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Deja Portis
Mr. Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
6 November 2014
Why Are You Racist
With every type of reading whether its a book, newspaper article, or a simple short story,
there comes a variety of views on different aspects of the story. For instance, in the story
Recitatif by Toni Morrison, her purpose of writing the story was to reveal how stereotypes can
influence an individuals beliefs about another person. Many factors can affect the way a person
forms an opinion such as life experiences, or the way he or she was raised. Therefore, when
discussing the many character stereotypes involved in Recitatif a reader may form debatable
opinions when putting a race to the girls since Morrison never specified it.
In the story Recitatif, the main characters are Twyla and Roberta, whose race, along
with their mothers, remains a mystery throughout the story and is left for the reader to determine.
Overall the story is about the life of Twyla and Roberta growing up at St. Bonnys because both
of their mothers had problems with themselves and taking care of their daughters. While telling
their life story Morrison incorporated some characteristics of them being black or white, but only
enough for the reader to take a guess. Twyla gave some stereotypes of Roberta being a race that
never washed her hair and smelled funny which would spark an opinion on if she is white or
black depending on what kind of person the reader is. Along with that Recitatif took place in the
50s where racism had a huge impact on every single person. Therefore, a clue for Twylas race
could be when she was thinking Everything is so easy for them. They think they own the world

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which depending on the reader, may say she was black because majority of white thought that
way back then.
According to Lois Tysons Critical Theory, there are many factors that may provide
reasoning to why a reader would consider Twyla and Roberta to be black or white. An example
of those things is the way a person was raised. Depending on how someone was raised they may
tend to be less or more stereotypical than others and towards others. An example of that would
be growing up in a family with adults that strongly opposed the opposite race. As a child you
may be easily influenced to think a certain way. So, to be even more specific, growing up in a
black family thats not so wealthy, they may frown upon a white person that acts as if they are
better than the next person. That would then leave a person with the stereotype of all white
people having it easy and owning the world. That is demonstrated in Recitatif when Twyla
describes the other race which could have been referring to Roberta. With that part of the story
a reader would take that and express who they feel is white or black.
Furthermore, Tyson also says that life experiences could affect the way a reader criticizes
a story and that ties in with the previous point of a reader being influenced by the way they grew
up. When explaining this in a point of view of a white person, depending on the experience with
a black person it may cause them to form a solid opinion about all blacks. For instance, if they
happen to be around a group of blacks that are obnoxiously loud, a white may create the
stereotype of all blacks being loud. When applying the life experience factors to Recitatif, Twyla
might have previously experienced an unpleasant smell of the opposite race, causing her to form
the stereotype of all race smelling back. A reader with the same experience may also say that
they believe Roberta is white.

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Lastly, Tyson explains another factor called the Psychological reader-response theory.
That theory was started by Norman Holland who believed the readers motives strongly
influenced how they read. Psychological reader- response theory is a smaller thought of the
reader response criticism, but it gives the total reason as to why a reader may apply a race to
Twyla and Roberta. Along with that it reveals what kind of person a reader is. When first reading
Recitatif a persons motive may be to just finish the story. However, when going through it a
second time a reader may notice how Morrison hinted at Twyla and Robertas race, but never
specifically stated it. Therefore, the reader then rereads closely and finds stereotypes that relates
to them. From the perspective of a black reader, they will find stereotypes that they know people
usually connect to them and compare them with Twyla and Roberta.
All in all, there are many factors that affect how a person thinks and views things. Along
with that it also depends on what kind of person someone is, especially when decoding Twyla
and Robertas race in Recitatif. In my own view I believe Twyla is black and Roberta is white.
My life experiences were similar to the stereotypes Morrison made towards Roberta which is
how I came up with that thought.