Interracial friendships were extremely uncommon in the 1960s. Racial tensions were high with many segregation issues in schools, transportation, housing and more. What could a wealthy white girl have in common with a poor black girl, or a poor white girl with a wealthy black girl? In 1983, Toni Morrison wrote story about two girls—one black and one white—during the 1960s who developed and unusual friendship. While readers are aware that the two girls, Twyla and Roberta, are different races, the author never directly reveals which girl is black and which girl is white. Morrison was intentionally vague in her writing about the girls’ races. The point of Recitatif was not just to tell a story about an unusual friendship, it was to open readers’ eyes to their own personal stereotypes of black or white people. 

The first place for a reader to insert their personal stereotype into this story is within the first two paragraphs when the narrator (Twyla) says of her mother “Every now and then she would stop dancing long enough to tell me something important and one of the things she said was that they never washed their hair and they smelled funny. Roberta sure did. Smell funny, I mean” (Morrison). The narrator refers to Roberta’s race as “they” and implies that they smell funny and never wash their hair. Morrison leaves it up to the reader to decide if “they,” who supposedly smell funny and do not wash their hair, are black or white. Taking place after the somewhat recent end of the era of slavery, I pictured Twyla’s mother as a privileged white woman who still dehumanized black people in her mind and imagined them as dirty, explaining why she said they smell funny and do not wash their hair. This story took place during extremely segregated times when nearly every public service was separated into black or white, such as public pools: “Public swimming pools regularly excluded black bathers or relegated them to special “colored” days, often draining and refilling pools that blacks had used” (Sugrue). This quote from T.J Sugrue’s article "Northern Lights: The Black Freedom Struggle Outside the South" demonstrates how white people saw black people as dirty. They could not stand to be swimming in the same water that black people were swimming in, so the pools had to be drained and refilled for them. The attitudes of those who wanted the public pools drained and refilled are similar to Twyla’s mother’s attitude about Roberta’s race. In this case, my knowledge of the way white people treated and spoke about black people during the 1960s caused me to form my own stereotype and immediately believe that Twyla was white and Roberta was black, even though Morrison never tells readers that.

The second place that many readers will insert a personal stereotype is when Twyla, the narrator, is talking about how her and Roberta get F’s in school: “And Roberta because she couldn’t read at all and didn’t even listen to the teacher” (Morrison). Many readers, (shamefully) myself included, will immediately jump to the conclusion that because Roberta cannot read, she is black. There are many TV shows, movies and songs in today’s culture which portray black people as lazy and uneducated. Even though this is certainly not the case for all black people, and it could be the case for people of any race, many people believe this stereotype to be true just because the TV shows, movies and songs may be the only exposure to black people that they have had. In David Jason Child’s article "“Let’s Talk About Race”: Exploring Racial Stereotypes Using Popular Culture in Social Studies Classrooms," he discusses a few commonly held stereotypes: “racial prejudices which often stem from stereotypes perpetuated in popular culture that portray African Americans as lazy, violent and unintelligent” (Child). Many of today’s rap artists’ music contributes to the way my generation thinks about black people, and the way readers of Recitatif might jump to conclusions about Twyla and Roberta’s races in this part of the story.

At this point in the story, most readers have made their decision on which girl is which race. I thought that Twyla was white and Roberta was black, until the girls’ third encounter post-orphanage, at the protest. Twyla drives by Roberta and other mothers protesting and asks Roberta what she is protesting for: “"What do you mean, 'What for?' They want to take my kids and send them out of the neighborhood. They don't want to go." "So what if they go to another school? My boy's being bussed too, and I don't mind. Why should you?"” (Morrison). During the 1960s, when this story took place, white people were clearly not okay with black people being around them, hence all of the segregation. Twyla did not even seem phased by her son being bussed to a different school, while Roberta was up in arms about it. It would make sense that a black mom would be okay with her white son being sent to an all white school, because all most black people in this time period wanted was integration. It would make sense that a white mom would be upset about her white son being sent to an all black school, because most white parents did not want integration, as Sugrue says in his article: “At the same time, even small-scale efforts to desegregate schools met with intense opposition from white parents, and large-scale efforts to desegregate schools by busing was met with massive white resistance” (Sugrue). In this case, many readers may get confused as their personal/historical stereotype tells them something that may contradict what they previously thought about the races of the girls. 

As a reader continues to progress in the story, their stereotypes either confirm or continues to confuse what races the girls are. Some readers had a clear decision made in their mind as to which girl was white and which girl was black. But other readers, like myself, ended this story still thoroughly confused and unsure about the matter. Toni Morrison’s main purpose of Recitatif was to give readers a wake up call to how they think about the opposite race. Personally, reading this made me feel racist and I got mad at myself for jumping to conclusions due to current cultural stereotypes in my cultural moment. Readers over generations will have different opinions on whether Twyla is white and Roberta is black, and vice versa. How readers see these girls all depends on their current cultural moment, and as culture changes every day, especially in today’s society of racial tension within the black lives matter movement and the current election, this story’s message will be timeless. Morrison purposely made the races of Twyla and Roberta vague so that readers of Recitatif would become aware of their prejudices and stereotypes. 
