During the time of Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” segregation and stereotyping ran rampant around all parts of the US. As you read the short story you will see these themes quite frequently throughout. The beginning of the story starts in an orphanage where Twyla and Roberta meet. One of the first things that Twyla said was “ My mother won’t like you putting me in here.”(Morrison 1) There was no context as to why her mother would feel that way and there was never a description of either girl. As you continue to read there are things said that make you assume the race of both girls. One article stated, “Simply knowing about social groups can lead us to stereotype their members because we assume there must be something important that led to their common classification in the first place, something that makes them essentially alike.” (Hope College) These things that make people think of someone in a certain way would be called stereotyping.
Stereotyping is a huge part of this story because Morrison makes you assume the race of the girls from different comments he makes. One from Twyla was “Every now and then she would stop dancing long enough to tell me something important and one of the things she said was that they never washed their hair and they smelled funny,” (Morrison 1). This comment referred to Roberta, things like this were said about African Americans during this harsh time period and it makes you associate her with that race. One article stated “As we grow older and are influenced by parents, peers, and the media, our tendency to label different racial groups as superior/good or inferior/bad increases significantly.”(University of Notre Dame Counseling) This shows that we are influenced by other factors that make us group people together in a false and misleading way. These situations were seen back in the 1950s and are still very prevalent today.
In today’s society, racial stereotyping occurs almost the same amount as it did back then if not more. In a study conducted by Stanford University, they found “that African Americans are pulled over more frequently than whites by day—but are much less likely to be stopped at night, when “a veil of darkness” masks their race and makes it harder to racially profile drivers.”(Greater Good) This study displays how racial stereotyping can affect people’s lives daily.
Jilani, Zade and Smith, Jeremy Adam. “How Challenging Stereotypes Can Save Black Lives.”, Greater Good. 8 June 2020
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_challenging_stereotypes_can_save_black_lives
“Overcoming Racial Stereotypes.” University of Notre Dame Counseling Center,
https://ucc.nd.edu/self-help/multicultural-awareness/overcoming-stereotypes/
“What are the Causes of Stereotypes?” Hope College.
I think one of the most interesting things of the entire story was the fact that Morrison never explicitly stated Twyla or Roberta’s race. The reader is left to use assumptions that they either already have, or have already heard, about different races and use that to piece it together. I think that by Morrison doing this, she made two big points. The first being how race is something that we think about too often and is too much of a driving factor. The reader gets too caught up in trying to figure out if each character is Black or White to see if the preconceived notions they have match what Morrison had written down. The second point she made was how these ideas we have in place are harmful. Even if a reader had heard of these biases before, not believing them to be true themselves, it still “adds fuel to the fire” in a sense by acknowledging these ideas.
This story goes beyond stereotyping and how the stereotypes we have perpetuated cloud how we view others. It shows how much of our lives are driven by ideas and practices centered around race and power.
I think Morrison never said in the story what the race of the two girls were because she wanted the reader to assume and realize all the stereotypes that we have created from comments. Stereotyping is a big issue anywhere you go. Stereotypes make people jump to conclusions and feel like they already know a person based on their race/culture. It makes people close minded and shows us how society’s ideas are stronger than reality.
I think focusing on stereotyping is hugely important while reading this. It is that that Morrison never intended to tell the reader the races of the girl. She did make it clear that there were different races. She threw in a couple stereotypes about races to give the reader an idea, but that enforces the issue. Us as the readers had to make assumptions based on the few stereotypes Morrison wrote about, but it’simportant for us to understand that we can’t stereotype people like that.
Morrison seemed to have wanted us to stereotype the girls. Our understanding of the story and figuring out the races of each girl was up to what stereotypes we have already formed and learned. After reading your post, I realized that I think I made the wrong assumption of the girls’ races. There are some key stereotypes that I failed to pick up on including Roberta not being able to read, Twyla saying her mother told her “they never wash their hair and they smell funny” (p.1), Twyla mentioning that the wrong food is always with the wrong people, Twyla describing Robertas’ hair as big and wild, and Twyla say “Everything is so easy for them. They think they own the world” (p.8). These are just a few examples of the stereotypes in the story as there are many more. Based on these it is truly hard to determine what race each girl is. At some points, I thought Roberta was white but then there are times where I think she is a woman of color based on the description of her hair and her not being able to read. These are just stereotypes that I have embedded in my head from back when this was written in 1950. Morrison can teach us that stereotypes are not always right which is why they are bad. They are ideas that try to represent whole groups but in reality, they only truly represent a small sample within a certain population, they are often completely wrong as well. Stereotypes are hard to get over and to move past as we get older. It is important to recognize them and to work towards moving past them. As the future generation grows up we have to work towards breaking down those false stereotypes.
I know that when I was reading, after not knowing what was going to happen but knowing there was intentional ambiguity, I was looking out for the stereotypes as a way of gaming the story, like I know what you a trying to do. But even so, I kept changing in my head who was who, trying to juggle the stereotypes and what identities makes the most logistic sense for the story. Knowing what race the girls are doesn’t change the story in any way yet we are still desperate to know.
I love the argument that you made regarding the stereotypical racial segregation in society today and compared and contrasted it to Toni Morrisons “Recitatif.” In my opinion, I found it very fascinating that Morrison never explicitly stated Twyla and Roberta’s race and instead, she wrote the whole story by just talking about how their races conflicted. Because of the way she portrayed their conflict, it was clear to the readers that they were different races and didn’t quite get along. I agree with you that racial stereotyping in today’s day occurs so much more than it did back then and that is something that really needs to be cut back on because it hurts so many people.
I also love the argument that you made about society today and how stereoypical racial segregation can be compared as well as contrasted to “Recitatif”. When I first started to read this story, I was having a hard time figuring out Twyla and Roberta’s race, which surprisingly didn’t change the quality of the story, nor made it confusing to keep up with. Toni definitely placed some stereotypes throughout the story such as Twyla stating that “They never washed their hair and they smell funny”. This description that Twyla gave makes me think about the stereotypes that were going around during those times about African Americans. I agree with you that stereotyping effects so many peoples lives in so many different ways. This also sways the way that many people think due to ideas and thoughts that are put out the world that allow people to think certain things.
As Morrison noted herself, the entire point of the short story was to be ambiguous and for readers to be uncertain of the girls race. She describes the girls briefly and mixes up some stereotypes between them. Most notably with Twyla’s comment, “they never wash their hair and they smell funny.” (Morrison, Recitatif, p1) She wants us to decide for ourselves, given vague descriptions, which girl is salt and which girl is pepper.
It’s insanely common for people to label each other in countless ways, and racial stereotyping is just another aspect of this game of categorization. Stereotypes help people categorize others and think they understand what they’re about, and what kind of behavior they’ll exhibit. We see Twyla do this with her statements, “Everything is so easy for them,” “They think they own the world.” (Morrison, Recitatif, p.8) Certainly this isn’t true for every member of that race. There are many who struggle, who are subjected to unjust treatment and who experience hardship. This statement is an example of a stereotype, painting all members of that group with the same brush. Morrison works to elicit the readers use of stereotyping and Recitatif can help us better understand how we as readers utilize our own biases passively simply while reading a story.
I think a lot of stereotyping within younger people comes from their parents, guardians, authoritative figures, and their environment. Children are constantly listening to adults and taking in what they say and do. They reflect their environment and the adults around them. Children are taught that adults know everything and everything they do and say is right. Therefore, if a child’s guardians react in a way towards African Americans or say things about them then that child is going to grow up thinking that is right. They will go to school and reflect the adults in their life. Adults in children’s lives are a large factor in stereotyping others.
Morrison’s goal in her writing was to show how people make assumptions and stereotype others. Saying derogatory things about people makes some people tie these stereotypes towards a certain race, gender, age, etc. Specifically, in this case, it’s about race as these comments were awful things said about black people and even still stereotyped today. While reading the story, it’s likely some readers would assume the girls were black, which is racial stereotyping. Racial stereotyping is harmful and allows others to make bad assumptions about others without actually knowing them. I think her overall goal in doing this was to point out the fact that readers might have made assumptions about the girl’s race or painted a picture of them without actually knowing anything about them. Which shows how awful it is to do this to people based on other’s rude comments. It’s racism, even if other’s try to defend it.
I think the decision to not explicitly say the race of the girls was in order to make us aware of the stereotypes that we use. It forces you to be aware of the thoughts that have been made so popular even in today’s society. When reflecting I believe it is supposed to make you uncomfortable that you came to those conclusions probably using little thought. We continue to use these stereotypes in everyday life when drawing conclusions. The comment about the mother shows us that these ideas are taught to us. This means that there will not be a change until these ideas stop being taught to children as normal ideas.
Toni Morrison makes a pointed effort to not make clear distinctions about the races of Twyla and Roberta, just enough though to make it clear that the girls are not the same race. There were several times while reading the story where I debated the race of either girl because of certain comments being made. I realized the the way I reacted to Morrison’s planted messages was a result of implicit bias and stereotyping. I think the race of the pair can be debated depending upon the race of the reader and the prior experience with stereotypes in our society. It is interesting to read the story twice, once with the idea that Twyla is white and Roberta is Black, and the second time with the races switched. It allows us to bring awareness to the stereotypes we almost subconsciously follow. We should not spend as much time debating the races of the girls, but rather the idea of why we find it so important to know their race and put them into single categories/single stories. It is disheartening that the issues Morrison brings to awareness are continuously prevalent in America and other nations. The stereotyping of others can be very problematic in gaining an understanding of the diverse human experience.