Recitatif-Yanyan
- On page 1184, Twyla and Roberta have a quarrel about Maggie. It is noticeable weird to see that Roberta insists that Maggie is kicked down by Twyla and that Maggie is a black lady which later turn out to be a lie. Why does Roberta do this? Why does she intendedly make up the race of Maggie? Why does she impute Twyla as the offender who kicks down Maggie? I think she just transfer the conflict between two races to two individuals. Therefore, I perceive that Twyla is a white and Roberta is a black. Roberta lines herself with poor Maggie who she thinks is a black. Moreover, Maggie plays a role of victim here and Roberta might want to use this as an example to show that whites hurt blacks.
- I participated in a program called conversational partners program at Baruch last semester where I was matched to an upper-middle class white girl for conversational partners. Basically, we were supposed to meet twice a month and have an hour-long conversation. Our races are different. We come from different cultural background with different socio-economic status. So, it’s unavoidably for us to have some arguments relating to life attitudes, behaviors, politics and even food options. But once we had different opinions, we would always listen to the ideas from another one. Though we did not fully agree with each other even after hearing what other people says, we still made the question open to discuss in our next meeting. She invited me to her thanksgiving party at her home in financial district. Although we didn’t meet this semester because of the pandemic and might also because of the current US-China relationship (I don’t mind it, but she might mind that), I guess we can still get in touch later and she said she want to come to Chengdu for traveling in the future. And if she comes, I’ll be very pleased to be a tour guide haha.
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Yanyan, I’m not sure I agree with you about Twyla and Roberta’s racial identities, but what is important here is that, in not telling you what race each girl is, Morrison is forcing you to acknowledge your own prejudices and stereotypes. As for Maggie, I’m not sure we ever learn her racial identity, but I notice that Twyla recalls that her skin is “sandy-colored.” This serves as a reminder of the “constructedness” of race.