Reader:  Tammy Wilson

Respondent:  Kate Barrack

“Blonde White Woman”

Patricia Smith

Unsettling America, pp. 77-79

Literary Objectives:

Obj. 1d:  “The Color Code”

            Literature represents the extremely sensitive subject of skin color infrequently or indirectly.  Generally Western civilization transfers the values it associates with “light or dark” – e.g., good & evil, rational/irrational – to people of light or dark complexions with enormous implications for power, validity, sexuality, etc.

Obj. 4:

            To register the minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance – i.e., do you fight or join the culture that oppresses you?

Obj. 5a:

            To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help “others” hear the minority voice and vicariously share the minority experience.

Interpretation:

            I think the poem illustrates the frustration of a young African American woman who lives in a society which causes her to wish to be someone else.  From the very beginning of the poem, as she reads through Ebony magazine, she is confronted with advertisements for hair straightening and skin lightening concoctions.  This only strengthens the young woman’s belief that she is not acceptable the way she is. The magazine advertisements remind Patricia of a time when she wished, more than anything, to be a blonde, white, woman.  Her childhood description of her appearance indicates her dissatisfaction with herself.  As a child she often pretends that she is a blond, white woman, only then does she feel beautiful.  She believed the blonde, white, woman, with her perfect teeth, perfect hair, and perfect skin color, to be the perfect human being.

            However, as an adult, Patricia’s views change.  She comes to accept herself and to realize her own beauty.  Her feelings toward the blonde, white, woman also changes.  She no longer idealizes these women, but now considers them to be “snarling madonnas” that only look down on her.

Previous Student Presentations:

Tammy Nohr from UHCL class 2004 said:

            “I think Smith illustrates the frustration and self-loathing brought about by the rejection or hostility of the dominant culture”.

Questions:

1. Why do you think Patricia longed to be a “blonde, white, woman”?  What do you think changes her mind?

2.  Do you think the poem represents Patricia’s desire to assimilate or to resist assimilation?