Senior Portfolio: Critical Essay
By: Alyssa Yoquelet
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries marked a time of change for America as subaltern communities enjoyed new liberties and opportunities to be heard. Women, American Indians, and African-Americans were given access to freedoms that their white male counterparts had experienced for centuries. As the African-American community entered a new age of liberty and opportunity for self-expression, African-American authors addressed themes of colorism and passing and their impacts on African-American culture. Author Dorothy West, in her critically-acclaimed novel The Wedding, poignantly addresses both colorism and passing and the societal shifts in the twentieth century African-American community.
Colorism can be defined as “prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group” (Oxford Dictionaries). Regarding critical race theory, colorism is a natural offshoot of racism. In the African-American community colorism manifests itself in strained relationships between dark and light-skinned African-Americans. While the effects of colorism have not been consistently noticeable, its place in African-American culture and society can be traced back significantly far in American history. For example, white male slave owners would sometimes seek intimate relationships with their female slaves. Though they were often just seeking pleasure, they would typically find the lighter-skinned slaves more attractive and desirable. Fasting forward to post-emancipation era: African-Americans with lighter skin were more likely to be respected and have opportunity for growth and advancement and society, though this was not always true and strong racial prejudice still existed between blacks and whites. Given this history of white preference for lighter-skinned African-Americans, critical race theory points to the idea that African-Americans too adopted a
preference for lighter skin, though this was not unanimous. The effects of colorism on the African-American community are evidenced in much literature of the past two centuries.
Given the preference for lighter-skinned African-Americans in both the African-American community and in the white community, ideas of passing became more common in society and literature. Passing, regarding the African-American experience, dealt with African-Americans who were light skinned enough to pass as white, and therefore enjoy the benefits and privileges of white culture. For some African-Americans, passing was desirable and sought after, as the life it offered seemed better than dealing with the oppression of racism. However, some African-Americans viewed passing as a neglect of African-American culture and heritage. Therefore, passing became a dividing factor within the African-American community as members sought to reconcile the desire to be free from oppression with the desire to maintain attached to their community, culture, and heritage. Passing became a major theme in African-American literature, as its understanding was critical for holistically understanding the African-American experience.
Colorism and passing have had notable effects on the African-American community and the broader American community. The struggle to appreciate different color within their own community created division in the African-American community. Passing also created a rift between those who did and did not want to participate in white culture. The questions raised in the midst of colorism and passing addressed what it meant to be black. Such topics and questions fostered the development of sub-cultures within the African-American community. These different communities had different ideas of what it meant to be black, and what it looked like to be black in the American context. In her article titled “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” Deborah K. King addressed ideas of
dual consciousness in the American experience. Though her article specifically focuses on living as a female and as an African-American, critical concepts within the article can be applied to the dual consciousness of being American and being black. Dual consciousness can seem to be compromised when there are different concepts of color and race, and what constitutes colorism and racism.
The cultural gaps created by colorism and racism are evident within the African-American community. However, ideas of what it means to be black and what it looks like to be black in a white American context different between African-American generations. Older generations sought to preserve African heritage and culture, but as the African and American cultures interacted some African heritage and culture was compromised or lost. For example, Africans coming to America would have had distinct languages, religious practices, and concepts of art. Though some of this was preserved through the diligence and resilience of the people, its significance was harder to translate to African-Americans, especially those born after the emancipation. In his article entitled “Critical Race Theory (CRT),” Gillborn and Rollock state that “While CRT [Critical Race Theory] is centrally concerned with the structures and relations that maintain racial inequality, it does not operate to the exclusion or disregard of other forms of injustice. It is recognized that no person has a single, simplistic unitary identity” (3). This reinforces the idea that different structures and concepts within race are interacting to form subcategories of racism, such as colorism, that create a more complex framework regarding racism. As America moved toward modern and postmodern literature, for example, African-American authors sought to be more in tune with their African heritage. Authors such as Amiri Baraka, previously LeRoi Jones, changed their names and returned to styles of jazz to reflect their culture and true identity as African-Americans. Though generational ideas of what it means
to be black have continually shifted, the African-American community is intent on recalling their history. The question then shifts to address what it means to be black within a certain historical era.
African-American literature has addressed colorism and passing for centuries. Varying styles of literature have addressed the two topics and their impact on the development and growth of African-American society and culture. Charles Chestnutt, an African-American man born in 1858, dealt directly with the topic of passing in his literature. Having been born just prior to the Civil War and dying in 1932, Chestnutt had seen the shifts in African-American culture following the emancipation of slaves and at the turn of the century (McMichael 457). Furthermore, Charles Chestnutt was an African-American man who could pass as white, and his experiences and reflections are often shown in his work. For example, Chestnutt’s short story “The Wife of His Youth” seems to be autobiographical in nature, telling the story of a passing African-American man born just before the Civil War. Chestnutt introduces in the narrative the Blue Veins Society, a group of affluent African-Americans who pass as white and whose character and mannerisms reflect that of white people. As the main character, Mr. Ryder, is a member of the society and is speaking at some significant event, he wrestles between his relationship with a lighter woman and his alleged relationship with a black woman some time before his affluency. Mr. Ryder ultimately recognizes the black woman as the wife of his youth, realizing that his prejudices toward darker-skinned African-Americans had impacted his relationships. Mr. Ryder’s struggle with passing and colorism reflects the thoughts of author Charles Chestnutt. Chestnutt is said to have his “major criticism [reserved] for his novel’s protagonist, who did succeed in passing and who thereafter denied his black heritage” (McMichael 458). Though Chestnutt sought better race relations in the United States, his criticism of passing is evident in much of his literature as he acknowledged the way it could divide African-American society.
Author Dorothy West is also well-known for her addressing of colorism and passing within the African-American community. Writing during the Harlem Renaissance, a time of flourishing arts in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s, West experienced and wrote of the African-American experience, focusing on her personal experiences as well as the broader communal experience. West “explored the aspirations and conflicts of middle-class African-Americans” and explored race relations in America (Britannica). Dorothy West wrote alongside such contemporaries as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Countee Cullen, all who influenced the matter and manner of her writing. West and many other African-American authors also found value in Soviet communism as it supported the end of segregation, and West and other authors even went to the Soviet Union to work on a project. In 1947 Dorothy West moved to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a prominent setting in much of her writing (Britannica). Ultimately, West’s upbringing informed her ideas of African-American community, and what good race relations looked like in America. Her works sought to bridge the gap between white and black America as well as between varying subcultures within the African-American community. West’s work The Wedding, published in 1995, critically addressed issues of racism, colorism, and passing in a contemporary society.
The Wedding takes place in the 1950s at Martha’s Vineyard. Central to the novel is Shelby Coles, whose wedding provides the namesake for the title. The central location is the Oval, a community of affluent African-Americans who have found their place alongside white culture, and have standards regarding race and color. Shelby’s family is light-skinned, and many of them could pass as white. When Shelby decides to marry Meade, a white musician, her family condemns her for choosing something beneath herself and breaking out of the societal norms of the Oval. The narrator comments “But how Shelby, who could have had her pick of the best of breed in her own race, could marry outside her race, outside her father’s profession, and throw her life away on a nameless, faceless white man who wrote jazz, a frivolous occupation without office, title, or foreseeable future, was beyond the Oval’s understanding” (West 4). However, Gram seems to be excited that Shelby wants to marry Meade. Through a sub-narrative the reader learns that Gram was actually white, born on a slave plantation before the Civil War and having lived among black people for much of her life. Though there are several sub-narratives that address the origin of the family and why they care so much about color and affluency, Shelby is the main character and her experiences are central to the plot. The family’s history is characterized by intermingling between white and black and the dominance of white presence in their family. The Wedding ultimately provides a glimpse into late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century African-American life in which African-Americans, whether of their own agency or not, intermingled with white Americans and created a subculture of both African-American and white cultures. West’s The Wedding addresses critical themes of colorism, classism, racism, passing, and familial and social pressure.
Members of the Oval community have about themselves an air of affluency and exclusivity. Despite being African-American themselves, they seemed to have a disdain for African-Americans of darker color. Given their knowledge of African-American history and struggle, one would think they would have a deeper appreciation for their own color and community. However, the narrator notes that in the homes of the Oval darker African-Americans served as nannies, cooks, and servants. When Shelby is lost in the white community, the narrator notes “The other Ovalities would relent, would make a bitter joke, in time even forget in their unceasing effort not to be hypersensitive, a condition of mind which affected that very class of cooks with which they refused to acknowledge anything in common” (West 78). Here West seems to be commenting on classism and colorism within the African-American community and reflecting some of the more middle-class struggles of African-Americans that she would have seen and experienced during her time in Harlem. In positions of affluence, members of the Oval are quick to forget those that may not experience the same success as them, and even degrading them back to positions of servitude. Furthermore, some people who live in the Oval are also members of the Blue Veins Society. As referenced in Charles Chestnutt’s short story “The Wife of His Youth,” the Blue Veins Society was an elite group for members of the African-American community who could pass as white due to their light complexion. The presence of the Blue Veins Society in The Wedding reinforces the separation in the African-American community caused by elitism, passing, and colorism. There is a clear barrier between light and dark-skinned African-Americans in the novel, perpetuated by classist oppression and elite ideas of what it means to be black.
Though Shelby Coles is central to the plot, her sister Liz also has dealt with the condemnation of her family. Liz had already married outside of family standards, but by the time of Shelby’s wedding it seemed the family had moved on. However, varying interactions with Liz provide insight into Gram’s relationship with her black family members. Liz had married a dark-skinned African-American man and had a baby with him named Laurie. Despite shifts in family dynamic and that she was her family, Gram refused to even hold Laurie. Frustrated by Gram’s apparent ignorance, Liz remarked “Gram, stop it! Stop it. Stop it. You make me feel sick. NO matter how white the rest of us are, we’re just as colored as Laurie. It’s your race that says so. Laurie’s no different from me, just darker. The rest of your life would be so much easier if you’d only stop picking the scab off the sore” (West 54). It’s evident that Gram is frustrated by the changes she has seen in her family over the years, reluctant to accept that her grandchildren may not think about things the same way she does. Liz’s comment addresses the racial gap between herself and Gram, as Gram’s idea of what it means to be ‘black’ are informed by her whiteness. Liz’s response implies that black is black, not to be defined by anyone who isn’t and not to be defined by how light or dark one’s skin. Furthermore, this exchange between Liz, Gram, and even Laurie asserts the idea of a generational gap. Gram, having been born before the Civil War, has different ideas of race and family relationships. Gram’s perspective is so clouded by her ideas of race that family relationships cannot outweigh her preconceived notions. Liz, on the other hand, realizes that race is race and family is family and one should not divide the other. Liz’s sentiments reflect the thoughts of her generation in the 1950s, a generation looking toward racial unity and equality.
Furthermore, race and color distinctions are exacerbated when Shelby goes missing outside of the Oval. Just a child trying to find the home of a lost puppy, Shelby ends up finding herself lost in the white equivalent of the Oval community. When her family calls the police and has a report sent out for people to be looking for her, the white community notes that the missing girl is from the Oval and has their mind set on looking for an African-American girl. However, Shelby has several interactions with individuals while she is lost who don’t recognize her to be the missing girl from the Oval. An analysis of the search is presented as follows,
Even the police and the organized volunteers hampered their own painstaking search by coloring their inquiries. For even they did not believe they were searching for a blond-haired, blue-eyed child, just as the two old people on the porch had nothing in their experience to imagine such a phenomenon. Those who knew colored people only as servants and veered from thinking of them as otherwise could not make any association between the posed and lovely child who had brightened their morning and the colored child who had gone and gotten herself lost. (West 63)
This analysis of the search reminds the reader that passing was not understood by the white community, and that prejudices about the black community still stood. Preconceived notions about the lost girl, Shelby, hindered the ability of others to find her. This problem was further exacerbated by Shelby’s not knowing that she passed. Upon being found and returned to her family and community at the Oval, Shelby asked Gram if she was colored, to which Gram responded yes and reminded Shelby that the whole family was colored and that she, Gram, was Gram (West 80). The Ovalite community’s decision to shelter their children from the white community that they viewed as less than deprived the children of understanding their racial and cultural identity, as well as their place in society outside of the Oval. Shelby’s getting lost as a child critically addressed the Ovalite community’s willful ignorance and negligence of addressing life and perspectives different from their sheltered ideal.
Perhaps the most notable comments on colorism and racism in the novel are presented through the different marriages. Liz was looked down upon in her marriage to Linc, for example, because she could pass and he was too dark to be good for her. Shelby, in deciding to marry Meade who was a white musician, was marrying outside of her race and therefore supposedly discrediting her culture and racial identity. These ideas were perpetuated by family, Gram, and the Ovalite community, all who seemed to be at odds with one another regarding ideology. The Coles family ideas on race and marriage were informed by their family history, Gram by her white history, and the Ovalite community by its elitism and ignorance of the mindful advancement of the outside society.
Though West published The Wedding in 1995, its historic context is the 1950s, pre-Civil Rights movement. West’s thoughts and comments on classism, colorism, and passing were poignant in reflecting the attitude of the culture within its historic context. Though critics such as Audrey Elisa Kerr challenge the prevalence of colorism and its role in society in literature, it is evident that West had a strong sense of cultural and generational sentiments and divides. Audrey Elisa Kerr’s article “The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and Motion of Colorism” asserts that colorism has been perpetuated by African-American lore beyond its reality. Whether this is true is hard to say, but Kerr’s article seems to challenge common lore of complexion-based racism and its role in African-American culture and literature. Nevertheless, West paints a vivid picture of its effects or potential effects in The Wedding. West critically addresses the generational gaps and racial gaps evident regarding both colorism and passing, and how those can be exacerbated by willful ignorance. Colorism and passing in African-American culture have played a critical role in its growth toward unity within itself and with the broader American context and are prominent topics of discourse in African-American community and literature.
Alyssa Yoquelet is a senior English Education major with a minor in Christian Education. She is from northeastern Indiana and intends to pursue a teaching career in the same area after graduation. Her writing focuses on literary criticism, analysis, and interpretation. Alyssa finds that exploring literature in this way allows her to experience literature and life more fully. When she is not writing, she is reading, watching movies, and/or petting dogs.
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