Everyday Racism
Among the most prevalent themes in Maxine Beneba Clarke's memoir The Hate Race is everyday racism. Sometimes referred to as casual racism, everyday racism is differentiated from extreme and overt forms of racism by its relative subtlety. Clarke introduces the theme when recounting her early childhood encounters with Carlita Allen, a fellow preschooler who continually points out Clarke's brown skin; when Carlita's mother doesn't correct her child's behavior, saying simply that "children are so honest," it becomes clear that Carlita has learned from her parents to see non-white people as different than her. As Clarke goes through school, she also endures racist micro-aggressions from authority figures such as the gymnastics coach who makes her feel self-conscious about her inability to tuck in her bottom, or the track coach who assumes athleticism is in her "blood" as a Black person. While not as intentionally harmful as overt racism, everyday racism has an insidious deleterious effect on Clarke's well-being.
Overt Racism
Alongside everyday racism is the theme of overt racism. Defined as racial prejudice expressed plainly, overt racism first arises in the present-day prologue when a stranger in a car shouts crude and violent racist abuse at Clarke. The incident moves Clarke to tears, reigniting memories of having been verbally attacked throughout her youth. As the narrative moves back in time to the 1980s and 1990s, Clarke recounts similar instances in which playground bullying took on the same violent characteristics as the stranger's verbal attack. Being a Black minority in Australia, Clarke is constantly called the n-word, blackie, Golliwog, monkey, and a host of other names designed to dehumanize her. Clarke also details instances in which the bullying tactics changed, becoming more eerie and overtly threatening, such as when boys at the BMX track threw rocks at her or when she discovered her sketchbook torn to shreds with a knife. Through her examples, Clarke shows the atmosphere of terror created by the overtly racist students in her midst.
Institutional Racial Discrimination
Institutional racial discrimination is another major theme Clarke explores in The Hate Race. Clarke introduces the theme when discussing the factors that bring her parents to migrate to Australia in 1976. Clarke explains that new political reforms brought about by the Gough Whitlam–led Labor government make Australia seem like an attractive alternative to the UK, where the reactionary anti-immigrant, anti-Black rhetoric of politicians like Enoch Powell has been gaining traction among an economically struggling population. However, Clarke's parents arrive in Australia to discover that the legacy of the immigration–limiting, white supremacist White Australia policy still haunts the country. After decades of living in a country that had policies in place to keep Australia an "outpost" for the "British race," the Australians the Clarkes encounter in the 1970s and 1980s have been primed by their institutions to treat non-white people with disrespect, fear, and hostility.
Internalized Racism
The fourth form of racism Clarke explores in her memoir is internalized racism—racial prejudice directed at oneself or other people of color. Clarke introduces the theme when commenting on how, as a child, she is so often singled out as a racial minority that she prays in secret for God to make her white, if only so she could blend in with "normal" people. This leads her to believe God has answered her wishes when light patches of vitiligo appear on her skin. The theme of internalized racism also arises when Clarke receives a Black Cabbage Patch Kid, immediately dismissing the doll as ugly and seeing it as worthless compared to her sister's blonde-haired white doll. When she is older, Clarke lashes out against Bhagita Singh, recycling the racist language that bullies have used against her; Clarke's verbal attack is so vicious that the white bullies congratulate her, egging her on to do more damage. This incident of internalized racism is so disturbing to Clarke that she becomes physically sick when her apology to Bhagita is met with defensiveness and terror.
How Trauma Manifests
Another crucial theme in The Hate Race is trauma, and how it manifests in the body. For Clarke, one of the ways in which the trauma of being ostracized, belittled, and dehumanized manifests is through skin conditions. At one point in the book, Clarke suggests her vitiligo and keloid scars are consequences of her repressed frustration; she also details the bruises and scratches that appear on her body overnight—signs that she claws at herself while asleep. Clarke also discusses how her anger over the injustice of constant racism is diverted into aggression: to get back at bullies, she targets their lack of intelligence; to get back at Bhagita, she targets her ethnicity and faith.
Indigenous Rights
The furtherance of rights for Indigenous Australians is another important theme in The Hate Race. Although she is born in Australia, Clarke doesn't learn about the country's history as a colony until she sees television coverage in the mid-1980s of the official handover of traditional lands in the Northern Territory. Clarke's mother explains that the dark-skinned people on the TV are descendants of the original Australians, who had lived on the land for many generations before British colonization dispossessed them of traditional lands. The theme arises again when Clarke watches in 1988 TV coverage of an Indigenous-led protest against bicentenary celebrations on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Clarke's newfound knowledge that the founding of the country is inseparable from the displacement of Indigenous groups leads her to feel discomfort when taking part in her school's Colonial Day celebrations, as she senses a kinship with the oppressed original inhabitants of the country. As she grows up, Clarke also notices that Prime Minister Paul Keating's acknowledgment of the institutional mistreatment of Indigenous Australians coincides with a shift in sentiment among students and teachers, who show less tolerance for racism. Ultimately, Clarke's exploration of the theme shows how bigotry toward Indigenous Australians runs parallel to bigotry toward non-white settlers, and the furtherance of rights for one group correlates with improved treatment of the other.
Storytelling
Storytelling is a dominant theme in The Hate Race. Early in the memoir, Clarke comments on her West Indian family's unique way of telling a story, which often involves altering factual details to increase a story's drama and create more twists of irony. Clarke encapsulates this sentiment with 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." Clarke follows this family tradition in her memoir, focusing on the anecdotes that best illustrate her points and contribute to a satisfying narrative arc. While a memoir is meant to be factual, Clarke tacitly acknowledges in nearly every chapter that the point of a story is to cement the version you tell as the objective truth, however much your biases and fallible memory may have changed the facts. In this way, Clarke's personal narrative of her adolescence is elevated to the position of folklore, ensuring an engaging and memorable experience for the reader.
