Racial Tension Between Twyla And Roberta In Recitatif By Toni Morrison

Throughout Toni Morrison's short story "Recitatif", there is a continuous undertone of racial tension between the two main characters, Twyla and Roberta. Although it is never disclosed which character is white and which is black, Morrison makes it clear that the two are on opposite sides of the fence in this tension. The story takes place over many years of the character's lives and examines five different time periods in which their lives intertwine. In this paper I will examine how Morrison strategically manipulates our own thoughts on racial stereotypes to muddle our ability to discern the races of Twyla and Roberta as they grow and their paths stray. To start, to stereotype is "to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular

After Twyla reintroduces herself to Roberta, Roberta explains that she is going to "an appointment with Hendrix"(137) with the group of guys that she's with. Twyla pretends to know who Hendrix is, but Roberta and the men quickly realize that she does not when Twyla asks, "Really fantastic. What's she doing now?"(137). To this, Twyla receives the snarky reply of "Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix, asshole. He's only the biggest -- Oh wow. Forget it"(137). Prior to the introduction of the Hendrix information, there is also a point where Twyla explains to Roberta that she is living in Newburgh, to which she is given a seemingly condescending scoff by Roberta and friends. Although the racial tension and stereotyping is less prevalent than much of their first period together, the fact that Twyla is working the diner girl job and Roberta is traveling around meeting rock stars leads me to second guess the races of the characters. Whites are generally believed to be more privileged and even more so when this was written than today. So based on the portrayal of Roberta's life at this point, and factoring in the knowledge of their childhood, Morrison brings the races of the characters back to a more blurred

This final reunion is used by Morrison to bring the two characters back to a completely even level and leave the assumptions entirely to the readers. As they run into each other in downtown Newburgh on Christmas eve and have a brief conversation about Maggie in which Roberta discloses that she "really did think she was black. I didn't make that up. I really thought so. But now I can't be sure. I just remember he as old"(146). By revealing that she is now uncertain over the race of Maggie, Roberta opens up a couple of possibilities. Maybe Roberta was mistaken to begin with and kicking Maggie had nothing to do with race but was merely a brutal mistake by young girls. Maybe Roberta felt guilty and is lying to Twyla. And maybe Roberta is merely getting old and no longer trusts here memory. Either way the draconian line between blacks and whites is muddied by her uncertainty, and Twyla and Roberta are put back on a level playing field with readers knowing only three basic things for certain, they are of different races, they are female, and they are