Racism within the African American Communities in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Paradise

In Maria Bring's essay, Racism within the African American Communities, published by the department of language and culture at Lulea University of Technology Autmun 2004, the author discusses two of Morrison's novels, The Bluest Eye and Paradise, however, The Bluest Eye is covered in three of the four sections of the essay. Part one is entitled "Pecola-A Life Destroyed by Hate, and discusses how Pecola's life is destroyed because she is hated and neglected because she does not match the standard of African American beauty in the 1940's, the lighter the skin the more beautiful the person. "Racism within the race is the most damaging because Pecola rarely meets whites at all (7)." Her world is shaped by those she comes in contact with rather than more of the white culture, therefore it effects her indirectly. Pecola believes that if she looked different that her parents would treat her differently, love her, something she craves.
In Part Two, "The Family Surrounding Pecola" discusses how her own families' notion that they are ugly and how Pecloa's parents ignore her and her brother, leaving them to fend for themselves. Mrs. Breedlove, the children can't even call her Mama or mother, perfers to live in her created dreamworld at work, the beautiful masion by the lake which is owned by the Fisher family. "She actually prefers the Fisher girl to her own little girl.(14)". This leaves Pecola without a safety net for when she is assaulted by her father.
In Part Three, "The Community Surrounding Pecola", discusses who the community as a whole does not aknowledge Pecola, or move to help and defend her after her assault. The community places more emphasis on passing in the white world than being beautiful as you are. Clauida and Freida, Pecola's friends and the narrators, try to understand the problem, but are to young to understand the problem. The need for being lighter skinned, and the preference for it, appears in the character of Maureen Peal. Maureen if described as a "high yellow dream child", evidence that if you cannot have a white child, Maureen is the next best thing. Maureen tries to be sympathetic to Pecola, but when the children get into an argument Maureen pulls the color card in order to put Pecola down, as well as reaffirm her position as a desireable child. When Pecola is raped the community closes ranks, against an innocent, unloved, and percieved ugly child. Has Maureen been the one that was violated, the community would have gathered arms to hunt the offender down.
These section of this essay help with my future paper because they focus on how the community affects Pecola's perception of herself and that the lack of support from both family and community pushed an already teetering souls over the cliff into madness.