One of the most difficult topics in American social issues must include the issue of race relations. However, quite often a discussion of these issues is viewed in binary terms, in the most literal sense of the word, white versus black. Because of these polar viewpoints, quite often preconceived notions of race relations interfere with understanding race on a deeper level. In Toi Derricotte’s The Black Notebooks we are treated to the journal entries of a light-skinned black woman regarding race. These entries challenge many of our preconceived notions about what it means to be white or black. Because of her ability to “pass” for white in various situations, the author offers us a unique perspective, one that shows us new insights into what race means and what being human means. The author admits that quite often she and her family were questions as to why they never “passed over into the white world” (Derricotte 16). Derricotte’s answer includes a character rich in pride, “rich in culture and history”, and “contempt” for what appeared as the “pale lives” of whites (17).
Despite her pride in her culture and heritage, including its struggles and challenges as well as its beauties and joys, being able to “escape” from her blackness, by being able to pass as white in various situations, enabled the author to experience the meaning of race and being human from a unique perspective. We see that her light-skin might enable her to pass unmolested over the barriers into “white” society, but we see that this ability to traverse both worlds often leaves her isolated, aloof, and a minority treated with various degrees of envy, hostility, and resentment even within her own culture:
‘She think she white’ was said with a bitterness, irony, disgust, and even a humor that only one raised with generations of historical pain can understand. It was not only a judgment, it was a punishment as well, for it ...