Possible books- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg, and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.
Points:
- The wish of Black people to be white: In The Bluest Eye, Pecola prays to have fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes as she believes she will be preetier and therefore loved by her parents and piers. In fried green tomatoes and different products black people can buy to lighten their skin and straighten their hair is described, as Artis's niece strives to look more white.
- Hierarchy within the black community: In the Bluest Eye Maureen Peal, who is half white, is treated with respect by the black boys at school while Pecola, who is of darker skin, is bullied by the boys who call her racist names (despite the fact they are black themselves.) The Family of Elihue Micah Whitcomb believe they are superior as they have a white English lord in their ancestry, and undergo interbreeding in order to maintain this white blood and keep their fairer complexion. Geraldine describes a distinct divide in her mind between "Colored people" and "Niggers" partly down to skin tone and partly down to cleanliness. In Fried Green Tomatoes, Artis O Peavey, who has an unusually dark complexion, is the most troubled out of the Peavey children and the most bitter towards whites, from his narration the hierarchy of different clubs in the black area of Birmingham are described, with better clubs for people of fairer complexion and probably white heritage, and he describes how the clubs for the "blacker" people are more often attacked.
- Hatred towards blacks from whites: In The Bluest Eye, the Polish shopkeeper shows fear of young Pecola due to her race, despite the fact she is a small girl. White men are shown to take sport in the misery of black people, like the two white men who interrupt Cholly having sex and make him finish on the threat of shooting. In Fried Green Tomatoes the KKK come to whistle stop and whip Big George, Grady Kilgore objects to Idgie and Ruth serving black people at the back of the cafe, and the injustices of the legal system towards blacks and whites is also shown.
- Hatred towards whites from blacks: In the Bluest Eye, Claudia takes great pleasure in destroying her dolls that have fair skin and blonde hair, she detests the white girls on tv her piers seem to adore and she enjoys showing violence towards white girls. Cholly is described as developing a hatred towards white men, and is described as having killed three white men. In Fried Green Tomatoes Artis O Peavey is perhaps the most racist character in the book, showing a fierce hatred of whites and taking pleasure is stabbing the dead corpse of the white Frank Bennet, describing his body as a pig. In Fried Green Tomatoes there are two instances of black people killing white people, but these killinss are committed for reasons other than race.
- Affection between blacks and whites. In Fried Green Tomatoes Idgie Threadgoode enjoys playing in Troutville, the black town, as a child and as an adult stows aboard freight trains to steal food to feed the people in Troutville during a particularly hard winter. Idgie and Ruth's black servants show complete devotion to their two mistresses, particularly Onzell, who is completely devoted to Ruth, and secretly kills her when Ruth's cancer becomes agony. Idgie and Ruth long to have their black friends in their cafe and settle for serving them out of the back of cafe for discount prices. Idgie stands trial and faces jail in order to protect Big George from certain lynching. In the Bluest Eye the prostitutes seem to be friends in spite of race (one is black, one is white and one is chinese.) Pauline devotes her life to her white family, and seems to show more genuine affection to her white family than her real family.
