In “Thrones of their Own” by Roberts addresses the precarious liminal state in which black women exist and must learn to navigate. Roberts describes the white degradation of styles that were considered “too black,” as well as the white criticism of black women “attempting to be white through the use of consumer goods,” (151) as exemplified by Mamie Garvin Fields who was reprimanded by her employer for making herself a dress similar to those that she made for white women, because it threatened the exclusivity of white women’s claim to beauty and respectability. This rhetoric places blackness at the opposite end of the spectrum from white beauty and respectability, suggesting that blackness then embodies opposing values: unattractiveness and
