Race and Birdie

Lost in Caucasia an essay on the novel Caucasia by Danzy SennaAds by GoogleAssociate Nursing Courses www. keiser-education. com Earn A class In Nursing From Keiser University. Register Today Why am I posting this? This is an essay I wrote for a Womens Studies course I took in University. When penning an essay or an assignment for school the hardest part for me was figuring out where to start. I believe that getting a few ideas by seeing examples and translation other peoples essays always helped me figure out how I would write my own essay and how to get started.That is why I decided to sh atomic number 18 my essay with tout ensemble of you. Hope this helps Caucasia A Novel by Danzy Senna Pin It Caucasia A novel by Danzy Senna Introduction Caucasia by Danzy Senna is a narrative of a young bi-racial misss journey of coming to race consciousness as she is forced to leave her home in the south end of Boston (a racially motley area), and evaporate into Caucasia (the white nation). One of the main themes in the novel is the issue of race. Senna explores the contradictions between a visible racial indistinguishability and a essential identity, and as a consequence destabilizes the idea of race.The novel Caucasia illustrates the intersectional social constructions of egg white through dames struggles with identity, her standpoint, and the structures of dissimilarity and race seen through her look. individualism Caucasia examines the relationship of identity with the self (body and mind) and how others perceive us in our bodies. Senna shows the reader how identities of gender, race and nationality are intersectionally and socially constructed. In the beginning of the novel fowl has no name, her identity is shaped and formed by how others see her.The confusion shoot feels with her identity is not only due to the discord she feels between her body soma and her physical body which most adolescent filles deal with, but she also feels confusion regarding the mixed messages she receives from the white and black communities because of her white skin. The vitrines of Birdie and simoleons are both bi-racial, however others (including their own parents) see Birdie as white and Cole as black. During Birdies childhood and her time at Nkrumah, Birdie was raised to have a strong black identity.This identity was problematized by her white skin and facial features. At times Birdie entangle as if she was valued less then Cole for not fitting the black image Others before had made me see the differences between my sister and myselfthe metric grain of our hair, the tints of our skin, the shapes of our features. But Carmen was the one to make me feel that those things somehow mattered. To make me feel that the differences were cabalisticer than skin (Senna, 1999, p. 91). Birdie begins her identity quest by attempting to disappear, to release ultraviolet. Birdie recalls a story told to her by Cole about Elemeno.That Elemeno is not only a langua ge, but also a people and a place of safety and inclusion. Cole explained to Birdie that people in Elemeno constantly shift shape and colour in a quest for invisibility in order to survive as a species. The power of the Elemeno people lays in their ability to disappear into any surroundings. In response to Coles story, Birdie asks What was the point of surviving if you had to disappear? (Senna, p. 7-8). Ironically the story of the Elemenos would foreshadow Birdies own disappearance into Caucasia for her own survival.The need for Birdie to disappear or become invisible in order to survive in Caucasia echoes the writings of bell hooks (1992). In speaking of the power and terror of the white gaze historically in the U. S. , hooks explains that there is safety in the pretense of invisibility (hooks, p. 340) and how black people have learned to wear the mask (hooks, p. 341) in an effort to become and remain in that safe haven of invisibility from the terrorizing white gaze. Birdie appea rs to have been wearing the mask since her time in Nkrumah.The hostility of the other children toward Birdie in particular, at the all black school forces Birdie to wear the mask and put on a racial performance for her schoolmates in Nkrumah and she veritable(a) begins to learn to speak in slang to better fit in. The character of Birdie resembles that of a chameleon, constantly taking on the colour of those around her in an attempt to become invisible. This racial performance shifts through Birdies journey as she attempts to fit in with the white teenagers in New Hampshire.Birdie begins to act, talk, and dress up like the New Hampshire teens and as a consequence begins to disappear into Caucasia (the white nation) and her falsified identity of Jesse Goldman. As hooks points out, for white people there is an assumption and hallucination of safety (hooks, p. 340). This can be seen in Sandy Lees assumption that she can easily disappear into whiteness, which she takes for granted. De spite Sandys rejection of her history of white privilege, she always has the safety in knowing that she has the option of disappearing into the safety of whiteness.For Birdie disappearing into whiteness does not denote safety, it signifies losing herself and her received identity. Birdie must contain and compromise her own true identity in order to have this pretense of invisibility. Eventually, Birdies discharge of her true identity drives her to flee New Hampshire and remove her mask. I wondered if I too would forever be fleeing in the dark, abandoning parts of myself that I no longer wanted, in search of some part that had escaped me. Killing one girl in order to let the other one go off (Senna, p. 289).Birdies disappearances throughout her journey were identity forming processes and important for her search for her sense of self and her identity. Birdies identity quest began by attempting to disappear and become invisible, however, her quest comes full(a) circle as she agai n finds herself at the end of the novel. Throughout the novel Birdie also struggles with her sexual identity. Senna challenges the categorization of identities through the character of Birdie and suggests that identity is fluid. Birdie does not fit into the rigid categories of white or black or gay or straight, she is in-between.Standpoint Senna also examines whiteness and its social construction from the character Birdies standpoint in the novel. Standpoint refers to the location or place within the relationship of domination and subordination, that affects what people see or do not see. Ruth Frankenberg (1993) argues that there is a direct relationship between experience and standpoint. She argues that those who are the oppressed in the systems of domination are more in all likelihood to see the structure of domination because they experience it (Frankenberg, p. 5).In Caucasia, Birdie can see whiteness in ways others can not due to the fact that Birdie sits on the boundary of whi teness. In fact, for this same reason Birdie can see lightlessness in ways that others can not. To the black community Birdie is seen as white, but in comparison to the white community she feels like she is black. She looks on at each end of the spectrum to the structures of whiteness and blackness from in-between both. She becomes aware of the white gaze and the power of the white gaze in ways that others can not.Birdie becomes aware of the power of the white gaze real early on as she experiences the terror it puts in her father when he is questioned by the police and accused for kidnapping a little white girl (Senna, p. 60-61). Structures of Difference and Race The setting of the novel Caucasia plays an important role in its examination of the social construction of whiteness. The novel is set during the 1970s in the racially tense city of Boston in the mix of the civil rights movement in the States.Caucasia made it apparent that the nation was very fractured and built on proces ses of excision (and inclusion) and othering. The history of America as a nation has been built through the violent creation of difference, and as a consequence the violence and wedge of difference continues into the time of this novel. Sandy Lee refers to the nation as This war they call America (Senna, p. 331), illustrating the fractured nationalism that exists within the nation. These inequalities that structure differences are relational (relationship between inner(a) and oppressed).Frankenberg argues that whiteness is a racialized identity that is constructed in relation to the racialized other (Frankenberg, p. 13). The foundation of white supremacy is based on the belief that whiteness is a utter(a) category and a dominant race and as such, it must be protected and kept intact. This essentialist view of racism (seeing race as different) is seen in Caucasia in many instances through the reactions to Birdie and Cole from others and how others see them. We can see this in part icular through the characters of Carmen and Grandma Logan.The differential treatment of the two sisters by both these characters shows the hidden prejudices that exist within people shaped by the structures of difference and race. In regards to Grandma Logan, Birdie recalls she believed that the face was a mirror of the soul. She believed, deep down, that the race my face reflected made me superior. Such a simple, comforting myth to live by (Senna, p. 366). Grandma Logan also represents the generational history of whiteness which has placed her in a position of privilege.In hooks examination of whiteness, she explains that white people can safely imagine that they are invisible to black people (hooks, p. 340). This is in part due to the normalization of whiteness by white people in which they view whiteness as non-racial or racially neutral. In Caucasia, Senna constructs whiteness as being the object of critical scrutiny through her character of Birdie. At the beginning of the nov el, Birdie describes most people she sees as having caramel or cinnamon skin without ever identifying them by race.On the other hand, Birdie clearly identifies white people by race with no mention of skin tone. Thus, it becomes evident to the reader that there is a reversal from the usual format in society in which whiteness is seen as the norm. In Birdies world it is black people who are the norm and white people who are the exception. Conclusion Through Birdies journey in Caucasia, the author illustrates the intersectional social constructions of whiteness and rejects the rigid categories of identity that have been socially constructed.Senna also examines the relationships of power and subordination of whiteness and blackness, through the eyes of Birdie who stands in-between the boundaries of these constructed categories. Finally, through Birdies journey of race cognizance we see the structures of difference and how they affect lives. Birdies journey illustrates that the citizens of America all live in very different Americas according to their racialized, gendered, and sexualized experiences and how these categories intersect to create greater difference and further fracture the nation.