Racism Is A Damaging Ideology

Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about

Racist ideology is institutionalized when how people’s interactions reflects on an understanding that they share the same beliefs. However, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the topic of racism is approached in a very unique way. The characters within the novel are subjected to internalizing a set of beliefs that are extremely fragmented. In accepting white standards of beauty, the community compromises their children’s upbringing, their economic means, and social standings. Proving furthermore that the novel has more to do with these factors than actual ethnicity at all.

Slavery, segregation, and discrimination are commonly viewed as some of the primary struggles African Americans contended with. However, in Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eyes, it reveals struggles not commonly discussed about, such as internalized racism within black society and the internal conflict with one’s own blackness. Throughout the novel, characters repeatedly try to consume whiteness as a mean to escape their own blackness. They submerge themselves with the notion that the white, Eurocentric culture is the superior culture, and being white means being beautiful and powerful. In doing so, they gradually disconnect and disassociate themselves from their own African American heritage.

In the novel The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison confirms the existence of racism within the African American community. Unbelievably, many African Americans suffer from what is termed internalized racism. Internalized racism produces the same effect as racial racism: feelings of worthlessness, inferiority, and unattractiveness. In addition, the effect can produce the opposite feelings: superiority, hatred, and feelings of self-worth. Pecola, an 11-year-old black girl, desires to have the physical characteristics of a white person, namely blue eyes. Polly, Pecola’s mother, prefers the white culture living rather than her own. The feelings that the black race experience stem from the programming of a racist society to think that the white race is better. As a result, African Americans long to be white or look white. This consumption of whiteness represents internalized racism.

The Bluest Eyes is a masterfully told narrative on the lives of African Americans in the 1940’s; Toni Morrison examines both the social system and mentality of the racism by using both children perspectives and childhood flashbacks to invoke a feeling of sympathy for the characters in the novel. Morrison novel attempts to demystify the underlying culture problems black women face in segregated culture. Instead of attempting to analyze all the facets; instead, Morrison’s uses the simplistic and unbiased perspective of children to elucidate African American culture. Children perceive events through an unclouded lens; this allows the reader a glimpse into a world that they would be isolated from by adult narrator.

In every pocket of society, there is some sort of food chain. There are the people at the top, those between, and those at the bottom. This systematic power structure is destroying communities from within. The book, The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, is a story about young black girl - Pecola Breedlove - who dreams for her eyes to turn blue. Chunks of the book are written through the eyes of Claudia MacTeer, another young black girl in the Loraine, Ohio.

In the novel “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, the audience is provided with different interactions between white and black characters that gives the interpretation of whiteness as the standard of beauty, which distorts the lives of black characters through messages everywhere that whiteness is superior and equal to cleanliness. The theme of white superiority is portrayed through the lives and stories told by the characters Pecola, Claudia, and Pauline. Through the struggles these characters have endured with the internalized idea of white beauty, Morrison shows how the interactions between whites and blacks affect the characters in this book and how that has an effect on race in America.

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, encompasses the themes of youth, gender, and race. The African American Civil Rights Movement had recently ended at the time the novel was written. In the book, Morrison utilizes a first-person story to convey her views on racial inequality. The protagonist and her friends find themselves in moments where they are filled with embarrassment and have a wish to flee such events. Since they are female African Americans, they are humiliated in society. One of Morrison’s essential arguments is on the theme of inequity. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison implies that American culture induces the discrimination that occurs amongst the minority groups in the United States.

Muhammad Ali once said, “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.” Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is set in 1941, close to the end of the Great Depression. During the 1940s, disputes and riots over race were frequent (“Race Riots”). Moreover, there was segregation in housing, employment, and education throughout the United States. There was a small chance for improvement in racial relationships until World War II began. World War II revealed the racial segregation and discrimination of the nation. World War II initiated many social processes that slowly led to vital changes during the late 1940s (“Racial Discrimination”). In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the

Morrison mixes the touching story with the racism issue through her novel The Bluest Eye. She tells about a young black girl

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is a novel born from the author’s experience with a little black girl who wanted blue eyes, an effect of “racial self-loathing” (Morrison 210). The novel explores a similar, but much more extreme story: the story of Pecola Breedlove. Pecola is a little black girl living not only in a world that divides itself by race and is prejudiced against black people, but also amidst a family that holds conflict and divisions within itself. Morrison’s novels are known for their themes of racial ideology, beauty standards, and identity (Lister), and The Bluest Eye is no different. Through the subject of its story and the author’s use of language, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye explores the dangers of racially-based beauty

Within The Bluest Eye, as in real life, black people, no matter their wealth or education, are constantly faced with the assumptions and demands of a Eurocentric dominated world. Some of these involve encounters with actual people, as when white furniture movers refuse to take back the Breedlove’s torn couch, or when a white candy store owner displays his contemptuous indifference towards Pecola because she’s black. In the novel,Morrison looks deeply into the personality of her characters, exploring the insidious ability of white supremacy to ambush the black psyche, ultimately crippling what we now call our self-esteem. The novel’s primary object of critique is the “thing” that makes some children automatically more valuable than others, more loved because they are considered more beautiful. This “thing” finds its way into the novel’s girls via their parents and the other black adults around them, who coo over white babies on the street but not black ones, and who give their black children white dolls, Shirley Temple drinking cups, and affectionate nicknames based on white movie stars.

It is the nineteen forties in Lorain, Ohio and though it may not be the deep south, the presence of racism is no less prevalent here. In this day and age, little black girls dance through life thinking they are lesser than their white counterparts. This is something fed to them in all aspects of their lives. They see white people on the big screen, in their beverages, and even on their candies. This lack of representation, coupled with the fact that they are constantly taught that white is right and black is wrong, continues to build up until the only logical outcome is to hate themselves. They hate themselves because the world has given them no other option. This is known as internalized racism, and can be just a damaging as racism from white people because this is a self-hatred. Self-hatred cannot be escaped, nor can it be ignored. This topic is a highly uncommon one to come across in books, and when it is found it is often incidental. Toni Morrison has never shied away from the unknown, though. The Bluest Eye tackles issues such as white beauty standards, child rape, and the devastating consequences of internalized racism. Internalized racism is present in every aspect of our society, regardless of whether or not we’re aware of it. It destroys each and every person of color, and does not discriminate between the light or dark skinned. The only ones who benefit are white people. Each and every white person benefits in some way from this form of racism both in The Bluest

Racism was a huge controversy back in the 1900s.People who were whites were either classified as colored or black,and The Bluest Eye portrays racism.Racism was discussed worldwide but specifically in the United States since many ethnicities are widespread among this country.This injustice is a huge topic that was very big in the 1900s.Many people were treated unfairly because they looked different than others causing a mass fight between them.This novel was written by Toni Morrison,and has mostly black characters in it,however they like to believe that they themselves are white too or have a “white attitude” in their nature.Whites are considered the gods of race being clean,wealthy,and smart.While black people are considered

Racism is a social construct that has plagued America since its conception and is something that continues to do so to this day. In America’s earliest times racism presented itself in the concept of slavery. When that was abolished it presented itself in the Jim Crow Laws and separate but equal. Today racism presents itself in more discreet, sinister ways like mass incarceration, or the recent rash of police shooting of unarmed black teenagers. However, the most sinister way that racism affects us today and the way it infects those in Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye is the importance that is placed on the all-American family and how this excludes African Americans. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye details how American ideals often contradict with the reality of what goes on in America and how vast the difference is between the two especially when it comes to race.