The Hierarchy Of Race By Maureen Peal

Mitchell Feldman
Ms. Humes
AS English II
23 March 2023
The Hierarchy of Race Maureen Peal is a new student at the school Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola go to, and although she is mixed, she is loved by everyone almost instantly. Her family's wealth, and the way she carries herself to cause the other kids to get drawn toward her. Although she stands up for Pecola and seems to be genuinely kindhearted, once an argument between her and Claudia erupts on the walk home, Maureen’s view of them is revealed, and we get to see her suppressed feelings toward them. Maureen helps portray how the outside view of black people has become internalized, even in the black people themselves, and shows to what extent people try to avoid being associated with them.

Black boys didn’t trip her in the halls; white boys didn’t stone her, white girls didn’t suck their teeth when she was assigned to be their work partners; black girls stepped aside when she wanted to use the sink” (Morrison 62). Not only is she respected by black people, but also the white people. Her experience in the school is the opposite of Pecola’s. Pecola is not respected by the white people in the school, due to her being fully black, while Maureen is half and half, but her money helps make up for her partial blackness. She is treated as the black people’s superior, as they let her get water before them, and do not trip her in the halls. Although she is partially black, she is also white as well, which is why the fully black people act as if she is superior to them, showing that they have internalized the outside gaze of them being lesser than white people. Despite this treatment, Maureen seems to care about black people, even if they are “lesser” than her, which she shows when she

She goes from being nice and sweet to becoming the same angry bully as who she protected Pecola from: “Safe on the other side, she screamed at us, ‘I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!’” (Morrison 73). Maureen calls them ugly for being black, which is ironic given that she is half-black, however, she has internalized the white outside gaze and feels that she is not black. Due to this reason, she feels she is cute, as the outside gaze states that black is ugly while white is cute. She does not want to be associated with being black so much that she fully embraces her white half, and disregards her black half, enabling her to insult Frieda, Claudia, and Pecola for their skin color, even though hers is also partially black. Unfortunately for Frieda, Claudia, and Pecola, the outside gaze has been internalized deeply into their minds that they accept what Maureen says as the truth: “We were sinking under the wisdom, accuracy, and relevance of Maureen’s last words. If she was cute—and if anything could be believed, she was—then we were not. And what did that mean? We were lesser.” (Morrison 74). Although they realize that they may be nicer or brighter than Maureen, the outside gaze how forced them to believe that their blackness would make them lesser, no matter how much better they actually were. They have internalized the notion