Pinky demonstrates the ambiguity that can be present in race as well as the meaning the language of race projects into nonracial ideas. The protagonist must change her name from Pinky to Patricia when she receives an education in the North, because Patricia is a more “white” name than Pinky. Furthermore, the difference between how white men treat Pinky when they first meet her and when they find out she is black is very palpable—the white police officers who immediately go from calling her “ma’am” to manhandling her, and the white men go from offering her a ride to attempting to assault her. While so many treat race as a sort of concrete and unmistakable identity, Pinky shows that race can be ambiguous in terms of both appearance as well as actions. Deviations from stereotypes in which certain ways different races “should” look or act can be startling, and this is shown in the immediate shifts in the white men in the movie as well as today.
Pinky’s decision to return home after Tom’s proposal also portrays a central part of her identify. It would have been entirely possible to continue passing and never reveal that she is black—or, for that matter, forgo the trial immediately as Tom told her that they could still have a life together—but instead, Pinky chose to return home and continue with the trial. Pinky’s decisions indicate that even though she passes, blackness remains a central part of her identity. It is a part of her identity that she is not willing to erase completely.