the race equilibrium among

8/2/2019 The Race Equilibrium Among

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Amy WilsonENG 102-DLCMay 15, 2004

The Race Equilibrium among African American CultureToni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, explores yet at the same time makes strong /

comments about how society educates us. It teaches us socially acceptable andunacceptable behaviors, it defines standards of beauty, and perhaps most suprisingly, /society also educates us about racism, particularly, in this novel, black on black racismand the degrees to which it exists. Morrison, in her attempt to examine this type ofracism that existed in 1939, uses fictional black characters. However in present-day/America, black on black racism is still exercised and commonly practiced in sports,

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media, film and even right within our neighborhoods. There are many instances in ./which Morrison comments on internalized racism and the forces that can make the


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lifestyles we've come to know today as set apart by the different social classes within arace.

The Breedloves, as I stated earlier, certainly did not breed love. We're given ourfirst look at this lack of breeding when we meet Pecola for the first time. It is autumn,and she is brought by the authorities to the McTeer family because her father has tried.to burn down the family's house. Pecola was not born into self hatred nor was she borna racist. Rather the black on black racism with which she lived was bred -a learn social /behavior, sadly via her very own family and further amplified by society. Pauline ignitesthis acceptance of destruction as a child long before she becomes a Breedlove.Morrison lets us know that Pauline believes she is ugly because she has a deformedfoot for which her general feelings of separateness from her family and unworthiness, ./'she blames. Later we see how Pauline, as an adult, as she is introduced to physicalbeauty's standards as defined by the media, learns to hate her physical appearance to /'an even greater extent and becomes fully absorbed in self hated. She becomes


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golds did not grow. A little examination and much less melancholywould haveproved to us that out seed were not the only ones that did not sprout; nobody'sdid(TBE 3).

Pecola succumbs to society's standards by displaying acts of trying to consumewhiteness. She drinks three quarts of milk from the Shirley Temple cup and eat acountless number of Mary Jane candies-trying to erase her blackness as suggested byJane Kuenz in an article entitled, "The Bluest Eye: Notes on History, Community, andBlack Female Subjectivity." I concur with Kuenz's analysis of the evidence of thisprocess of erasure and replacement throughout the novel. There are many instances in /which the characters does this. For example Mrs. Breedlove finds meaning not in herown family but in her work and caring for a white family. We are reminded how shemisdirects her love and affection toward "the little pink girl" instead of her own children. -/

During the winter season, we are introduced to Maureen Peal and vaguely the "blackboys." The boys, just like Pecola are victims of self-hatred. We see them harassing


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.Geraldine perhaps perpetuated the extreme degree of black on black racism and

self-hatred. She did not allow her children to play with the children inwhich she called"niggers. "

She explained to them the difference between colored people and niggers. Theywere easily identifiable. Colored people were neat and quiet. Niggers were dirtyand loud. He (Junior, Geraldine's son) belonged to the former group: he worewhite shirts and blue trousers; his hair was cut close to his scalp as possible toavoid any suggestion of wool.. .In the winter his mother put Jergens lotion on hisface to keep the skin from becoming ashen. Even though hewas light-skinned, itwas possible to ash (TBE 87).

Moreover we see how Geraldine has fully internalized this racism and she very vividlyadmires the girls from Mobile- ''The come from Mobile. Aiken. From Newport News.FromMarietta. FromMeridian.And the sound of these places in their mouths make youthink of 10ve"(TBE 82).

Similarly, today we see this destructive act of black on black racism in athletes,


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Then I won't be the big Negro in charge for these black people to look up to. I givemoney, but only to white organizations because there is not competition from otherblacks, and that is how I remain the Negro in charge." In refusing to give anything back, -the black football player remains subservient to white interests. NFL Hall of Farner Jim

suggests black college stars should turn to black agents more often when launchingtheir professional careers to show that African American people can have racial unityand that we understand the principles of economics.

TheBluest Eye, as a whole, looks at how whiteness is seen as clean, perfect, pureand how it sets the standards by which beauty is measured. Pecola learns from societythat being white, or at least having blue eyes, equates to beauty. She learns to love thewhite dolls that every little girl wanted. She idolizes Shirley Temple and Temple'sappearance aswith the consumption of the milk in the Shirley Temple cup, and she'sbecomes obsessed with the eyes of the girl on the Mary Jane candy wrapper. Pecola


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funobtainable society's standard of beauty is. There's billboards, advertisements, andeven the toys with which our children play- all playa significant role in educating us.Morrison, titled the novel with the singular of "eye" instead of the plural, to signify hownot only does society set the standards of beauty but is also takes apart from the wholeand looks at the outer beauty rather than the complete person.

Society educates us. Whether it is the models we see on television or on billboards,the toys with which our children play, or as with the Breedloves and Geraldine, our veryown families. The fact remains our society dictates what is truly acceptable beauty and /unfortunately too many of our girls of 2004 can too closely identify with Pecola of 1939with the desire to have "blue eyes."


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Works CitedKuenz, Jane. "The Bluest Eye: Notes on History,Community,and Black FemaeSubjectivity."AfricanAmerican Review.27.3(1993): 421-432.

Morrison,Toni. The Bluest Eve. NY: Penguin Group, 1994.Noel, Peter. "BlacksWhoWon't Give Back."The VillaaeVoice. (NewYork).:May19, 1998,43,20:3 pages.

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