Internalized Racism

In elementary school, how many times did you find yourself assigning the blame to someone else when you were caught? How many times did you utter the words "he started it"? Sometimes, the only truth we see is our own, and the formation of a grudge is inevitable. The degree to which Macon Dead demonstrates this childish behavior leads him to unconditionally accept his version of reality, painting a disgusting picture of Ruth "'laying next to [her father on his deathbed]. Naked as a yard dog, kissing him. Him dead and white and puffy and skinny, and she had his fingers in her mouth,'" (Morrison 73). His life is consumed by a material pursuit that gives him the notion that he has the power to get rid of anyone who stands in his way; he shuts out both Pilate and Ruth, though the latter is simply underloved. In reality, however, he only has power over those weaker than himself.

Perhaps Macon's desire to rise in the social ranks is a result of internalized racism, the destructive subconscious acceptance of racial inferiority; thus, any person who acts in a socially unacceptable way is unworthy of remaining in Macon's life. The term hints at self-destructive behavior, though, in truth, if it eats at one person, it affects all who surround him; at one point, Macon is willing to kill Ruth because she kneels in her slip at her father's bedside and kisses his fingers, and he gladly convinces himself of a worse truth in order to justify his motives (126). Furthermore, Macon is also willing to alienate his own sister for fifty years when he thinks that she has run off with his gold; clearly, money is worth more to him than blood. He believes that, as a black man, the only way to be respected in society is to be wealthy, because white society considers African Americans to be poor and indelicate, yet this destroys his family and warps the universal symbol of love and acceptance into a group filled with unhappiness and constant tension. Also, he punishes his tennants when they cannot pay their rent in order to further distance himself from the lower class, as a slave master would with his slaves.