Discrimination In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

In modern society there is a constant visual that everyone sees and no ones pays attention too. Walking into the magazine aisle at any store for the majority one would see only white people; turning on the television one almost exclusively sees white people, and this phenomenon continues. It is a constant notion for women of color to be more white. When they are represented by the media they are either shown to be white washed or not at all. While the act of whitewashing in the media is not meant to be racist, but a kind of dysconscious or institutionalized racism. The process never seems to change because in the industry “they don’t know enough about the only subject that really matters” and there’s an acceptance with the normality of white privilege (Roth 126). The only way to change is to no longer act ignorant to the issue (Roth 126). Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye condemns beauty standards by teaching that only white is beautiful and thus creating a whitewashed society, lack of diversity, and dismantling the image of young girls. The start of whitewashing did not just come from the modern media industry but slave trade. White European men in the sixteenth century started the dividing up of people into “races”

In Toni Morrison’s book, Pecola Breedlove was instantly a victim to her own blackness. Her and her family “...wore their ugliness, put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong to them” (Morrison 38). Pecola was darker than others and was told “You are ugly people” (Morrison 39). Her classmate Maureen was “A high-yellow dream child with long brown hair” (Morrison 62). Maureen represented privilege with her lighter skin. Maureen’s skin being lighter was enough for her to say, “I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!” (Morrison