In Recitatif, by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

           The racial identity of Roberta and Twyla is an doubtful part of the story. From the start, it is apparent that Roberta and Twyla are of different races. They were both "stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race." Throughout the story, each character is developed more and more, though it does not necessarily lead to a conclusion as to what race each girl. Many of the traits could be indicative of either a black or white girl. More so, it confuses the issue even more by leading the reader to decide one way and change his/her mind a minute later. However, in the scheme of this story, I think that is just the point. 

In the beginning, my first initial reactions were that Roberta was the black girl, while Twyla was white. During the time period in the beginning of the story, a negative attitude was taken toward black people. It seems as though Twyla's mom had warned her about the black people who "never wash their hair and they smelled funny. Roberta sure did smell funny.”. Twyla also tells the Big Bozo, "My mother won't like you putting me here." A white mother did not want her white daughter to be roomed with a black girl. Furthermore, Roberta does not seem to understand this. "Roberta asked Twyla “Is your mother sick too?'" In my interpretation of how things were in those times, a white person may be offended to be paired with a black person, while the black person may not care. In this case, Twyla shows concern for being put into the same room as Roberta, while Roberta does not seem to notice any hatred.

Following this incident in the story, Twyla encounters Roberta in Howard Johnson's. Roberta "is sitting with two guys smothered in head and facial hair. Her own hair is so big and wild that Twyla could hardly see her face." This implies to me a sort of "Afro" hairstyle for both Roberta and her escorts. Even her clothing and jewelry seen to suggest that she is black. "She has on a powder-blue halter and shorts outfit and earrings the size of bracelets," similar to the earrings worn by African women. She is also on her way to see Jimi Hendrix, a black musician, and snubs Twyla for not knowing who he is. Though this is not entirely indicative of a black person, it is more likely to be a black person. This once again contradicts the previous conclusion of Roberta's race. The line between who is black and who is white gets very hard to tell the difference.

This brings up another important issue in the story. Society has given blacks a negative marking, a negative "brand." Even black people begin to find the black race as offensive and digusting. Regardless of which girl was black, this could have led them both to have the yearning to "hurt" Maggie. This leads to my primary point. Genetics and appearance do not make people different from one another. The difference between a black person and a white person to distinguish without visual features that maybe there is actually no difference between them except for the visual features. Even these features are sometimes absent in a mixed race person who is still considered black (non-white) due to genetics, but white due to appearance.