Is There Racism Within a Race? (Reaction to “Wife of His Youth”) Essay Example

be light skinned. So, there was definitely racism because of the person’s color of skin.The mulattos felt like there were more privileged because of their complexion and held a higher position then the blacks of darker complexion.

The discrimination against the darker blacks brings up the issue of if there is racism within a race. I would say most definitely! Color did matter, especially to the mulattos. Mr. Ryder for example struggles with issue of accepting his slave wife despite her dark complexion. In the story, it is said “she looked like a bit of the old plantation life summoned up from the pasty by the wave of a magician’s wand. ” (The Wife of His Youth 627) When he irst considers not accepting her, it is because of her the way she looks and more specifically, her skin tone.

That itself is an example of racism against your own race. It seems that mulattos were blessed and cursed. They were blessed because they could blend in easier with white society, but at the same time they had to decide was it worth turning their backs of the people of darker complexion who would already accept them as they are. “The Wife of His Youth” showed that racism could exist in other ways. In this case, it showed that there was racism and some discrimination against one’s own race.

The story depicted these images through the Blue Vein Society and some inner conflicts of Mr. Ryder. The Blue Veins having only mulattos in their group, and Mr. Ryder having to deal with his past. Racism still exists today, but it is not so out in the

open.

It comes in forms of one race against another, same race, religion, gender, and many other issues. Works Cited Chestnutt, Charles W. "The Wife of His Youth. " The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed.

Henry L. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed.

New York. 626-32.