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Racism in The Bluest Eye

...... Interestingly, the idea that beauty could be objectively definedand more so, that the white race would unequivocally be considered the most beautiful by such an objective definitionactually has a long tradition in sociological and cultural thought (Gibson 1990). Many scholars and scientists truly believed that physical beauty and grace were indicative of other internal traits, and that the less beautiful races (i.e. all non-whites, though there were gradients established in this regard) were of poorer moral quality and intelligence, and had other undesirable internal characteristics as well (Gibson 1990). This means that the concepts of beauty that are expressed in the book have both direct and symbolic implications
This is evidenced in the fact that Pauline, Pecolas motherand one of the primary characters by which Pecola learns that standards of beautyis only truly happy when she is in the presence of rich white people that typify what she thinks of as proper, beautiful, and accomplished. Even though she herself was an Afircan-America, the indoctrination into mainstream society that she had lived throughin a past that was arguably as disruptive and horrible as Pecolas own experiencesmade her believe that she was ugly because she was darker skinned, and because of