The Representation Of Race And Ethnicity English Literature Essay

The representation of race and ethnicity in literature mirrors dominant socio-cultural views on race and ethnicity. At the same time, often literary works raise important, burning problems related to race and ethnicity and relationships between representatives of different racial or ethnic groups. In this regard, it is possible to refer to works created by Alice Walker, “The Welcome Table”, Patricia Smith, “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl”, and Aurora Levins Morales, “Child of the Americas”, where the authors reveal different views on race and ethnicity opening different perspectives, which vary from exclusion to multiculturalism. On analyzing these works, it is possible to trace the evolution from a racist society toward a tolerant society, where race or ethnicity is not a cause of discrimination and where people live together on the equal ground regardless of their racial or ethnic background. On the other hand, the aforementioned authors reveal the full extent to which interracial relations are complicated and, what is more important, they focus on the problem of self-identification of representatives of minorities because all of the main characters of literary works mentioned above suffer the problem of finding their identity and their place in the society and, on their way to their identity, they often face discrimination, intolerance and repulsion from the part of the dominant majority.

In this regard, it is possible to dwell upon Alice Walker’s “Welcome Table”. As the matter of fact, the title of this short story is quite ironic because the welcome table is a Christian symbol, which implies the acceptance of people by the Christian religion and the equality of all people in face of God, regardless of their race, ethnicity, social status, or political beliefs. Alice Walker depicts an old African American woman, who is a typical representative of her race and whose life in the US is unbearable because she feels being a mere commodity, whose existence no one cares about. She stumble in poverty but, nonetheless, she has a strong faith. The author depicts the old woman symbolically and compares her to Georgia earth: “the color of poor gray Georgia earth,” (Walker, 2008, p. 115). This comparison is quite symbolic because it reveals the position of the woman in the society. She holds the lowest social position in the society and people can pass by her without even noticing her presence. She is the total outcast, who has no place on earth but whom the white majority would like to see in the earth. The woman has no place on the earth and she wonders without any definite purpose.

At the same time, she preserves her faith. The faith is probably the last salvation for the woman, whom the author remains unnamed that is also quite symbolic. In such a way, Alice Walker attempts to show that representatives of minorities, like the old African American woman, are unknown to the white majority. Moreover, the whites do not even want to know representatives of minorities. They view them as hostile and dangerous strangers and treat them as mere commodities, who can never be equal to the whites. In such a way, the author reveals the discriminatory attitude of the whites to African Americans as well as representatives of other minorities. The nameless woman wonders in search of her place in the society, in search of her identity and it is her faith that guides her through. She is in a white community, which rejects her. Nevertheless, she believes that her faith can guide her through and help her to find her identity and her place in the hostile community. She walks “down the road toward the big white church,” (Walker, 2008, p. 117). In fact, even the church is “white” that means that she has no place to take either on the Earth or on Heavens. The white majority has appropriated the church, even though this contradicts to fundamental principles of Christina religion, because, according to Christian beliefs, all people are equal in face of God. As it turns out, for the white community all people are equal of God but some are more equal than others. They stand on the supremacist ground and they believe the old African American woman is unworthy of being a part of the Christian community. The old woman comes to the church in hope to find the place, where she can get closer to God and find other believers, who accept her as equal. In contrast, the church the woman goes to is not her church “as if one could choose the wrong one” (Walker, 2008, p. 117). She is expelled from the church by the whites. The woman is bewildered but she obeys and leaves the church. She cannot understand why she is expelled from the church, which teaches believers that all people are equal. She used to believe that she was a part of the Christian community but, as the matter of fact, her faith does not make her Christian from the point of view of the white majority. The white majority stands on the ground that it is the color of one’s skin that makes him or her a Christian. In such a way, the author reveals the full extent to which interracial relations in the US are intolerant.

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On the other hand, the author appeals to readers and reminds them that all people are equal in face of God. This is why, the old, abandoned, and expelled woman sees Jesus coming down “the long gray highway” (Walker, 2008, p. 119). Again the author uses symbolic epithet “gray highway” as if she wants to stress that Jesus has descended to the old African American woman and comes down her way. She turns out to be a blessed one to see Jesus, whereas the white community, which believes to be virtuous and good from Christian standpoint, turns out to be unable to see Him. In such a way, the author shows that faith does not depend on the color of skin and the existing racial inequality is unjust. Alice Walker expects that God can reestablish the justice but, at the same time, with her short story she reminds people that they should remember fundamental Christian principles and be tolerant in relation to other races. Nevertheless, as long as inequality persists, the old African American woman cannot find her identity and her place in the society. This is why she walks away with Jesus: “Follow me” and she “bounded down to his side with all the bob and speed of one so old” (Walker, 2008, p. 120). The woman walks away believing she walks on clouds with Jesus, whereas people saw her walking away alone jabbering to herself, “they guessed maybe she had relatives across the river, some miles away, but none of them really knew” (Walker, 2008, p. 121). In such a way, the old African American woman cannot find her identity and she is excluded from the society and God turns out to be her only salvation.

In this regard, Patricia Smith focuses on the similar problem of the exclusion of an African American girl from the US society. She feels being a sort of outcast exactly as the old African American woman in “The Welcome Table” does. The African American girl faces the problem of exclusion from the society and she attempts to find her identity but she and people like her feel “everything wild” and “suffering their burn in silence” (Smith, 2004, p.113). In this regard, she is also similar to the main character of “The Welcome Table” because the old African American woman did not oppose to the white community, when people rejected her and expelled from the church. Instead, she obeyed and kept her faith strong. However, the African American girl depicted by Patricia Smith is not as strong as the old African American woman depicted by Alice Walker. Instead, the girl attempts to pretend to be white. She believes coloring food and blond hair can make her “whiter”. In such a way, she wants to be a part of the white community. She wants to identify herself with the white community because she feels the superiority of the whites and her own inferiority because of her blackness, which he attempts to get rid of by all possible means. However, her efforts are all in vain because she remains the African American girl. At this point, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that unlike the old African American woman in “The Welcome Table”, the African American girl in “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl” struggles and attempts to find her identity to become a white. This paradox leads her to the conflict between her strife for whiteness and her natural blackness tears her apart. She cannot find her identity. On the one hand, she wants to be white. However, she will never be a part of the white community, because the whites will always reject her because of her blackness. On the other hand, all her efforts to become white alienates her from the African American community. Her efforts to become white make her a stranger in the African American community, where people are black. In such a way, she is truly torn apart. The narrator does not want to be an outcast but she wants to be equal among equals. In such a way, Patricia Smith shows a different aspect of interracial relations in the US compared to Alice Walker. Patricia Smith shows the attempt of the integration of the African American girl as Alice Walker does in relation to the old African American woman, but Patricia Smith shows that such strife for equality does not lead to the integration to the white community but, what is more, it alienates the girl from her African American community. However, the outcome is the same as is the case of the old woman from “The Welcome Table”, the girl remain alone, lost in her efforts to find her identity.

Aurora Levins Morales continues the theme of identity search, being conducted by representatives of minorities. The author focuses on this problem similarly to Paricia Smith and Alice Walker. Aurora Levins Morales agrees with the two authors discussed above that representatives of minorities have substantial problems with self-identification. In her poem, “Child of the Americas”, Aurora Levins Morales depicts the narrator, who was born and lives at a racial/ethnic crossroad. In fact, the narrator fails to identify herself with either ethnic group in the US. Instead, the narrator positions herself as follows:

I am a child of the Americas,

A light-skinned mestiza of the Caribbean,

A child of many diaspora, born into this continent at a crossroads (Morales, 2008, 1-3)

The entire poem depicts vain efforts of the narrator to find her identity:

I am a U.S. Puerto Rican Jew,

A product of the ghettos of New York I have never known. (Morales, 2008, 4-5)

I am not African. Africa is in me, but I cannot return. (Morales, 2008, 15)

I am not European. Europe lives in me, but I have no home there. (Morales, 2008, 15)

In such a way, she fails to find her identity and this is a serious problem for the narrator. She attempts to trace her roots but eventually she finds out that she does not belong to Hispanics, African American, white, or other racial or ethnic group. In stark contrast, her ethnic background is so complicated that the author makes the only possible conclusion:

I am new. History made me. My first language was spanglish.

I was born at the crossroads

And I am whole (Morales, 2008, 18-20)

In such a way, the author concludes that she is at the crossroad but she is a whole that reveals the full extent to which her self-identification is complex and, what is more, her self-identification simply turns out to be impossible at all. From this angle, “Child of the Americas” is similar to the two literary works discussed above, “The Welcome Table” and “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl”, because the narrator of this poem cannot find her identity and she cannot stick to certain community. However, the conclusion the narrator arrives to in “Child of the Americas” is different from that one both the African American girl and the old African American woman depicted by Patricia Smith and Alice Walker respectively did. To put it more precisely, the narrator of “Child of the Americas” abandons the idea of finding her identity or her racial/ethnic group. In contrast, she arrives to a new socio-cultural formation, which was historically created by the blend of multiple ethnicities and races in the US. In fact, she arrives to the concept of historically formed multiculturalism. What is meant here is the fact that the narrator of “Child of the Americas” associates herself with Americas and the local cultural and racial/ethnic diversity. Aurora Levins Morales rejects the concept of self-identification oriented on the specific racial or ethnic group. Instead, she suggests the concept of the multicultural identity, which is shaped in the specific socio-cultural environment of the US. The author stands on the ground the multiculturalism is the only plausible way out in search of identity being conducted by a representative of a minority group. This conclusion and outcome make “Child of the Americas” totally different from “The Welcome Table” and “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl” because Aurora Levins Morales rejects the possibility of exclusion of an individual because of his or her ethnic or racial background. Instead, the author promotes the idea of racial and ethnic tolerance. This is why she develops the concept of multiculturalism, which can be traced throughout her poem. This view on the concept of identity is quite different from those of Patricia Smith and Alice Walker because they imply the identity loss, whereas Aurora Levins Morales finds a compromise and suggests the concept of a multicultural identity.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the three authors discussed above, Alice Walker, Patricia Smith, and Aurora Levins Morales, focus on the problem of search of one’s identity being conducted by a representative of an ethnic/racial minority. The authors agree that the problem of self-identification is very serious for representatives of minorities in the US because they are often rejected by the white community, whereas their attempts to join community alienate them from their own, ethnic or racial community. However, even though the problem raised in the three literary works, “The Welcome Table”, “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl”, and “Child of the Americas”, Alice Walker and Patricia Smith arrive to quite pessimistic conclusions that representatives of racial/ethnic minorities suffer from the identity loss and there is no way out for them. In stark contrast, Aurora Levins Morales suggests the concept of multicultural identity instead to solve the problem of self-identification for representatives of minorities.