Racism Against African American Women in the Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and its Persistence in Today’s USA Society

Abstract

After the American Civil War (1861-1865), African Americans, freed from slavery for the first time, located literature as a voice booster to achieve their rights. From that point onwards, Black Americans merged in the American literature sphere incorporating new themes, forms, authors and audiences (Franklin et al., 2008). In a similar vein, other paths were taken to obtain equality among Black and White Americans after Racism persisted and police brutality increased. For that reason, African Americans have led the BLM movement since 2014 (Taylor, 2016). In May of 2020, BLM protests raised again due to the constant escalation of police brutality against unarmed African Americans (Dreyer et al., 2020). As a consequence of the recent events, there is little comparison between African American Literature and the current state of American Racism. Especially, Racism towards African American women who incorporate it to their cause along with sexism. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is twofold: first, to examine Racism towards African American female characters in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and, second, to compare the traits of Racism found with the African American women current situation. In order to analyse the novel, three tenets from CRT are applied: Everyday Racism, Intersectionality, and Interest Convergence (Panlay, 2016). Results obtained manifest that Racism towards African American women prevails in today’s USA society. Finally, Racism traits are debated, and suggestions for further research are proposed.