Helen Murray | 2016

Representations of what we would now call biracial women in popular American literature of all genres have been ever changing throughout the decades. During slavery, the one drop rule kept near white blacks in servitude, as exemplified by the character Iola Leroy in the novel of the same name. She is remanded into slavery despite being a free woman, which was a common literary narrative in the late 19th century. Light skinned slave women were often valued for their mysterious and exotic beauty, exemplified in Linda’s narrative in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, which discusses the psychological trauma of being sexually abused as a slave. Black children who were enslaved but appeared to be white were used to gain sympathy for the abolitionist movement by preying on the instinct of whites to protect their children. Ambiguous racial identity was also used to garner sympathy in the form of posters and novels, such as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Iola Leroy. Once slavery was abolished and reconstruction had begun, attempting to create a space for blacks in society, new narratives for biracial black women became popular. The idea of passing as an act to secure a better place in society for oneself was a common theme, as seen in Passing by Nella Larsen. This directly contrasts with previous narratives; now light skinned black women can take advantage of their lighter skin and perceived racial identity instead of being held back by their black ancestry. 

Representations of biracial women in the 21st century are even more complex than they were in the past. Instead of being classified as simply black or being able to pass from one identity to the other at one’s will, now biracial women must somehow exist in both identities at once, or transcend categorization and occupy a separate identity entirely. Literature at the turn of the 21st century has moved to consider what it means to occupy more than one racial identity, and also whether or not blackness and whiteness serve as effective categorizations. Biracial discourse at this time aims to redefine how we discuss race, specifically, artificially constructed racial borders. Literature in the late 20th century and early 21st century such as Heidi Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky and Danzy Senna’s Caucasia, both of which are novels written by biracial women, seek to redefine what it means to be a biracial woman who is both black and white. It means embodying and taking back one’s own racial identity, even if it doesn’t quite match up with the color of one’s skin. Biracial women have a claim to blackness, but may not have a claim to whiteness in the same way. This means that a biracial woman must come to terms with parts of her identity that she may not have before, and she must define them for herself. She transcends traditional definitions of blackness and whiteness. 

Caucasia tells the story of a biracial family consisting of a white mother, black father, and two biracial sisters. It is told from the younger sister, who has more traditionally caucasian features than her older sister. She has lighter skin and straighter hair than her sister, and is able to pass as white. This book was one of the first novels to be written about passing in about 70 years, but it does so in a radically different way than ever before. The main character, Birdie, is a “not-so-tragic mulatto,” which shifts the narrative from past literature. Iola Leroy’s story of being a freed black woman who is then remanded to slavery by some unfortunate events is an example of the tragic mulatto narrative (Badia). Instead of her blackness being her downfall, Birdie’s struggle is one to make her blackness visible to those around her, despite having a body that reads as white. In particular, she wishes to be visible to her black father, who always showed favoritism towards her darker sister. Birdie sees her whiteness as invisibility due to her internalization of the black power movement which both of her parents are involved in. Her sister Cole, despite being favored by their activist parents, is portrayed as having struggles with her identity as well.

Birdie’s sister, Cole, is also depicted as struggling with being biracial, but in a different way. Both sisters struggle to fit in with black kids, but for different reasons. The sisters band together as biracial girls, even forming their own language, Elemeno, which is difficult for anyone but them to understand. This symbolizes the isolation of being biracial, and that despite the fact that every biracial person has different lived experiences, they can all understand each other. This calls into question whether “biracial” as a separate racial identity serves those who would fall under that categorization. The creation of a new language, which is a rejection of commonly established languages and dialects, shows the girls attempting to resist the racial classifications that society pins on them by simply creating their own. Instead of figuring out how to embody blackness and whiteness in their own way, Birdie and Cole create a new space for themselves, which doesn’t rely on blackness or whiteness at all.

Later, after struggling to fit in with both black and white kids Birdie has a moment of realization, “I wanted to be black like somebody else” (Senna). She wants to create her own embodiment of blackness, and she can not continue to try and be black like someone else. She realizes that blackness is not a fixed concept, and that there is not only one way to embody it. She transcends widely accepted definitions of blackness and frees herself from notions of blackness which are popularized by the black power movement. To come to terms with this, however, she must realize that those closest to her can not show her how to embody blackness in a way that suited her. Heidi Durrow’s novel tells the story of a biracial girl who must find a way to embody blackness in her own way as well. She feels more connected to her white racial identity than her black ancestry, and, due to her upbringing, often dismisses the fact that she is black.

At the beginning of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, Rachel is a young girl going to live with her black grandmother after being raised primarily by her white mother. She feels more connected to her white, Danish, heritage as we see early on through her desire to hold on to the language, customs, and memories from her upbringing. When she goes to live with her Grandmother and begins to attend a mostly black school, we see her start to have to come to terms with her black identity and what it means to be a biracial girl surrounded by black peers and teachers. On her first day she has this thought, “She is a black woman. I think about this and don’t know why. It is something I’m supposed to know but not think about. Mrs. Anderson is my first black woman teacher” (Durrow 8). Rachel had not seen black women in these positions, and we can read this as the first moment Rachel realizes the complexity of her identity. She sees Mrs. Anderson as a black woman, and notices this difference which means it has made an impression on her. This moment is similar to moments in which marginalized groups see representation of themselves doing something they did not think was possible. Rachel’s idea of blackness starts to change in this moment into something she can have and embody, because she sees people who do not fit into preconceived notions of blackness.

This does not, however, mean that her preconceived notions of what a black woman can and cannot be go away, she simply saw an alternative in that moment. We see evidence of this when Rachel finds that Miss America is black, “Miss America is black today, and she has blue eyes. There is a small picture on the bottom of the newspaper’s front page. She doesn’t look black to me” (Durrow 58). Rachel does not see the characteristics she has come to associate with blackness through the representation she has been exposed to thus far. She goes on to talk about how black women aren’t as pretty as white women, with some exceptions including her Aunt Loretta and the black Miss America. From this it is clear that Rachel attributes her beauty, which is mentioned often in the novel, to her whiteness. This may be a reason why she at first refuses to embrace her black identity.

Rachel gets ridiculed for acting white, which is representative of the fact that biracial women do not have a claim to whiteness in the same way they do blackness. In school she starts to realize that black girls are not supposed to do certain things. She gets called a white girl, “And the way they say that – white girl – it feels like a dangerous thing to be” (Durrow 28). Rachel is sent the message that she does not have a claim to whiteness even though she feels that it is a part of her identity. She is not allowed to occupy the space of whiteness in the same way she can occupy blackness. This is yet another reason why she must learn later on to transcend these definitions and define herself.

Aunt Loretta is an important figure in Rachel’s early journey as a biracial girl, because of the fact that she provides an alternative black woman’s narrative. It becomes clear part way through the novel that she wishes to be more connected to her African heritage. For Rachel to see a black woman who not only beautiful and smart, but also connected to her ancestry is a powerful and important message for a young girl. Aunt Loretta both defies and affirms what preconceived notions of blackness Rachel has, and as such she becomes a character who can illustrate the flexibility of blackness, showing it can be allowed to shift and change just as much as whiteness.

Discussing the tenuousness of whiteness and blackness through a young girl is especially effective due to the fact that she is also going through bodily changes. So much of her racial identity is represented by her body. The disconnect between body image and lived body that a young girl might feel during puberty is similar to the disconnect that she might feel between her inner racial identity and perceived racial identity (Boudreau). This coming of age story does the important work of illustrating the many things that a biracial girl goes through as she is growing up that are very different from what other girls go through. Understanding her racial identity is as important as understanding her body.

Blackness and whiteness are not static concepts and they can mean different things for different people. Rachel encounters this idea when she meets Brick and Jesse, two young men who will have a lot to do with shaping her ideas of blackness and whiteness and therefore will help shape her inner sense of self. She finds herself forgetting that the two men are different races due to how different they are from what she has seen represented as whiteness and blackness thus far. She admits that, “I forget that what you are – being black or being white – matters. Jesse makes me see there’s a different way to be white. And Brick makes me see there’s a different way to be black” (Durrow 202). This moment is so important for Rachel, because it is a moment in which whiteness and blackness blur together in two subjects outside of herself. This represents the way in which whiteness and blackness can blur together in biracial people, forming a racial identity that is completely new and transcends ideas of blackness and whiteness. There is no one biracial identity, and Rachel continues to learn from those around her new ways that she can define herself in terms of a black identity which is not fixed or adhering to particular models, and a whiteness which is not the norm. Still, however, people latch on to the normality and safety of whiteness when referring to her.

Rachel is more approachable due to her whiteness, and her light skin causes her to be sexualized throughout the novel. When Rachel and Jesse begin to become close and their relationship becomes more sexual, he tells her, “You’re different anyway, you know? It’s like you’re black but not really black” (Durrow 230). This is where existing in two different racial identities can become dangerous. It can become easy to tokenize a biracial person of color and fetishize them, making them more exotic but also more approachable to white people because they are closer to the assumed norm of whiteness. Jesse, despite seeming in touch with black culture, still finds Rachel more approachable because she is treading that middle ground between familiar and unfamiliar. She is just exotic enough that Jesse is attracted to her, but she is also like him which justifies his relationship with her. We can see origins of this common twenty first century dynamic in slavery, when light skinned blacks were favored as sexual partners for white slave masters because of their light skin and other white features which followed white standards of beauty. These lighter skinned slaves were almost always more desired, Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl can serve as a point of reference. A key aspect of the novel is the thread of a sexually manipulative and abusive relationship between her and her master. He was drawn in by her familiarity, but did not see her as an equal due to her status as a slave. He took advantage of her position in order to manipulate and control her into a sexual relationship.  

Rachel reaches a turning point near the end of the novel where she breaks free of the preconceived notions of other people and starts to truly define herself. She has a moment with Brick, “When he looks at me, it feels like no one has really seen me since the accident. In his eyes, I’m not the new girl. I’m not the color of my skin. I’m a story. One with a past and a future unwritten” (Durrow 264). In this moment Rachel fully realizes the potential she has as a biracial young woman. She is free to write her own story and define her own life, not despite her racial background but because of it. All the different ways she has seen and learned to embody blackness and whiteness have helped inform how she perceives her own identity. She will finally speak for herself and stop letting her body and skin betray her identity to onlookers.

Heidi Durrow and Danzay Senna are two biracial women writers with black ancestry who sought to redefine what it means to be a biracial woman through the coming of age stories of two biracial girls. As they mature, they come to terms with their identities as biracial women with black ancestry. The biracial woman transcends traditional definitions of blackness and whiteness as she defines them in her own way. Biracial women have a claim to blackness, but may not have a claim to whiteness in the same way. Being white passing can exclude one from black spheres, but that does not equal acceptance in white spheres. Representation of biracial women is different at the turn of the 21st century, but the trajectory of such representation is clear when looking at older works.