Colorful Cultures: Literature And Race, By Toni Morrison

Race and racism more specifically have been the subject of extremely controversial and volatile discussions in many forms of coverage such as social media, history, and literature. The history of slaves and the violent treatment of African-Americans have been blanketed and hidden away under the mattress of white supremacy. Anything that remotely makes someone "uncomfortable" is dismissed or sugarcoated rather than openly talked about. Literature, however, has the power to introduce and shine like upon the delicate subject of racism without revealing it like an open wound. In John Sutherland's piece “Colourful Cultures: Literature and Race,” he says that literature has the ability to force discussions about race and uses it to explore black …show more content…
Morrison insists on maintaining a difference between being African and being American instead of just embracing her identity fully (Sutherland 233). His vision, however, is to “explore black identity creatively” and “to dive into it, that is, rather than float above and forget it” (Sutherland 233). Wolfe also targets self-loathing and unacceptance of African-American identities. An example shown by Sutherland would be Philip Roth, an author that hid his African American identity to achieve a higher education. He chose to be a white classicist rather than his true race (Sutherland 230). In “The Hairpiece,” the woman is torn between the natural curly afro or the long straight mane. The root of this argument is that African-American women attempt to assimilate by taming their hair to look whiter because they view natural hair as unattractive. According to Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana Byrd and Lori L. Tharps in 15th century Africa, hairstyles indicated marital status, age, religion, ethnicity, and wealth (qtd. in. Jacobs-Huey 1). According to a study done by anthropologist Lanita Jacobs-Huey, she says that hair represents a transition into different ideological stances, professional statuses and phases of life (Jacobs-Huey 5). Wolfe critiques and questions the purity of African-American culture as it feels like it is still being constrained by white American domination. Another example would be in the Exhibit “Symbiosis,” where a wall Street executive known as The Man attempts to diminish his Afrocentric identification by throwing away his cultural belongings. According to The Man, “being Black is too emotionally taxing” and chooses to escape to the white world and only come back for weekends and holidays (Wolfe 36). Wolfe tells the audience that African-Americans are still caught up with white expectations