Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to resemble, to ‘pass’ as.

1946		Big Maceo ‘Maceo’s 32-20’ lyrics] I ain’t no bully and I don’t go for the baddest man in town.
1947		S.C. Adams Jr. interviewee q. in Adams Thesis in Gordon & Nemerov Lost Delta Found (2005) 285: Well the Wards’ father was white and their mother is part white, but the kids go for colored around here, and when they is away I’ve heard they sometimes goes for white.
1957		A. Wilson A Bit Off the Map 1: I’m well made all right. I could go for a model if I wanted.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 475/1: since ca. 1920.

2. (US black) to agree to behave, and to behave, with regard to each other and others, as though connected by a familial relationship which does not otherwise exist, e.g. going for brothers, posing as brothers to the outside world and treating each other as such, or, of a relationship, to claim it is something else, to pretend one doesn’t have greater feelings, e.g.going for cousins, of an intimate heterosexual couple, claiming they do not have a sexual interest in each other.

1967		E. Liebow Tally’s Corner 166: The most common form of the pseudo-kin relationship between two men is known as ‘going for brothers.’ This means, simply, that two men agree to present themselves as brothers to the outside world and to deal with one another on the same basis.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: going for a pseudorelationship in which two persons agree to present themselves and act toward each other in this relationship; e.g. Going for brothers is a special friendship between two men. Going for cousins may be a heterosexual relationship in which the parties disclaim a romantic or sexual content in their relationship.