Summary

The argument that Toni Morrison's short story "Recitatif" replaces the idea of racial division with a larger depiction of cruelty, discrimination and dehumanization holds some truth. Morrison deliberately withholds the racial identities of the two main characters, Twyla and Roberta, which forces readers to face their own assumptions about race. By doing this, she challenges the thought that racism is always straight forward or connected to obvious defined identities. Instead, she empasizes that cruelty, discrimination and dehumanization can exist regardless of social position. Morrison shifts the focus from race alone to something more universal, and the portrayal that people can be unfair or cruel , not just because of race but also by dynamics such as misunderstanding, fear or power. One example of this is when eight year old Twyla and Roberta mock and ridicule Maggie, a vulnerable woman who is a mute. "Dummy! Dummy! Bow legs! Bow legs," they scream, not out of racial hatred but still in an unkind and dehumanizing way. This gives the idea that discrimination does not always have to stem from racial bias, but it can stem from a bigger human tendancy to tease those who are different. However, I don't believe that Morrison is trying to erase something important about racism in this story. Rather, she wants readers to think more deeply about how racism operates. The absence of racial labels in this story does not mean that racism isn't present, it definitely is. The author is just showing that prejudice and cruelty can come in many forms, and racism is just one of them.