Makayla Rippy

Phillips

English 101

13 February 2016

Internalized Racism: The Leash Between Black Parents and Their Children

Although America has progressed substantially from slavery days and institutional segregation, racism and discrimination are still very present, even decades after the abolition of slavery. Toni Morrison's "Sweetness," which is set in a time period where discrimination is common (1890s), shows exactly how deeply institutional racism has infiltrated African American homes. More specifically, the systematic racism against them during that time period caused members of the black community to be ashamed of darker skin variations of their own race, made to believe the idea of "the lighter the better." Because of this trickle-down, racist brainwashing, black parents found themselves raising their children in a destructive way that lowered their self-worth to meet the value placed on them by society. 

From the very beginning of the story, Sweetness is in an argumentative mode, assuring the "you" character that "it [wasn't her] fault," and that the blame could not be placed on her because she "didn't do it and [had] no idea how it happened." The diction of the first few sentences allows one to almost hear Sweetness's desperate desire to inform the reader that what she has done is a result of some other undeclared force. She also seems to repeat herself, leaving a resounding imprint on the reader's mind that indicates that this blame is an extremely important element that the author wants to be remembered throughout the read. Sweetness addresses the "you" character again, defending herself from receiving blame for her actions, but delves deeper into the cause for her sense of internalized racism towards her own daughter. She admits, or at least acknowledges the idea that segregating themselves by color is a bad thing, but counters the idea with a question -- "How else can we hold on to a little dignity?" She then goes on to describe acts of racism they were forced to endure that concludes with what Sweetness seems to despise the most-- name-calling. The sentence structure of this paragraph alone is an element used to express black experiences, namely the fact that Morrison chooses not to break up the many racist acts into chunks and rather lists them along endlessly, forcing the reader to take on the weight of their countless burdens in a single, lengthy sentence. This structure choice also causes the narrator's last sentence about name-calling to be emphasized because of its drastic difference of length -- which possibly lets the reader know that this is Sweetness's biggest reason for "protecting" Lula Ann from the outside world: that her being a bad parent is due to the oppression forced on her by the white community. In the second half of the first paragraph, the reader is shown the long-lasting effects of internalized racism by displaying more than one generation of people whom are ashamed of their own race. She discusses the fact that her grandmother "passed for white, married a white man, and never said another word to any one of her children," and that she even sent "any letter she got from [her children  ... ] right back, unopened." Yet, despite the fact that this seems shocking and negligent, Sweetness treats it as if it is normal and that her grandmother is lucky to have been able to have the looks to do such a thing. If one were to take a step back and analyze the generations portrayed in this one paragraph, it is quite visible that there is a strain between each one. Her grandmother declares to be white, her mother: black, herself: white, and her child: black. The effects of the society around them has caused the entire generations of family to basically ignore one another, due to the different shades of their skin -- thus why there is a strain between mother and child when Sweetness discovers that Lula Ann wants to embrace how dark she is. 

By only reading into the story for a few paragraphs, it is made obvious that Morrison has cleverly given the narrator the name of "Sweetness" as a show of irony. Although her intentions are sweet, her way of going about them is completely toxic for a child. From the very beginning, she uses negative racial terms to describe her own daughter, such as "Tar, blue-black, pickaninny," and even saying that she "couldn't see past all that black to know who [Lula Ann] really was and just plain love her." It is clear by such word choice that she herself is disgusted with the color of her skin from the very beginning, to the point where she even "held a blanket over her face and pressed," unable to do it "no matter how much [she] wished [Lula Ann] hadn't been born with that terrible color." Morrison uses the attempted murder of a child to shock the reader, and also to reiterate how deeply internalized that racism was in Sweetness's mind. This is one of the sentences that seems to stick out, important because without it, the reader wouldn't see just how strongly Sweetness feels about preventing her daughter from getting the scrutiny that would surely come from how dark she was. It was a sad truth to the fate of African American children of that time period. As Lula Ann began to grow up, her mother decided that she had to "be careful, very careful in how she raised her," and "strict, very strict." The repetition here is obvious, in which Morrison literally repeats these two phrases in a way that almost lets the reader feel how Lula Ann might have felt with Sweetness reiterating the same things over and over again in order to "protect her" from the world that she did not understand. This kind of parenting continued into Lula Ann's teenage years, in which her mother argues that she "had to be even tougher," by doing things such as "[warning] her about the names she'd be called." What seemed to set her off, or make her "slam the lid" on her daughter, is set apart in its own sentence just after a string of bad behaviors, which said that "when [she] braided" Lula Ann's hair, "she would go to school an unbraid it." The stand-alone sentence structure shows just how much Sweetness despised the fact that Lula would symbolize her desire for freedom by unbraiding her hair and letting it be natural. Unfiltered. She had no desire to appropriate herself, even as a child, and her untamed hair is a genius symbol of that portrayed by the author.   

Perhaps what is most difficult to decipher is whether or not Lula Ann's success in her life is because of Sweetness's parenting, or in spite of it. It is clear that with all the strict parenting, neglectful behavior, and constant warnings that could only have brought Lula Ann down, that there was no room for any kind of maternal love. The fact that "as soon as she could, [Lula Ann] left [her mother] all alone" is pure proof of that. Her free-spirited nature as portrayed when she is a teenager and also the fact that she was "striking. Kind of bold and confident. [ ... ] using her [skin] to her advantage in beautiful white clothes" gives the reader a feeling that Lula Ann has simply overcome the oppression of her own mother's internalized racism and made a life of her own on her own. However, one could also argue that Sweetness's teachings are what allowed Lula Ann to make it so far, such as knowing to "cross the street and avoid white boys." Things like this seem oppressive but in their time, it appears as though this could have been good advice -- because society placed such a low value on people of color that a white man's word would beat out a black woman's any day. Either way, Sweetness expresses that she is "proud as a peacock" to see that her daughter is "a rich career girl," despite the fact that the credit for such a result is difficult to place. 

The story takes a full circle, and Morrison draws us in to the same accusation she made in the beginning, about the blame belonging to the institution, and not the African American mother. After the revelation of Lula Ann's pregnancy, there is foreshadowing with Sweetness's last few words of warning -- "You are about to find out what it takes, how the world is, how it works, and how it changes when you are a parent." She has basically reiterated Morrison's entire point of this story -- that it is not the parent that purposely drains away the childhood of her offspring in hindrance. Rather, it is the systematic racism trickling down from society until it infiltrates the parental mindset, causing them to place cruel but necessary oppressions on their children to protect them from the horrors of their racist society.
