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A review by amittaizero
Blacker the Berry... by Wallace Thurman
4.0
I read this book immediately after reading [a:Claude McKay|36919|Claude McKay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1360437730p2/36919.jpg]'s [b:Home to Harlem|999816|Home to Harlem|Claude McKay|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388620803s/999816.jpg|985307]. I've often avoided the Harlem Renaissance because it's become so much a part of the American literary canon that some of its authors have become static, almost sterile figures. [b:The Blacker the Berry...|868440|The Blacker the Berry...|Wallace Thurman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348407725s/868440.jpg|853827] and McKay's novel both highlight the "intra-racial" forms of discrimination, as Thurman calls it.
All this is me talking from the outside looking in.
My previous knowledge of the issue of blackness comes mostly from teaching high school in a predominately Black (capital "B" I guess) community where being black (dark-skinned) was, at least from what I saw, a magnet for mockery. All the lighter hues of Black students almost seemed to become one when a black student was in the class. Even the darkest male and female students expressed their preference for "light-skins."
Being black was a punchline. I remember once turning out the lights to use the overhead projector and one of my students exclaiming, "Where's Brandon? I can't see him anymore!!" The intimation being that all that could be seen of Brandon, in true minstrel fashion, were his eyes and his teeth - or just his eyes, since he wasn't smiling.
All this is me talking from the outside looking in.
My previous knowledge of the issue of blackness comes mostly from teaching high school in a predominately Black (capital "B" I guess) community where being black (dark-skinned) was, at least from what I saw, a magnet for mockery. All the lighter hues of Black students almost seemed to become one when a black student was in the class. Even the darkest male and female students expressed their preference for "light-skins."
Being black was a punchline. I remember once turning out the lights to use the overhead projector and one of my students exclaiming, "Where's Brandon? I can't see him anymore!!" The intimation being that all that could be seen of Brandon, in true minstrel fashion, were his eyes and his teeth - or just his eyes, since he wasn't smiling.