Journal Article

The Theory of Cultural Racism in Toni Morrison's Tar Baby

Ewaidat, Hala

2021

Overview

For years scholars of literature and sociology have studied racism in Toni Morrison's works. Still, the theory of cultural racism and its impact on African - Americans in Morrison's Tar Baby requires further investigation, which is the goal of this paper. In this novel Morrison explores the theory of cultural racism through two main pillars of the theory: first, 'the superiority of the European culture' practiced by the whites against the blacks and by the blacks against their own race and the second is 'history' and the black heritage as a constituent element in the history of the American nation. The theory is defined and then traced through analyzing the central female character of the novel, Jadine, the African American victim of the practices of cultural racism that she herself inflicts on her black race. The conflict regarding her self-definition: birth, race, color, status, and education and her relationships with all the people who bring this conflict into play (relatives, foster parents, lovers, imagined women and real women) are investigated to understand the fact that the suffering of Black Americans continued to the present after the abolishing of racism because of cultural racism. In Tar Baby, Morrison wrangles with one of the great questions of contemporary American life: How can an individual (or a group) mediate both cultural distinctiveness and national cohesiveness in an increasingly diverse America? Evidently, Morrison has got her own objective, namely, African - American people must not abandon their ethnic heritage if they want to reconcile their own culture with the dominant national culture.

• Publisher: جامعة قناة السويس - كلية الآداب والعلوم الإنسانية
• Subject: الأدب الإنجليزي / العنصرية الثقافية / القصص الإنجليزية / النقد السينمائي / موريسون، توني