?At the start of the book a naive, young and innocent African American girl lived life almost oblivious to the socially constructed issue of race.
She did not see the difference of skin color and believed it was perfectly normal to socialize with whites. As far as she was concerned raced did not exist. This view was quickly altered and changed as the little girl named Essie-Mae Moody grew up fast in a society dominated by racial boundaries involving whites, blacks and a hierarchy of people who had parts of both.Essie’s first encounter with race which initiated her first change, from being oblivious to being confused, occurred early in life. When she was young, she was friends with and often played with white children. This all changed when an unknowing Essie-Mae tried to sit with her white friends in a white’s only section of a movie theatre.
After being harshly corrected of her errors by her mother her eyes were opened for the first time to a world with race. “I knew that we were going to separate schools and all, but I never knew why. ”1 At this point her innocence was lost and confusion took hold of her.At this point she realized the bigger picture, that she and her friends were different because of their skin color. “I had never really thought of them as white before. Now all of a sudden they were white, and their whiteness made them better than me.
”2 Essie-Mae also realized at this point that whites had nicer and better things, everything was better for someone who was white. Her confusion continued to increase as she questioned the racial differences. She didn’t understand how looks alone did not make someone white, as was with her white skinned “black” relatives. If it wasn’t the straight hair and the white skin that made you white, then what was it? ”3 The racial hierarchy was not only comprised of blacks and whites, which Essie-Mae Moody discovered at a young age. In between white and black were all shades of people, some almost flaunted their white qualities and lighter skin, and even acted superior to those of darker shades even among relatives.
However, Essie didn’t understand why “… they hated Mama and for no reason at all other than the fact that she was a couple of shades darker than other members of their family. 4 Her mother was not the only victim unfortunately. Essie-Mae herself was even ignored in public by lighter skinned members of her extended family. Essie-Mae Moody’s confused outlook towards race took a new view after having interactions with and working for various whites. Some whites treated her as if there was no existence of race at all, while others treated her poorly and tried to enforce racial boundaries at every opportunity.
One example of this occurred when she worked for Linda Jean Jenkins. Mrs. Jenkins treated Essie with the respect that she deserved and treated her more as a friend than hired help.This positive experience however, was tainted by the actions of Mrs. Burke, Linda Jean’s mother.
Mrs. Burke took every opportunity to try and make her “racial superiority” known, almost trying to counteract her daughter’s more open minded views and actions. 5 Through this experience Essie gave the impression that some whites were kind like Linda Jean, but others could be evil as was Mrs. Burke. The next feeling towards whites Essie-Mae had as time passed was one of fear.
This fear was created by the murder of Emmitt Till. His death marked the first time in her life that she realized whites killed blacks because of race.When Essie had asked who killed African Americans in the past her mother told her, “An evil spirit killed him. You gotta be a good girl or it will kill you too. ”6 When she finally realized that the evil spirit was actually whites she began to be afraid of them.
When she was younger she did not know that race based killings existed, but once enlightened she began to fear and the last part of her innocence was lost. 7 “Before Emmit Till’s murder, I had known fear of hunger, hell and the Devil. But now there was a new fear known to me- the fear of being killed just because I was black.This was the worst of my fears.
”8 This fear was also given life because she was not aware of what criteria or actions could cause an African American to be killed. She came to the conclusion that being black was enough. 9 “I was fifteen years old when I began to hate people. I hated the white men who murdered Emmitt Till and I hated all the other whites who were responsible for countless murders…and those I vaguely remembered from childhood. ”10 The section of the book that this quote comes from shows an attitude toward race that Essie-Mae retains for a significant amount of time.Her feelings were characterized by anger.
As the story progresses it comes to be known that Essie does not solely blame the whites. She considered the black community just as guilty for allowing the atrocities to occur. At this point in time Essie-Mae showed that she did not blame just one side of the racial spectrum; she blamed everyone for their part in contributing to the problem. 11 Her anger eventually transformed into hatred as more atrocities occurred that involved the killings of African Americans.
The major event that caused Essie-Mae Moody to hate was the murder of Samuel O’Quinn.This murder was the straw that broke the camel’s back in relation to Essie’s shift to saying she hated whites. His death reminded her of all the other killings she had buried away inside of her that were waiting to explode. She was even more angry that she wanted to take direct action against what was happening but did not know what to do or how to do it. At one point she said, “I wanted to take my savings, buy a machine gun, and walk down the main street in Centreville cutting down every white person I saw. ”12 This hate resulted in her resentment towards whites altogether.
Her resentment was typified by her actions and feelings toward one of her white employers. “When I was at work I hardly spoke to Mrs. Hunt. Because she was part of Centreville’s white community and didn’t condemn what they were doing, I considered her as guilty as the ones who did the killing. ”13 Essie-Mae later began to attribute household problems and domestic disputes of African Americans to whites.
Essie agreed with Emma when she blamed whites for how “…they had set things up making it almost impossible for the Negro men to earn a living. ” At this point Essie’s feelings towards whites was the most negative it would reach.The final view that Essie holds towards whites was one of pity. For long she was confused by whites, was angry with whites and ultimately hated them.
However, this attitude was very different. Essie got to a point where she concluded that southern whites where sick. She could not understand why they would kill to retain their way of life. 14 This is when her hatred began to dissipate. “Before the sit-in, I had always hated whites in Mississippi.
Now I knew it was impossible for me to hate sickness. The whites had a disease, an incurable disease in its final stage. ”15
