The Blacker the Berry · Chapter
Part I: Emma Lou explained
Emma Lou Morgan, a dark-skinned Black girl, graduates from a predominantly white high school in Boise, feeling deeply self-conscious about her complexion.
What happens
Emma Lou Morgan, a dark-skinned Black girl, graduates from a predominantly white high school in Boise, feeling deeply self-conscious about her complexion. She reflects on her family's color prejudice and her mother's regret that she wasn't born a boy. After graduation, her family debates her future; her Uncle Joe persuades them to send her to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, hoping a larger city will offer broader social opportunities. Upon arrival, Emma Lou is awed by the large Black community but quickly encounters intraracial prejudice when she meets Hazel Mason, a loud, dark-skinned student she finds embarrassing. Later, while trying to connect with a group of Black students on campus, she is met with mockery and rejection, except for a brief smile from Verne Davis. The chapter also recounts the story of her step-grandfather Aloysius McNamara, a light-skinned man who despised dark-skinned Blacks and eventually abandoned the family.
Themes in this chapter
Colorism and Intraracial Prejudice
Emma Lou's internalized shame about her dark skin and the mockery she faces from other Black students at the university exemplify the destructive effects of colorism within the Black community.
Self-Hatred and Identity
Emma Lou wishes she were lighter or had been born a boy, reflecting deep self-hatred and a fractured sense of identity shaped by her family's and society's rejection of her dark complexion.
Family and Legacy of Color Prejudice
The Morgan family's history of color prejudice, embodied by Aloysius McNamara's disdain for dark-skinned Blacks and Jane's regret over Emma Lou's skin color, shows how this bias is passed down through generations.
Characters to notice
- Emma Lou Morgan
The protagonist, a dark-skinned Black girl graduating from high school in Boise, deeply troubled by her complexion and the color prejudice she faces from her own family and community.
- Uncle Joe
Emma Lou's uncle who advocates for her to attend college in Los Angeles, believing a larger city will offer her more opportunities and less color prejudice.
- Jane Morgan
Emma Lou's mother, who is fair-skinned and often laments that Emma Lou was not born a boy, believing a black girl's life is doomed to sorrow.
- Aloysius McNamara
Emma Lou's step-grandfather, a light-skinned man who despised dark-skinned Blacks and eventually abandoned the family, reinforcing the family's legacy of color prejudice.
- Hazel Mason
A loud, dark-skinned Black student Emma Lou encounters at the university, whose flamboyant style and grammar embarrass Emma Lou and trigger her own insecurities.
- Verne Davis
A Black student on campus who returns Emma Lou's smile when others mock her, showing a brief moment of kindness.
Key passages
“More acutely than ever before Emma Lou began to feel that her luscious black complexion was somewhat of a liability, and that her marked color variation from the other people in her environment was a decided curse.”
Emma Lou increasingly saw her dark skin as a disadvantage and a burden, setting her apart from those around her.
This opening line establishes the central conflict of Emma Lou's internalized colorism.
“She should have been born a boy, then color of skin wouldn’t have mattered so much, for wasn’t her mother always saying that a black boy could get along, but that a black girl would never know anything but sorrow and disappointment?”
Emma Lou's mother believed that being male would have made her dark skin less of a problem, since a black man could succeed, but a black woman was doomed to misery.
Highlights the intersection of gender and color prejudice in Emma Lou's family.
“The tragedy of her life was that she was too black. Her face and not a slender roll of ribbon-bound parchment was to be her future identification tag in society.”
Emma Lou felt that her dark skin, not her diploma, would define her future and how society treated her.
Emphasizes Emma Lou's belief that her complexion overshadows her academic achievements.
“Now Hazel, according to Emma Lou, was the type of Negro who should go to a Negro college. There were plenty of them in the South whose standard of scholarship was not beyond her ability.”
Emma Lou thought Hazel belonged at a Southern Black college, implying she saw Hazel as uncouth and unworthy of a predominantly white university.
Reveals Emma Lou's internalized classism and desire to distance herself from stereotypes.
“His only satisfaction in life was the pleasure he derived from insulting and ignoring the real blacks. Persons of color, mulattoes, were all right, but he couldn’t stand detestable black Negroes.”
Aloysius McNamara found joy in mistreating dark-skinned Blacks, reserving his respect only for light-skinned or mixed-race individuals.
Illustrates the extreme color prejudice within Emma Lou's own family history.
