First Published: January 1, 1929
Pages: 221
Genre(s): Fiction, African American Literature
One of the most widely read and controversial works of the Harlem Renaissance, The Blacker the Berry...was the first novel to openly explore prejudice within the Black community. This pioneering novel found a way beyond the bondage of Blackness in American life to a new meaning in truth and beauty.
Emma Lou Brown's dark complexion is a source of sorrow and humiliation -- not only to herself, but to her lighter-skinned family and friends and to the white community of Boise, Idaho, her home-town. As a young woman, Emma travels to New York's Harlem, hoping to find a safe haven in the Black Mecca of the 1920s. Wallace Thurman re-creates this legendary time and place in rich detail, describing Emma's visits to nightclubs and dance halls and house-rent parties, her sex life and her catastrophic love affairs, her dreams and her disillusions -- and the momentous decision she makes in order to survive.
A lost classic of Black American literature, The Blacker the Berry...is a compelling portrait of the destructive depth of racial bias in this country. A new introduction by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, author of The Sweeter the Juice, highlights the timelessness of the issues of race and skin color in America. - Goodreads
Racism within racism, prejudice within prejudice – the generational curse has never ceased to exist, as we’re still dealing with the issue in today’s world. Colorism in the black community is truly a sad epidemic. The hatred boils down to the shade of black a person’s skin is, and the lighter the skin, the better. The lighter the skin, the more a person will be accepted by those with white skin – deemed as the purest of skin.
I can see why Thurman’s work here was so controversial. He held up a mirror to the black community, calling them out on the prejudices within. How dare they be angry with white people for doing the same thing that they were doing to one another? Families disowning other family members because of their skin tone – ridiculing and ostracizing them because the blacker you are, the less you are.
This book made me angry on so many levels. The self-hatred Emma Lou portrayed was astounding. Yes, her family and home-town upbringing can be the blame, but somewhere along the way I hoped she’d take a deeper look within, giving the experiences life was throwing at her feet. I wanted to grab her and shake her on many occasions while flipping the pages. I did, however, appreciate her resilience. She refused to be knocked down for long – where there was a will, there was a way, albeit misguided.
The journey of Emma Lou was one I had to see through. I just had to know where life would take her, especially once she reached Harlem. I knew she couldn’t escape herself, but I had hope. The end solidified this hope, but only made me wish more were written. I had so many questions about where life took her after the decisions I felt were made. Did she actually leave? Did she finally see that the real problem was her? Did she end up in another situation, on the same cycle of self-hatred? Did she escape the chains of psychological slavery once and for all? I’d like to think so.
I rated this book 4/5 starts on Goodreads!
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