Everyday Use By Alice Walker

Alice Walker's short story, "Everyday Use" explores the complex relationship between colorization and African American identity. The story highlights the importance of preserving cultural heritage and the dangers of reducing it to a superficial level. Alice Walker is a renowned African American writer, poet, and activist. She is best known for her novel "The Color Purple," which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 (Petry 12). Walker's work often explores the experiences of Black women, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and the search for personal and cultural identity (Cowart 177). Walker's biography connects to the story in several ways. She grew up in a poor Southern family and was inspired by her mother's resilience and

Colorization, or the act of assigning a particular value or meaning to a person based on their skin color from the same race, is a pervasive issue in American society (Webb 21; Pinzon 3). Webb also adds that colorism is different from racism as colorism distinguishes people from the same race based on skin complexion and other physical attributes such as hair texture (22,23). It has historically been used as a tool for oppression, perpetuating racial stereotypes and promoting discrimination (Webb 21). In "Everyday Use," Walker examines through Mama’s narration how colorization affects African American identity by contrasting the attitudes of two sisters, Dee and

The local church raised money for Dee but not for Maggie. It could be because the lighter skin color Dee has is attributed with smartness and talent giving her privileges – like the White population had for decades over African Americans - while Maggie’s darker complexion with subordinate attributes (Pinzon 5). Pinzon suggests because of colorism Maggie did not have the same opportunities, but if she had received them she could break the assumptions associated with colorism being the lighter skin tone more intelligent than the darker skin tone (5). Thus, colorism and bias is shown in the African American community and in the American society greatly by this scene in the short