Throughout the book, Sethe doesn't seem to experience a great deal of racism on a day to day basis. The oppression that she feels is almost entirely from her memories being kept alive. It's as though the racism will only disappear when the memories fade away. This reminds me a whole lot of the modern day, in a strange way. In contemporary society, racism is really only perpetuated because of the vivid memories (or perhaps the learned memories) of the past. It's like that really bizarre phrase that some people say where the surest way to eliminate racism is to collectively forget slavery. While I don't necessarily agree with this sentiment, Beloved seems to put an interesting spin on this idea.
Sethe seems to talk a lot about her "rememories" and how they can be shared between people and will never ever fade away. Isn't that something like what happens today? I feel like racism has definitely been on the decline since the times of slavery, and theoretically, one day it should just be pretty much nonexistent. Still, there are racists out there who are as such simply because it's somewhat of a generational or historical thing for their region or family. This is why Sethe feels the racial injustice and uncertainty about her future. Since the memory of oppression and racism is still very much alive for her, she knows that it must still exist relatively unrestricted in the real world.
I do definitely agree with you about this, and the way that racism in the modern day is not the same kind of blatant white superiority that it was then, and it's almost impossible to put your finger on what it is today no matter how sure you are that it is there. For this reason I would really love to see Sethe and Gunnar in conversation talking about racism. This is because memories and racism play a key role in each character's emotional make up. We see this in Gunnar by the emphasis that he places on his forefathers and his family tree. For Sethe the idea of re-memory is present everywhere in her life.
ReplyDeleteThere are stark and graphic reminders in _Beloved_ that whitepeople are still "on the loose" in 1873, even if Sethe's relatively isolated existence at 124 doesn't bring her into much direct contact with racism (aside from one especially stark example 28 days after she arrived). Consider the red ribbon Stamp Paid carries around in his pocket, and its reminder that the world is still a very dangerous place for free people of color.
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