‘Caucasia’ by Danzy Senna
Race has no genetic construct other that social affiliation. This is an aspect reviewed in stories and it is eminent that whiteness in African American literature such as in the novel ‘Caucasia’ by Danzy Senna holds a significant social construct. There is a long history in the passing or desire for passing as a white among the African American community. This produces the “mulatto”, which is the combination of the African American slave and the white man. The strength of the white man overpowered the white slave and they could not escape the advancements that caused their sexual humiliation. Taking sexual advantage of slaves by their owners was a common occurrence in the pre-civil war period. The children born from the occurrences had varying representation or European and African features. The children who came out with a high capacity of whiteness could be brought into the house while those who were too dark to pass for a Caucasian status were left to remain as slaves. The slave children faced all the indignities of slavery such as being sold, forced labor, and sexual exploitation in the hands of their masters, often their male relatives. That is the story of Caucasia as it depicts a story about bi racial girls Birdie and Cole from the perspective of Birdie.
The two girls have an African American father and a white mother. Cole has curly hair and is darker than Birdie who is light skinned and has straight hair. This makes their father to face mockery from his fellow blacks because he has a white wife and daughter. He even faces an accusation that he has kidnapped the child and the perverse he faces disgusts him so much. As Bell Hook would put it, being white only allows the other people of color to remain as terrorists since that is all that the policeman has against the father walking with his daughter. It is in that pain of discrimination that he leaves for Brazil with the darker daughter, Cole and leaves Birdie with her mother.
This is a reason, which robs Birdie of her identity as she passes for a white. The author is aware that the presentation of passing is within the concepts of existing racial fluidity and ambiguity. A privilege in some racial positions allows for passing through social classes. In the case of the two classes, Birdie is of the privileged class full of luxury with Cole being of the underprivileged class. The conceptualization of race in the national construct goes beyond the physical appearance, gender, language, racial fantasies and financial statuses. The passing in race have an irrevocable tie to economic status, as they are the forms for restriction or permission of movement / passing through the different racial categories.
In Caucasia, there is the question of the role identity on self and on others. The story shows of the difficulties of passing with two identities depending on the capabilities of the audience to identify race. Passing is emotionally draining and as it allows the presence of the behaviors of whites, who think that they are alone and can say anything about others and the racial segregation of not being white or black enough with some audiences. At the same time, there is ambiguity in the representation of Birdie as she is neither black nor white. It deconstructs the premise of race and leaves her in a conscious awareness of twoness of her tragic representation of mulatto. There is the ambiguity of Birdie having to take up a Jewish identity and because she cannot cope with the identity crisis, she faces. Soon this crisis leads her to look for her father and sister where she later accepts to live with a biracial identity. This shows the fluidity of identities as it is not stable or fixed and cannot present a form for standard classification.
The author metaphorically uses the term Caucasia to represent the dominance of whites, which leaves interracial subjects in constant negotiation of their identities as mixed races.
The story explores gender; race, sexuality and class interact and reinforce each other within the society. It is the precepts of gender and racial identity that forms her characters and the inner conflicts suffered by Birdie in adolescence. It is amazing how racial divisions appeared everywhere even in the subways with different racial groups occupying different areas causing multiple evidences of segregation. Cultural and social divisions because of ethnicity and race fit the characters in Caucasia into different categories allowing the author to show the challenges of the protagonist because of her skin color.
Through her narration, Birdie is capable of resisting the myth of mulatto and reinventing her gendered and racial self. Her white skin presents controversies and contradictions, which questions her cultural and racial identity and the differences causes a complex reflection on the identity she wants to acquire. Her identity crisis starts in Boston as a young girl when she looks at her elder sister and wishes to have a similar face. Coles’ face creates a mirror for Birdie to see herself making it obvious that she has no clarity in her sense of identity. In addition, Birdies name changes to Jesse or Patrice while Coles is permanent showing instability in the young girl. There is a final agreement to call her Birdie though her birth certificate reads “Baby Lee” all proving the lack of a constituent of identity and leaves her with a strong need for self-identification. What connects the two girls is Elememo, which is a language they invent from their favorite alphabetical letters. it is significant of the changes of form, pattern, color and the desire to be invisible. The Elememo have chameleon qualities for disappearing into the environment as a survival tactic and the same fantasies created by the girls are inspirational of new identities, which may be fluid and makes Birdie to have an obsession for them.
The story explores the need for disappearance always leaving Birdie with the question of the essence of existence. She feels lost whenever Cole is together with their father and remains as a proof of the unbalanced blackness in her family. Their father is never willing to mingle with black blokes and does so by marrying a professional and loving a life on the city outskirts. He keeps an afro and maintains his black accent to show his resistance of whiteness and the involvement of Sandy in criticizing white hypocrisy. However, the racism constructs he believes in are not practical and he even prefers his black daughter to Birdie. There is failure of the struggle in Birdie who is not passable as a biracial child as the basis of her skin color leaves her without an identity in the society.
