I read the article “The Open Secret of Anti-Mom Bias at Work” by Katherine Goldstein which focused on the idea of “covering”. This article highlighted the struggles of mothers in their working environment. Women with children are regularly seen as “less competent and committed to their jobs” (Goldstein) This discrimination causes the mothers to “cover” there true identity in order to have equality at work. Women may be more inclined to cover their family status because “they have families to support, have more to lose, and maybe less willing to jeopardize their current jobs or professional status by speaking out” (Goldstein). The other article called “My Daughter Passes for White” by Seema Jilani touches on the idea of “passing.” The author identifies as a Muslim Pakistani-American with a daughter that is primarily White. Jilani stuggles with the fact that his daughter doesn’t have to go throught the same issues as he did in school because of her white apperance. The author descibes his past experience in school where he tried to “pass” in order to feel normal. Jilani descibed, “My great-aunt, adorned in a colorful sari, waves goodbye to me while the entire school bus looks on…I scoff and loudly tell my classmates, ‘That crazy lady is just my maid.” This story is an example of “passing” because Jilani tried to relate to the other kids at his school by playing it off his great aunt as a maid.
The article you read by Seema Jilani about the Muslim Pakistani-American passing for white reminds me a lot of “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah. I’m not sure how much you know about him or the book but in his childhood he talked about how the teachers and even other students didn’t know whether to accept him as a black or white kid.