Topic 3 (African American literature)

"The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic"
complete essays followed by excerpts

Overcoming the Color Code

Historically, many cultures have equated the concepts of light with good and dark with evil.  Light also represents life, while black stands for death. This symbolism may derive from early humanity’s fear of the night and nocturnal predators. Unfortunately it also plays a strong component in racial prejudice and oppression. When the dominant majority culture kept black people as slaves, they used the “Color Code” to justify their actions. The effects of the Color Code continue to be felt long after slavery’s abolition.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison contains multiple examples of the harm that the Color Code perpetuates. When Pecola is born, her mother Pauline sees her as just “a black ball of hair” (124) and remarks, “…Lord was she ugly” (126). She has bought into her oppression so much that she fails to recognize her daughter’s natural beauty. Pauline genuinely prefers the time she spends working for a white family to being at home with her own black family. Her husband Cholly is shaped by the Color Code as well. He knows that God is traditionally depicted as white and reasons that the devil must therefore be black. “If the devil did look like that, Cholly preferred him” (134). The most poignant example of a black person hating her blackness is Pecola. She asks the mystic Soaphead Church to make her eyes blue, which is symbolic of her desire to be white and beautiful. But while the characters in The Bluest Eye view black skin and features as ugly, the author clearly does not. The “dark sweetness” of Ivy’s singing (113), the “soft black Georgia sky” of Cholly’s youth (133), and the African violets that black women “nudged…into bloom” (138) all represent a dark beauty.

The Color Code may have been used as fuel for prejudice, but even in the past, black people did not always regret having dark skin. Classic slave narratives illustrate how enslaved black people came to embrace their darkness and associate themselves with the night. The grandmother in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl did her cracker cooking at night since it was the only time that her master did not require her services. Frederick Douglas was only able to see his mother a few times during the night, when she snuck away from her master’s home to see him.

"From the Dark Tower" by Countee Cullen further develops the concept of night belonging to African Americans. The poem states that “the night…is no less lovely being dark.” Black people are compared to flowers that cannot bloom in the daylight. They hide in darkness, waiting for the day that they will overcome oppression. Langston Hughes’ poem “Dream Variations” utilizes similar imagery. The author wants “to fling my arms wide/ in the face of the sun,” which I believe is a metaphor for being strong despite the white dominant culture’s overpowering presence. Rather than fearing or dreading the night like it is something bad, Hughes looks forward to it: “Night coming tenderly/ Black like me.”

While the color black and the concept of death have long been associated with each other, an opposing viewpoint emerges in the Black Aesthetic. Darkness can also signify fertility and life. The womb that every person comes from is dark before we are born and see the light of day. Earlier I identified a simile in “Still I Rise” that compares a woman’s vagina to diamonds. The poem’s author is proud of her womb. By finding beauty in places that the dominant culture has long overlooked, African Americans march on towards true equality.

Overcoming the Color Code and its negative connotations of blackness will take time. The American dominant culture remains white, and many African Americans still struggle to be prosperous. Many people would rather pretend that they are colorblind and that racism no longer exists. But black people need to be proud of who they are. They must not resent their physical features like Pecola does in The Bluest Eye. Rather they should express themselves creatively and artistically, emphasizing the traits and history that make them unique. All Americans need to learn to think beyond terms of “black and white, instead accepting hybridity and change. I come from a somewhat mixed background, being half white and half Mexican. My daughter is half black and so gorgeous because of it. I hope everyone will eventually leave the Color Code behind in their thinking. [PA]

How can you tell the good cowboy from the bad cowboy? Look at the color of his hat. The good guy always wears white and the bad guy always wears black. This tradition of using light and dark to distinguish the good and the beautiful from the bad and the ugly dates back far beyond John Wayne and the Lone Ranger. For centuries, “Western civilization has been transferring values associated with light and dark and good and evil to people of dark complexions” (objective 1d). These associations are known as the “Color Code” and they have created a system of racial inequality and injustice. For the African American minority the Color Code has produced an enemy they are forced to battle, the enemy of prejudice. The primary weapon African Americans used in the war against their unjust enemy was the “Black Aesthetic.” The Black Aesthetic opened the minds of both the African American minority and the dominant American culture allowing black to be seen as beautiful. The movement to change the view of a civilization began in written works such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, The Bluest Eye, Dream Variations, and From the Dark Tower, just to name a few. This literature humanized African Americans revealing the serious problems with the Color Code; however, African American authors did not stop there. Writers such as Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen provided a positive response to the Color Code with the Black Aesthetic.

What is good? What is beautiful? The answer depends on who you ask and what era they grew up in. For instance, in the 1950’s, Marilyn Monroe was a sex symbol; she was a size 12. Today women aspire to look like Kate Moss; she is a size 0. This is an example of how society forms and shapes our views. Unfortunately, for hundreds of years society persuaded people that blackness was ugly. There became two very different standards for the black and the white. In the following passage, taken from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs shows readers an example of the effects of these standards:

I once saw two beautiful children playing together. One was a fair white child; the other was her slave, and also her sister […]The fair child grew up to be a still fairer woman. From childhood to womanhood her pathway was blooming with flowers, and overarched by a sunny sky. Scarcely one day of her life had been clouded when the sun rose on her happy bridal morning.

How had those years dealt with her slave sister, the little playmate of her childhood? She, also, was very beautiful; but the flowers and sunshine of love were not for her. She drank the cup of sin, and shame, and misery, whereof her persecuted race are compelled to drink (p 472).

While Jacobs sees both children as “beautiful” it is obvious that society does not share her opinion. The darker child is forced to be a slave to the fairer one and her life holds no joy but only shame and misery; all because of the color of her skin.

Many years after Jacobs wrote this passage, slavery was abolished, but the Color Code remained. Proof of this can be found in Toni Morrison’s book The Bluest Eye. Morrison shows readers the product of such an unjust system. From Shirley Temple teacups to little white baby dolls, the idea that light is desirable and dark is revolting has been ingrained in the young African American girls in Morrison’s novel. “Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs – all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll is what every girl child wanted…’Here, they said, ‘this is beautiful…” (pp 20-21). As a result, Pecola Breedlove and her family truly believe they are ugly. “The master had said, ‘You are ugly people.’ They had looked about themselves and saw nothing to contradict the statement; saw, in fact, support for it leaning at them from every billboard, every movie, every glance. ‘Yes,’ they had said. ‘You are right’” (p 39).

Here again we see the Color Code of society, coming from all directions, being laid on the backs of the Breedloves. Pecola feels the weight of the ugliness placed on her and prays everyday for blue eyes. By wanting blue eyes, Pecola is accepting the Color Code. Her mother, Polly, also accepts the Color Code. She goes to the movies and sees what society says is beautiful and she begins to become discontented with what she is and what she has. By buying new clothes and fixing up her hair Polly tries to become “beautiful,” but she is unsuccessful. She is unable to achieve beauty in her own ugly home, ugly children, and ugly husband, so she becomes as much a part of the white world as is allowed; she becomes the servant in “the big white house.” As much as Pecola and Polly accept the Color Code, Frieda rejects it. Despite the entire world telling her she is ugly, Frieda refuses to believe she is ugly. It is through Frieda that Morrison reveals the emergence of the Black Aesthetic.
            The Black Aesthetic not only rejects the Color Code, but diminishes its effects; first, on the African American minority and then on society. With the Black Aesthetic young African American girls like Frieda are able to embrace their blackness and proclaim, “We were still comfortable in our skins…and could not comprehend this unworthiness” (p 74). In this passage Frieda and her sister have just been taunted for being “black and ugly” (p 73), yet our young heroin confidently says she is comfortable with her skin. Morrison does not solely rely on Frieda to bring out the Black Aesthetic, she also shows readers that blackness is beautiful with the descriptions she uses. For example, Frieda says her mother’s love is “thick and dark as Alaga syrup” (p 12). Similarly, it is “the dark, the warmth, the quiet” of evening that soothes Cholly after his upsetting encounter with his father.

Morrison’s novel explores and expresses the Black Aesthetic; however she is not the only African American author to write such compelling passages about the beauty of blackness. In Dream Variations, Langston Hughes celebrates his darkness, “While night comes on gently, Dark like me…Night coming tenderly, Black like me.” It is hard to read these lines and not see the beauty conveyed through the images of evening and night. Much like Hughes, Countee Cullen, another African American poet, shapes the idea of the Black Aesthetic with lyrics: “The night whose sable breast relieves the stark White stars is no less lovely being dark” Here, Cullen is showing readers people born with black skin are equally as exquisite as people born with white skin. It is because of literature just like this, that African American minorities began to resist the Color Code of society and replace it with the Black Aesthetic.

The Black Aesthetic dramatically changed the minority situation. However, this change certainly did not come overnight. It is because of the vision, the courage, and the perseverance of African American writers, like the ones mentioned above, that today Americans can appreciate the beauty of black super models like Tyra Banks and award “Sexiest Man of the Year” to black actors like Denzel Washington, something that would never have happened while the yoke of the Color Code kept America enslaved. These monumental works of literature set in motion the movement that brought about the Black Aesthetic and changed the perception of a nation. [LF]

Black is beautiful

            Before taking this course I could have read any book and not realize that there would be any signs of “the color code” or “the Black aesthetic”.  Before taking this course I did not know what they meant or that they existed. That may be something I should not have admitted and shown my lack of knowledge of minority literature.  But I have learned a great deal and now know the difference between the two. That is why I have chosen to do this topic over “the color code” and the “black aesthetic”. 

            The color code is a term used in literature that “represents the extremely sensitive subject of skin color infrequently or indirectly”. (Obj. 1d)  For example, in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye there are numerous indirectly lines that represent the color code.  When Frieda and Claudia went to see Pecola at her mom’s job the house is described as white.  The inside is made of “white porcelain, white woodwork, and brilliant copperware”. (107-108) Notice that the house is not Green or Peach colored, it is white and everything about it is white and clean.  We see the positive, the good, of the whiteness.  Then when Pecola drops a cobbler it is described as “splattering blackish blueberries”.  Pecola burns herself because of this.  We then associate the black berries as a negative because of the burn.  And it is not just skin color.  In The Bluest Eye, Pecola realizes she is like a weed, an unwanted weed that people pull out and not a flower that people can admire.  We also see that the white Shirley Temple cups and the white dolls are what the parents give to the children for Christmas.  As said before in topic one, this is the ideology of the culture. To think that white is better, or more pure.  And on page 74, in regards to Maureen, they said “if she was cute… we were lesser”.  Throughout Morrison’s story we see the color code play out but she does add in the black aesthetic. 

            The black aesthetic is something that was created about the 1960’s and 1970’s.  It basically celebrates the beauty of a black person.  I never knew that that is “Black is beautiful” came from.  On page 113 we see “the dark sweetness” on page 138 we see “black violets”, and on 174 “A little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes”.  That may be my favorite line just because I am imagining this total darkness and a girl rising out of it all.  Now I know I have been giving a lot of Morrison examples but she is not the only one that uses black aesthetics. 

            In Countee Cullen’s poem “From the Dark Tower” he uses beautiful words to portray black and dark as a positive and not negative like the color code does. 

The night whose sable breast relieves the stark
White stars is no less lovely being dark,
And there are buds that cannot bloom at all
In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall;

            It mentions night and how the stars are white but without the darkness they would not be seen.  The stars are nothing without the dark.  And I love how it says that there are buds that cannot bloom in the light.  The dark is shown as something and a part of much more.

            There is also beautiful wording in Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise”.   

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

            The line “I’m a black ocean” just says it all. How awesome she has it describing the leaping and how grand it is.  Also a perfect line that shows how the color code can lead to the solutions developed by the black aesthetic is line “leaving behind nights of terror and fear/ I rise”.  Nights are no longer seen as terror but something beautiful. 

            Never did I think I was going to enjoy reading these texts as much as I do right now.  I have learned so much and my concept of minority literature as changed for the better. It isn’t the boring stories I thought they would be.  I can honestly say I am excited to read about the Native Americans and Mexican Americans.  I would love to read some of my own culture’s work. [AG]

            The concept of the color code is a long standing one in the United States, dating back to the very origins of the country and beyond.  The dominant group in the United States has traditionally been white, and as such, assigned negative properties to those who had dark skin.  Whether this was a product of the subjugation of Africans in slavery or simply fear and disgust of things that were different from themselves, I don’t honestly know.  The simple fact remains, however, that the white populace ascribed the ideas of dishonesty and ugliness to the color black, and all of the good qualities of beauty, honor, and purity to the color white.

            This can be seen in “The Bluest Eye”, when the author tells us about “a little black girl who wanted to rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes.” (174)  Toni Morrison is using this statement to show the reader the deep hurt that a young black girl feels in society when she is told by everyone she knows and everything she sees that the color of her skin is wrong and somehow less beautiful than the white people’s.  The great irony here, of course, is that the little girl, Pecola, is actually an exceedingly pretty girl by today’s standards, but is denied that feeling because of the color of her skin.  She is ashamed of the fact that she was born black. 

By contrast, all of the people in the community believe that God is “a nice old white man.”  This is the ultimate slap in the face to slaves who are beaten and downtrodden by those whom they associate with the color white.  The comment could also be made that if the Supreme Being in your conception of existence is in the image of the one who mistreats you and causes you untold grief and suffering, what hope is there for a happy existence.  By extension, the devil is often assumed to come from a dark, black place, which may cause the black population to find it easier to associate with him as opposed to the form of their oppressor.  Purity is also seen in this way, all the way to the modern concept of a white wedding gown symbolizing chastity and virginity. 

Another example can be found in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.”  The author references her chances of arguing her servitude, but ends up giving a statement that shows the difference in treatment towards dark and light skinned people.  “Whether the slave girl be as black as ebony or as fair as her mistress” shows the association of being black as a reason to be a slave and be punished, while being of fair skin relates one to be closer to a mistress, although in this case, neither skin tone will save her from being a slave.       However, these historical ideas have caused a recent movement that stresses the idea that black is beautiful.  The concept of the black aesthetic can be seen as early as Frederick Douglass.  In his writings he associates his mother, who was “of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather” with the nighttime, which was the only time she ever was able to come and visit him.  Although he never develops a close relationship with his mother, the ties between something beautiful like the bond between a parent and child are made to the darkness of night and even to her own dark skin color.  It is also true that night time was the only real time that slaves had for themselves, which may have caused them to associate the dark with freedom and liberty.

            Later, in the twentieth century, a movement called the Harlem Renaissance continued the concept of black beauty.  “Dream Variations” by Langston Hughes follows the same pattern of relating being black to the night, much like Frederick Douglass had hinted at.  He speaks of dancing and twirling during the day, “while night comes on gently, Dark like me.”  This suggests that Hughes felt that night was beautiful, caring and gentle, much like the love of a mother or loved one.  Countee Cullen mirrors the aim of the black aesthetic in “The Dark Tower.”  His line “The night whose sable breast relieves the stark white stars is no less lovely being dark” shows that not only is darkness beautiful in its own, but also that without the stark contrast between the black night sky, the bright white stars would not be beautiful either.  In essence, it is essential that all of us are seen for our true beauty, because we all are beautiful and enhance the beauty of others.

            The Color Code was a negative means of degrading black men and women.  Recently, though, movements have been started that seek the redefinition of beauty to include and honor the true beauty that is inherent in being black. [BH]

            White is pure and black is ugly. Unfortunately, this has been the attitude of people since the immigration of African Americans to the United States. And even more unfortunate, this attitude still lingers today. Western civilization has come to the conclusion that light and dark are associated with principles such as good and evil, respectively. References to this have been found in much of African American literature. For example, in The Bluest Eye, Soaphead Church refers to Pecola as “a little black girl who wanted to rise up out of a pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes” (174). This suggests that seeing the world through blue eyes is favored and Pecola’s blackness is a type of tragedy, instead of something to be embraced and accepted. This ideal comes from the fact that “a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” (20). The fact that a black girl should treasure a white doll suggests that the white race is preferred.

            African Americans do not only treasure white skin tones. The dark skinned African Americans are also envious of light skinned African Americans, otherwise known as mulattos. If an African American is light skinned, they are treated better and looked upon more favorably than those who are of a darker complexion. We see this in The Bluest Eye, with the character Maureen Peal. Frieda and Claudia hate her because they are envious of her beauty. They don’t like that she gets more attention and gets treated well because she is not dark skinned. For example, the narrator, Claudia wrote, “and all the time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred. The thing to fear was the thing that made her beautiful, and not us” (74). This shows that not only do those of light skin think they are superior, but those that are dark-skinned think so too.

            Frederick Douglass had to deal with racial problems the minute he was born. His mother was black slave and his father was his white master. Having his parents come from two completely different backgrounds suggests something about the subject of skin color. Since his mother is black, she must be a lowly slave and not of any importance, since she is rarely mentioned in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Since his father is white, he must be of a higher ranking, a slave owner. This suggests that white people are more significant than black people.

            The Black Aesthetic created a positive alternative to the Color Code. By definition, the Black Aesthetic is a artistic and literary development among African Americans. This led to the idea of “black is beautiful”, which is the idea that being black is not a negative thing. For example, in The Bluest Eye, singing was referred to as a “dark sweetness”, which created the idea that being dark is something good and not evil like it was once thought of as (113). This shows that Morrison finds a hidden beauty in darkness.

            A more obvious example of the Black Aesthetic is in Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise”. Angelou boasts of her darkness, saying “I rise, I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear the tide”. This suggests that being black is an acceptable thing because one is able to “bear the tide” and rise above any struggles placed in front of them. Angelou clearly feels that being black is not something that will limit her or prohibit her from prospering.

            Thankfully, we have come a long way since the time of slavery, however, discrimination still exists in today’s society. Hopefully the Black Aesthetic idea will continue to flourish and we can leave the Color Code behind and regard it as a thing of the past. [SW]

The “Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison is filled with the color code as identified by this course as “Western civilization transfers values associated with “light and dark”—e.g., good & evil, rational/irrational—to people of light or dark complexions, with huge implications for power, validity, sexuality, etc. (obj 1d)

Perceived by adults, the best Christmas present any little girl could want was a white blue eyed baby doll. For Claudia that blue eyed doll represented everything that she was not. She could not understand why adults thought that “a blue –eyed, yellow haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” (20), if that was the epitome of beauty, where did she and her sister stand. Both Claudia and Frieda were far from resembling that baby doll.

Light colors represented beauty, Maureen was a yellow-toned child and all perceived her to be cute and beautiful. Although Claudia and Frieda interpreted this to mean that they were lesser they were still in love with themselves. These two young girls were demonstrating the black aesthetic, black is beautiful (class notes). ‘[They] felt comfortable in [their own] skins”; however, they recognized the envy they felt for Maureen’s color. They knew that the enemy was not Maureen but it was the thing that made her pretty and different from them. What gave Maureen the best the colored world had to offer her, gave slave women the attention they did not want. For beauty was a cross to bear for the slave woman; for “no matter whether the slave girl be black as ebony or as fair as her mistress” (361 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl), she belonged to her master, who could do with her as he pleased.

The narratives use color to depict the differences or similarities of white and black. Douglas uses color to associate day and night with masters and slaves. The daytime was his master’s time, his master was white just as the day is, and nighttime was the slave’s time, night is dark just as the slave is. (class notes). In “The Bluest Eye” Pecola associates beauty with those blue eyes, she felt that if she had those blue eyes then she too would have beauty. To Pecola beauty was in color, and her color was not beautiful.

Contrary to the color code the black aesthetic found beauty in the blackness. The Bluest Eye” tells of how the black woman takes orders from all; “white women say “do this” , white children say “give me that”, white men say “come here”, and black men say “lay down”, the only people they do not take orders from are black children and themselves” (138). Although, these women take orders from all, they knew that they were the ones who took care of the white homes, mended the beatings their men received from white men, disciplined their own with a firm hand, but even with all their harshness they were still able to “nudge African violets into bloom” (138). To me this personifies the black aesthetic—black women although at times harsh are the strong beautiful backbone of a family. [SAH]