Caucasia

In the book Caucasia, by author Danzy Senna, the struggles of two racially mixed children are portrayed within the first chapters. Young Birdie who resembles more of her white mother is put into a culture shock at an early age because of the era which she had no choice but to be brought up in. I found this an interesting topic to talk about while in class that day because as a Racially mixed child myself i could somewhat relate to the problems and challenges young Birdie along with her sister Cole are presented with during their young lives. I truly found Birdies issue more of an interesting topic because of her longing to pass as black even though her racial features would not allow her to do so at all. Senna describes Birdie trying to be so much like her sister but the fact that she was white like her mother made her stand out from all that her sister would do. Cole the older sister of Birdie also faced the same problem as she would try to pass for a race. Although, in Cole's case she could pass for the black race as she wanted to but at the same time should could never forget the race of her mother who was White.
One could see how much Cole resented having a white mother when Senna describes a trip to the supermarket , where Cole is seen to be a bit more distant than Birdie. This truly allowed me to see the troubles one may face as they are brought up with two separate races. My thoughts upon this whole situations would have to be one that questions how do you keep yourself from drifting towards one race more than the other and is that truly possible. As I have seen within this book, I can easily see a person abandoning one race for another. This is because the longing everyone has to fit in with the race that will accept them the most. This was even mentioned in the book as Birdies mother and father, Deck and Sandy, argue before their big break up. Sandy alolowed this to be visible as she says "Come off it, Deck. I mean, I guess the school makes sense with Cole. But Birdie? Look at her sometime, really look at her. Try to see beyond yourself and your Goddamn history books. She looks like a little Sicilian." I believed this arguement brought a valid point to the book because within these words, the idea of race being such an important factor in life was perpetuated. Race which is how people are categorized based on features plays the most important part in this book due to the searching for ones true identity in the pages. However, I am excited to see how much of an impact the confusion of identity within race plays off in the rest of this book.