Man Friday Hotel (Symbol)
The Man Friday Hotel that Clarke's parents have to stay at is a symbol of the racial insensitivity of 1970s Australia. When Clarke's mother and father move to Australia so Bordy can begin his new university lecturer job, the university puts them up at a hotel. Upon arrival, Clarke's parents are unnerved to discover the hotel is called Man Friday Hotel, named after a dark-skinned indigenous character in Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. Clarke comments that her parents, like everyone else in their Black British community back home, are aware of the character, a "Carib cannibal turned loyal servant of Robinson Crusoe." To stay in a hotel that celebrates such an absurd caricature puts Clarke's parents on edge throughout their stay, making them worry they have moved to a country where racial insensitivity is widespread.
Clarke's Bottom Can't Be Tucked In (Symbol)
Clarke's gymnastics coach's constant requests for Clarke to tuck in her bottom while striking the first position pose is a symbol of humiliation. As an adolescent, Clarke takes part in an extracurricular gymnastics class, where her white German coach shouts at her to tuck in her protruding bottom—an impossible demand given Clarke doesn't have control over the shape of her body. Rather than point out the insensitivity of the coach's demand, Clarke looks at the other girls in the class with envy, seeing their flat bums not sticking out in their leotards. She wonders if she'll have to have her bum surgically reduced. When Clarke's mother finds out about the issue, she laughs, telling Clarke she does indeed have a nice chubby bottom, which she inherited from her. Ultimately, Clarke learns to avoid the humiliation of being called out for her bottom by concealing her body in loose clothing, pretending that she has lost her leotard.
Or Else What's a Story For (Motif)
In almost every chapter of The Hate Race, Clarke repeats some variation of the phrase: "That folklore way West Indians always have of weaving a tale. This is how it happened—or else what's a story for." The motif first arises when Clarke is commenting on the story of how her parents' parents came to London, then how her parents got together and moved to Australia. While repeating the details she has heard told so many times, Clarke acknowledges that they are not necessarily true, claiming it is an Afro-Caribbean tendency to fabricate elements of one's personal history to make for a better story. When she recycles the phrase later in the memoir, Clarke is acknowledging that although she presents the story as a fact, she may be twisting or inventing parts of her biography in the tradition of her West Indian family. In this way, her story becomes "what happened," even if it isn't entirely true.
Golliwog Biscuits (Symbol)
The Golliwog Biscuits Clarke's boyfriend Marcus eats in front of her are a symbol of ignorance and casual racism. As a child, Clarke is routinely called golliwog by bullies who aim to hurt her feelings by associating her with what was once a popular children's toy: a soft doll with a black face, red lips, and frizzy hair. The racially insensitive minstrel doll was also used to brand products such as Arnott's Golliwog Biscuits (discontinued in the late 1990s). When Selina and Clarke inform Marcus that the cookies he is eating are racist, he dismisses their concern, pointing out that they have been renamed Scalliwag Biscuits. The image of biscuit crumbs caught in her boyfriend's braces haunts Clarke afterward, and she begins to insert an emotional distance between them. Unnerved by his ignorance of how she would feel about the racist logo, she does not trust him enough to be vulnerable.
Missing Records (Symbol)
The image of Clarke's father's missing record collection is a symbol of emotional abandonment. At the end of the memoir, Clarke comments on how her father one day suddenly leaves her mother. Clarke is the first to come home that day, and she discovers his extensive record collection has disappeared, along with his stereo. Clarke's first thought is that they have been robbed, but she finds a note from her father saying not to worry, he has taken the records. Once it is confirmed that this was how Bordy chose to inform his family that he was moving in with his mistress, Clarke considers how inconsiderately he went about it. Rather than talking to his family, he made a grand and traumatizing gesture by prioritizing his possessions over his family's feelings, not caring that his son or daughter might have been the one to come home and discover the destabilizing news. In this way, Clarke's father's missing records symbolize not just his physical abandonment of the family, but the emotional insensitivity bound up in the way he leaves them.
