Toni Morrison's Clues

As a followup to Jess' post about Toni Morrison's racial clues in Recitatif, I too have to agree that I tried to use the girls' names to identify them as either black or white. And I too found myself wondering if this was at all racist on my part. Personally, I thought Roberta was black and Twyla was white from their names. From Jess' experiment, it seems that opinions are split on this matter, however. Maybe this does suggest that racial assumptions are all based on point-of-view, and past experiences in one's life. Even using names or certain clues to stereotype races doesn't necessarily result in one consensus.

Another fact that I thought to myself was an indication of race and indicated that Twyla was actually the black girl, was that her mother 'danced all night.' I too wasn't sure if this was racist of myself to think that possibly the mother of the two girls who 'danced' as a means of making money most likely, was black. However, this assumption is based on past readings that depict black women, in this time period, as objects for mens' eyes and bodies to be pleasured by. I also thought that Twyla's mother could of been a 'dancer' as well, but being a 'well-respected white women', she might not have wanted people to know of her actual job or reason for leaving Twyla at an orphanage, so Twyla's assumption is that her mother is sick. I ask myself and others several questions on a regular basis regarding this issues with race. Referring back to Silent Racism, are these stereotypes that are engraved in our heads a form of racism? Is the abolishment of racism advancing if we still fear that what we say or think will be racist even if it isn't, or if it is simply restating facts from the past? Who determines what a racist comment or thought is?