The Colors of Shame: Varieties of Racism and Child Sexual Abuse in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

Why is one child affected more severely than another by sexual abuse? Drawing on theories of shame developed by Andrew P. Morrison (following Kohut), the different family situations of two girls—Frieda and Pecola—are compared to show how compounded adverse childhood experiences affect the ability of the victims to bear the shame of the sexual abuse—or to find it unbearable. Toni Morrison shows how the violations the girls suffer are aggravated by the varieties of racism under Jim Crow. Internalized anti-Black racism and internalized white supremacy are enacted differently by two of the perpetrators of sexual abuse in the novel. Jacques Lacan's diagnostic distinction between neurosis and perversion guides an understanding of the difference between Cholly Breedlove's perverse acts and Soaphead Church's perverse structure. Soaphead's internalized white supremacy proves to be more destructive to Pecola Breedlove's psyche than is being raped by Cholly, her father. Father and daughter are both tormented by the internalized anti-Black racism that Pecola believes she has escaped when Soaphead lures her into a delusion that her desire for the bluest eyes has been realized. Morrison's use of multiple narrators shows the dangers that white supremacy and perversion pose to vulnerable people.