama on the other end: a quick call made by a man from aboard a moving train, and the course of a man's life on the other end is altered utterly.

Traditional etiquette changes with the times, and technology. A short text message declaring love can be as welcome as a poet's sonnet, if they're the right words from the person from whom you want to hear them. There's comfort in the immediacy of receiving a condolence email, Facebook message or a Tweet within just a few hours of the death of a loved one.

But firing a man on a mobile phone in a public setting? I doubt that's in any manual of etiquette or management techniques.

YouTube

"It's a city of strangers. Some come to work, some to play."

I don't know anything more than what we heard. But what my imagination has filled in, the way a short story does, is that the man making the phone call may have been tired of firing people over the last few years. He knew the lines to utter, and the pauses to add; but he didn't look forward to crushing one more person, making them worry about how to pay their rent, get through winter, keep their pride and provide for their family. So maybe the man delayed his grim mission all day until he just couldn't any longer, and had to call at the last moment from a moving train.

We heard just one side of a phone call, and saw just one side of a stranger on a train.

More than 40 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, new national academic benchmarks in reading and math. But the Common Core has become the center of a highly contentious debate nationwide.

Proponents say the Common Core was designed to ensure that children, no matter where they go to school, are prepared to succeed in college or the workplace upon graduation. Opponents argue that many of the standards are not age- or development-appropriate, and that they constrain the ability of teachers to adjust their teaching to their individual classrooms.

In a recent Intelligence Squared U.S. debate, two teams of education experts squared off on the motion, "Embrace the Common Core." In these Oxford-style debates, the team that sways the most people to its side by the end is the winner.

Before the debate, the audience at the Kauffman Music Center in New York voted 50 percent in favor of the motion and 13 percent against, with 37 percent undecided. After the debate, 67 agreed with the motion, while 27 percent were against, making the team arguing for the motion the winner of this debate.

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Those debating:

FOR THE MOTION

Carmel Martin is the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. Before joining CAP, she was the assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the Department of Education, where she led policy and budget development activities and served as a senior adviser to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Prior to coming to the education department, Martin served as general counsel and deputy staff director for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. She also previously worked at CAP as the associate director for domestic policy, and served as chief counsel and senior policy adviser to former Sen. Jeff Bingaman and special counsel to former Sen. Tom Daschle.

Mike Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education-policy think tank. He is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma and co-editor of Knowledge at the Core: Don Hirsch, Core Knowledge, and the Future of the Common Core. Petrilli is also a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and executive editor of Education Next. Petrilli has published opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg View and The Wall Street Journal, and has been a guest on NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, CNN and Fox, as well as several National Public Radio programs. Petrilli helped to create the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement, the Policy Innovators in Education Network and Young Education Professionals.

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Frederick Hess and Carol Burris argue that the Common Core State Standards are untested and overly vague. Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S. hide caption

itoggle caption Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S.

Frederick Hess and Carol Burris argue that the Common Core State Standards are untested and overly vague.

Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S.

AGAINST THE MOTION

Carol Burris has been the principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, N.Y., since 2000. She was named the 2013 New York High School Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the New York State School Administrators Association. In addition to leading her diverse suburban high school, Burris has authored or co-authored three books, as well as numerous journal articles on equity and excellence in schools. Burris is a staunch advocate of school and classroom desegregation. At the same time, she is an outspoken opponent of many of the Race to the Top reforms, including the Common Core. Carol frequently blogs on Valerie Strauss' Answersheet, which appears in The Washington Post.

Frederick Hess, resident scholar and director of educational policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is an educator, political scientist and author who studies K-12 and higher education issues. His books include Cage-Busting Leadership, Education Unbound and Common Sense School Reform. He is also the author of the Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. Hess' work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Educational Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on the Common Core, the role of for-profits in education, education philanthropy, school costs and productivity, the impact of education research, and No Child Left Behind. A former high school teacher, Hess currently teaches at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania and serves as executive editor for the education journal Education Next.

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