"Racism" When Reading "Recitatif"

I have read this short story before, in high school. I remember the class discussion we had, and I hope our college class discussion will be nothing like it. Basically, my high school class discussion turned in to accusations of racism, which is just silly. People say that if you assume a certain girl is black and the other one is white, you're being racist. That's just ridiculous. Everybody just calm down.

In the interview with the author, Toni Morrison, at the end of the story (pg 145-146), Morrison says that she purposefully used stereotypes to guide the reader into assuming each girl's race. By doing this, Morrison does help readers to acknowledge stereotypes and presumptuous conclusions. I'll go ahead and say it: I think Twyla is the white girl and Roberta is the black girl. There are many reasons for this. The most obvious one is that I am white, so I identify the narrator as white. When I start reading anything, I immediately assume that the narrator is a white female until I am explicitly told otherwise. I am not saying I am right to do this, I am just acknowledging that this is a habit I have. Throughout the story, though, I feel there is plenty of evidence to back up my initial assumption.

The biggest textual pieces of support for my assumptions are that I think it would be more likely for the black girl to be going to see Hendrix (pg 135), and I feel like it’s more like the white woman not to care that her boy is being bussed (pg 140 – 141).

 Arguments could be made either way for which girl is white and which is black. Ultimately, it is impossible to know for sure, and it doesn’t really matter. The point of this story is just to get readers to think about their preconceived notions and assumptions.