Addressing the Influence of White Prospective and Black Culture on American Society
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison talks about the impact of white beauty ideals on the black community, while in Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates breaks down a return to African reverence and beauty in the black community.
Toni Morrison provides an extended depiction of the way in which internalized white beauty standards disfigure the lives of black girls and women. Morrison dives into the influence of white beauty standards on black culture when she transfigures Pecola’s character into a symbol of the beauty and internalized suffering that marks the lives of black people. Pecola also symbolizes the hopes and fears of her community during the 20th century in Lorain, Ohio. Pecola’s black community dumps all their “waste” (Morrison 205) onto her because they see her as a convenient scapegoat: the blackness and ugliness that other members of her community fear reside in themselves are rather being attributed to her. Instead of neglecting the “waste” (Morrison 205) that Pecola’s community dumps on her regarding their opinions on her beauty, she absorbs it and breaks down her image as a black girl. However, Claudia also expresses Pecola as a paragon of beauty, although she emphasizes the ugliness of Pecola: “all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us” (Morrison 205). Pecola’s character is beautiful because she is a human being, but her beauty is invisible to the people in her community who equate beauty with whiteness. The hatred from Pecola’s community causes her to resort to a need for the possession of blue eyes in order to replace the negativity in her life with affection and true love: “A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes” (Morrison 174). Morrison expresses that with aspects of white culture comes a sense of realization and respect that is inherently instilled in the actions and mindsets of black people such as diminishing the image of black beauty and culture.
On the contrary, Ta-Nehisi Coates emphasizes the protection of and return to an African view of the black body which is continually benefiting white American society and its “Dreamers”. Coates elaborates on the lineage of racism from early American history when blacks were enslaved on cotton plantations to present-day America where black bodies are always under threat and surveillance. The humanity of blacks is continually denied by white society in order to protect their false “American Dream”: “They have forgotten the scale of theft that enriched them in slavery; the terror that allowed them, for a century, to pilfer the vote; the segregationist policy that gave them their suburbs” (Coates 143). However, Coates would argue that the humanity of blacks is the very reason why white society can thrive and use the “American Dream” as propaganda that encompasses promises of economic prosperity and freedom. Throughout American history, events, such the Civil War, is seen by the American public as legendary and a time to stand up for the injustices of enslaved people. On the other hand, without the inhumane chattel system of enslavement, American nationalists would not have a war to reflect on in American history books. Not even the Period of Reconstruction was able to bring the union together racially but instead enforced white systemic racism even more. Thus, the “American Dream,” which is fostered by white American culture and ideology, has always been sustained by black bodies and always will be. Coates even concludes that “Dreamers” would not be able to dream without the impact of “black power” which can illuminate “all galaxies in their truest colors” (Coates 149). The Dreamers listen to “Billie” when they are enduring “sadness”, “Aretha” when they are “dying”, and “Isley” which “they hum in love” (Coates 149). Coates points out these moments of cultural appropriation to show that although white “Dreamers” made black people “into a race”, the black community has made itself “into a people” (Coates 149). Ta-Nehisi Coates conveys the influence of the black body and black culture on the development of the “Dream” that many American “Dreamers” have believed for years.
Nevertheless, both authors convey the influence of whiteness on beauty standards, the black body, and the role of race in America. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison explores the social construct of racism during the 20th century and its influence on the way the black community views their skin color as ‘ugly’ compared to their white counterparts. In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses African culture and the black body which has influenced the lifestyles and culture of white people throughout history. The authors not only have a clear understanding of the state of racism in America, but they can also relate to their stories because they connect their American experiences as black people in white culture. Both Morrison and Coates elaborate on everything that is wrong with the white culture in America: it is too privileged to realize its faults on setting beauty standards, telling history from a WASP perspective, and belittling the voices of people of color. Ta-Nehisi Coates sums up white culture throughout the world clearly and the state of black culture in it by saying that, “The Earth is not our creation. It has no respect for us. It has no use for us” (Coates 150). Ultimately, this is the reality of black people since the beginning of the Middle Passage to the cruelty of police brutality, which Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates are both able to convey.