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Racism Affecting One's Identity In The Vanishing Half

2459 Words10 Pages

Mikaela Ranieri
Ms. V. Pimentel
ENG 3U 01
13 January 2023
How Racism Affects the Development of One's Identity In The Vanishing Half
One cannot develop their identity if they are unable to accept who one truly is. Racism plays a huge role in the development of identities in Brit Bennett’s novel, The Vanishing Half. Stella and Jude have experiences with nothing other than racial hate in their hometown of Mallard, leading to the denial of their upbringing. The constant reminder of how Stella and Jude do not fit in makes them insecure about their authentic selves. Furthermore, Stella and Jude’s incapacity to love themselves, and accept who they are, makes their individuality nonexistent and underdeveloped. Stella and Jude experience racism within …show more content…

These situations are making her want to dissociate from her ethnicity as a whole. Due to the ideologies of the citizens in Mallard, Stella is not seen as a perfect child. The perception of her does not come from her acts, words, or intentions; instead, she was instantly perceived to be far from perfect because of her part-black background. This quote at the beginning of the novel sets out the beliefs of Mallard, while also foreshadowing how Stella being light skin opens her doors to oppression: “Lightness, like anything inherited at great cost, was a lonely gift (...) He imagined his children’s children’s children, lighter still, like a cup of coffee steadily diluted with cream. A more perfect Negro. Each generation lighter than the one before.” (Bennet 6). Mallard defines one as a “perfect” child if they lose all trace of their dark background. As “Each Generation [gets] lighter than the one before”, the darker children have to deal with the idea and abuse of not being perfect, opening them up to the attack and abuse from the people of Mallard (6). Not only did the colour of Stella’s skin change the way she is seen, but also the way she is treated. Growing up, Stella could never forget how she is “colored and …show more content…

Stella is using the fact that she is black as her excuse for all her hardships in life. Correctively, the real issue is Stella never embraces her true self, instead, she tries to cover who she is. As seen in the quote:
When she’d first passed over, it seemed so easy that she couldn’t believe that she'd never done it before. She felt almost angry at her parents for denying it to her. If they’d passed over, if they’d raised her white, everything would have been different. No white men dragging her daddy from the porch (...) she could have finished school, graduated top of her class. Maybe she would have ended up at a school like Yale.

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