Anne Moody’s autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968) chronicles the experiences of an African American girl growing up in “Jim Crow” Mississippi during the civil rights movement. Moody’s experiences shaped her views on the social constructs of race and “whiteness.” Anne’s interactions with “yellow” or “mulatto” people within the African-American community directly contributed to her ideas of social construction and privilege. I argue that Moody’s attitude of fear and anger toward “yellow” people reflects her awareness that “whiteness” permeates deeper than the pigment of skin.
Anne, also known as Essie, first became aware of racism and white privilege after an incident with her white friends at the movies and wandering into the white lobby resulting in her mother dragging her out of the movies and lecturing her on all the things she could not do with her white friends. When she saw those friends again Essie thought “I had never really thought of them as white before, all of a sudden they were white, and their whiteness made them better than me” (263). Essie’s encounter at the movies and her thoughts afterward was her first identification of racism and white privilege. Her language describing this incident “all of a sudden” illustrates the shock from her new awareness and the abrupt loss of innocence she experienced. Essie’s shock soon grows to anger and fear as she becomes more aware of the inequalities and racism in her community. Her anger extends not only to whites but to lighter-skinned African-Americans she refers to as “yellow” or “high yellow” who seem to be closer to “whiteness” or having privileges not accessible to herself.
Moody’s anger and attitude toward “yellow” African-Americans is evident when she meets her father’s new wife Emma. Essie exclaims upon the meeting “At the first sight of her, I got angry. “So this is Emma, Daddy’s new wife,” I thought. “She is just like Florence –yellow, straight black hair and all” (253). Though some of Essie’s anger may have been the result of resentment toward Florence, the “yellow” lady whom her father left her mother to live with. I argue that her anger is directed toward the skin color of both Emma and Florence, and their straight hair, a physical appearance closer to “whiteness” and a reminder of how African-Americans are treated by white people. Emma’s actions will invoke those feelings in Essie again when shopping.
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Essie’s father sent Emma and Essie to buy furniture for Essie’s bedroom. Though Essie had planned on a modest bedroom with furniture from a secondhand store, Emma said “I won’t have no shit in my house other people done slept on.” Describing secondhand furniture as shit, Emma shows a sense of entitlement or privilege that shocks Essie. Emma then purchases Essie a new obscene white bedroom set from that Essie describes as “a cream-white bedroom set that looked like it should belong to some movie star” (257). Essie when on to say “The whole thing nauseated me” (257). The language Essie uses to describe the bedroom suite and the experience of shopping with her “yellow” step-mother illustrates her anger toward privilege and the treatment of African-Americans. Essie’s use of “Cream-white” not only describes the color of the bedroom suite but alludes to the advantages whites held over African-Americans.
Essie’s use of “nauseated” speaks of more than shopping; it is a reflection of her anger and frustrations in dealing with “whiteness” and racial discrimination. During the shopping trip, talking about her “yellow” step-mother Emma, Essie exclaims “I thought she was just using me” (257). Throughout the book Essie describes how white people used and mistreat African-Americans by paying wages African-Americans could barely survive on to verbal and physical abuse, in this instance she shows how “yellow” African-Americans were doing the same thing within their own community. Essie’s language again, demonstrates a belief that lighter-skinned individuals are a few shades closer to “whiteness” in both appearance and privilege. Essie’s feelings become apparent again when she is told she is going to visit Emma’s family the next morning.
When preparing to visit Emma’s family Essie writes “I didn’t want to go out there to see her parents and relatives because I thought they were all high yellow and would treat me like Miss Pearl them” (258). Moody writes of her lighter-skinned step-grandmother Miss Pearl and her mistreatment of Essie, her mother and siblings, refusing to visit or to even speak to them at church, as if Essie and her family were beneath them. Miss Pearl’s arrogance and demonstration of “whiteness” within the black community, though she was “high yellow” contributes to Essie’s understanding of racism, and justifies her feelings of dread and anger in being forced to visit Emma’s family. However, it is during this visit Essie did not want to make, we get to see a glimpse of the innocence Essie lost as her understanding of social construct of “whiteness” and racism grew.
Upon arriving at Emma’s parents, Essie notices “two of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen. They didn’t look Negroid, Caucasian, or anything, they just looked pretty” (258). Rather than Essie showing anger or fear in this meeting, she sees the beauty in the world, she sees no color or race. Not only is it a reminder of the innocence she lost when she first discovered her friends were “white” as a child, but this passage offers a glimpse of what the world could be to her, to all, if the social constructs of race and privilege were shed. The colorblind beauty Essie alludes to in the girls justifies the anger and fear she directs towards “whiteness” both by whites and the lighter-toned African-Americans who want to preserve the unjust world in its present state.
Essie or Anne Moody held a distrustful, almost fearful and angry attitude toward African-Americans with a lighter skin tone than herself. Her feelings are evident in her descriptions of “yellow” African-Americans, including Miss Pearl, Florence, and her stepmother Emma along with her interactions with them. Moody’s feelings were a result of a growing awareness of the social construct of “whiteness” and her subsequent loss of innocence that accompanied her awakening. Throughout her interactions with those “yellow” or “high yellow” members of her own community she illustrates that “whiteness” is not limited to those who have white skin, she understands it is a social construct that extends beyond skin color. Essie’s attitudes reflect not only her awakening to the evils of racism but her rejection of different and varying shades of “whiteness.”
