Essay Questions

How did colorism affect Emma-Lou?

Emma-Lou was affected by colorism from the day she was born until the day she realized that unless she embraced her skin color and tone, and sought out people of the same mind, then she would always be running from it.

The first colorism that she encountered was from her mother, and her mother's family. It would not have been so difficult had her father stayed with his family, but he left them and Emmy-Lou was raised as the blue-black daughter of a light-skinned woman; without her blue-black father as a reference point, she already felt isolated and inferior in her own family.

At college, Emma-Lou also discovered that although the other girls there liked her, and were happy to spend time with her, they would never truly accept her. The Sorority only invited light-skinned girls from rich backgrounds to join. She discovered the same colorism when she went to an employment agency and was informed that successful black businessmen wanted light-skinned stenographers. Even in her personal life, Emma-Lou experienced being the "sympathy date", her boyfriend taking out a lighter skinned woman when he was going to be seeing friends, only really associating with Emma-Lou when they went on dates alone.

Did Emma-Lou allow colorism to color her view of herself?

Emma-Lou believed that she was worth less than other women because her mother and her grandmother made her think that way. One of the ways in which they did this was to try to color her skin and to apply all manner of products on it to lighten it. This subliminally told her that her skin was too dark even before they told her so verbally. The fact that these products even existed at all told her that she was too dark - after all, there were no products on sale to create the opposite effect and turn light skin darker.

However, at high school, there was no colorism other than that which occurred in Emma-Lou's mind. She was the one black girl in her graduating class, so there were no lighter skinned black girls to compare her with, negating the effects of colorism - at least, one would think; in reality, Emma-Lou found her own black skin isolating when she stood next to her class of white skinned girls in white graduation robes. Nonetheless, this was one area in her life where colorism did not apply, yet to Emma-Lou, the darkness of her skin was still an issue.

Why does Emma-Lou go back to Alva?

It's hard to understand why Emma-Lou finds Alva an attractive prospect for a long-term boyfriend in the first place; after dating him for only a short time, she realizes that he is a master manipulator, and manages to go through life on other people's efforts - for example, he pays no rent but has Braxton move in as a room-mate, thereby putting the responsibility for the rent on Braxton. She is also aware that he takes her to places that make her feel inferior, for example, where her dark skin will be commented upon and he will look like a kind and benevolent date for dating her at all.

After she gets away from him the first time, Emma-Lou's life seems to be looking up, but this is also when her self-sabotage that stems from a lifetime of feeling less than worthy rears its head. She has the opportunity for better jobs, more financial independence, and a handsome boyfriend who will value her for her, but she feels "sorry" for Alva when he is left literally holding the baby, and goes back to him. This is more about her feeling unworthy of anything better than she had with Alva than it is about her feeling sympathy for him in his current predicament, and it also shows that she has been conditioned to expect and accept poor treatment from those around her.