Caucasia (1998) is the first novel written by American author, Danzy Senna. It is the coming-of-age story of two multiracial girls, Birdie Lee and her sister Cole, who have a Caucasian mother and an African American father. The novel is set in Boston, Massachusetts, during the turbulent mid-1970s.
Much of the novel centers around the theme of racial passing. Senna upends the traditional "tragic mulatto" story line by exploring Birdie's desire to be accepted as African American, although she appears to be Caucasian. Growing up on the run, and fearful her true identity could endanger her mother's life, Birdie seeks to understand who she is and how she fits into the world. She longs for her sister Cole and their father, ultimately running away from home to find them.
Background and historical context
Caucasia is set in 1975 Boston, Massachusetts. Violent protests disrupted the city as forced desegregation was implemented in public schools beginning in the 1974 school year. Boston busing desegregation flamed racial tensions, resulting in riots, beatings and violence which persisted for many years.
Birdie's parents met in January 1963 during the Kennedy administration. They marry and have their first daughter, Colette/Cole in 1964; Birdie is born in 1967. At that time, there were anti-miscegenation laws in many US states. These were not overturned until the 1967 Supreme Court ruling Loving v. Virginia. Within the context of the novel, Birdie's inclination to try to make herself invisible due to the racial tension she felt in her home positioned her as a "neutered mutation" within Trey Ellis' concept of the "cultural mulatto".
During this period the strategy for social change through peaceful protests that are associated with the Civil Rights Movement were being challenged by new African American leaders. Malcolm X urged a demand for human rights 'by any means necessary. Stokely Carmichael is credited with the first popular use of term "Black Power" in 1963 at a Civil Rights rally. Following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was created by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton.
Violence was used as a form of protest by groups like Weather Underground, notorious for mail bombs and bank robberies, and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), the organization that kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst in 1974.
Plot summary
The novel's narrator is Birdie Lee, a multiracial child who has a white mother and a black father. She and her sister Cole are very close yet differ in appearance. Her sister is described as "cinnamon-skinned, curly-haired", traits associated with African Americans of mixed race. Birdie describes herself as a brown haired, light-skinned girl and her interactions with others indicate she is lighter-skinned than her sister and can pass as white. "...[T]he woman behind the desk took one look at Cole and me and assigned us to different districts. I would be bused to the predominantly African American school in Dorchester; Cole to South Boston, the Irish section, 'in the interest of dahversetty,' the woman explained..."
The book is written in three parts: Part 1 takes place in 1975 Boston and Roxbury, Massachusetts, when Birdie is eight years old; Part 2 takes place in a small town in New Hampshire six years later when Birdie is 14 years old; Part 3 takes place when Birdie is 14 ½ years old and runs away from her mother to try to find her father and sister.
Part 1: "Negritude for beginners"
It is 1975 and eight-year-old Birdie Lee lives with her family in Roxbury, Massachusetts. She and her older sister, Cole, converse in their room using their made-up language, Elemeno. The pair can hear their Caucasian mother, Sandy and African American father Deck, arguing downstairs. The confrontation results in Deck moving out for good.
Sandy tells the girls that they will attend a public school, instead of Nkrumah, the private Black Power School in Boston. They are assigned to two different school districts, "'in the interest of dahversetty'". Birdie is sent to a predominantly black school in Dorchester, while Cole is sent to a south Boston Irish school. Sandy dismisses this decision, and the receptionist buses them both to a school in South Boston. An assault on an African American man by Irish men in the South school district makes the news and the first day of classes are cancelled. The girls are sent to the African American power school, after all.