‘Do you blame Sarah Jane for being the way she was?’
YES. Because of so many reasons. First, because she did not realized that there is more to her than her skin-deep, self-discriminatory attitude; second, because she did not realized that there is more to her race than she and the rest of the society ever thought there is; and finally, because she cannot accept the fact that she is a Black. The racial discrimination experience in the 1950s when the movie took place was slowly progressing. Though many were jobless, homeless and uneducated, many Black people attempted to alter social and legal constructs. However, there were also Black people who are ashamed of their race and their skin color per se and had concealed or denied their being Black. And Sarah Jane was not an exemption.
Imitation of Life took place from 1948-1950 where the post-war economy was in boom and racial discrimination was rampant. Public racial discriminations had become straightforward and a universally-recognized moral problem (2002). Segregation and disparity were increasingly becoming common. Residential segregation produced educational, social, occupational and housing segregation (1966). Moreover, Black people had experienced wealth, education and power disparity during this time.
Sure, we are all entitled to live the life that we want. Sara Jane’s complexion gave her the reason to hide her identity and pass for being a white. The one-drop rule make passing possible for her (2002) though she appears like a Caucasian. Physical appearance, hence, does not determine racial identity, but it is a sign of it. This, in effect, making the body irrelevant and one’s race immaterial. This is true in Sarah Jane’s case. Indeed, she is Black and she is hiding. Though there is no need for her to conceal her physical appearance; she did obscurely hid her personality, her thoughts, her feelings and her being concealing everything that associates her as a Black. She made a choice without realizing that it will only hurt her even more in the long run. In the first place, she knew she can sing and dance. She could have used these God-given talents in making other people happy and be a positive influence for others. Instead, she worked in a club which made bourgeoisie to belittle her.
Passing is illogical; and Sarah Jane must know. The truth of passing is a way to take a position of identity in terms of race ( 1996): it will either to conceal or to reveal, accept or against. Being more than just a racial strategy, passing, according to , is a strategy to be a person (1996). But how? Will it be easier to hide everything about yourself for the sake of social acceptance? Didn’t she become the victim of her own choice? Sarah Jane found herself as disguised and masked as ever after losing the only person who had accepted her no matter what, her mother. She had assumed a false identity based on every mulattoes tragedy: the impossibility of self-definition (). Evidently, this is the very element that lacks in Sarah Jane’s life. She succumbed into her inner battle of becoming someone else. She lost.
Race is a social fact (2002). In a time where Blacks were fighting for their rights and a place in the society, Sarah Jane was a chunk of an insult. Much is to tell about the struggles of the Black communities or the Negroes but most significantly, it reflects the truth that we are living in flaw-filled society and this kind of society has a power to unleash the evil in every individual. Sarah Jane cannot dismiss this fact by merely concealing her Black identity and just thinking about it and giving the thought a serious consideration was in a way was a form of disparaging yourself as well as others.
Race has biological and social definitions. Differing physical characteristics and differing social perceptions, attitudes and behaviors toward each group that embodies social signification that activates assumptions and beliefs regarding individuals belonging in that group (2004). In lieu, racial discrimination or the process of differing treatment on the basis of race and other inadequately justified factors that disadvents a racial group (). Discrimination can also be explicit and direct and subtle and unconscious ().
Either category, Sarah Jane may have experienced discrimination that provoked her to cover her real racial identity. Or maybe she thought that hiding her true self meant realizing her life-long dream of performing. Overlooking the truth, Sarah Jane was rejecting not only herself but also the whole Black race as well as those people who genuinely cried and fought for racial justice. A great example of whom is Langston Hughes. Both were born for a Black mother and a White father. However, their difference was that Sarah Jane was an ashamed Black while Hughes was a proud one. While Sarah Jane was continuously disgracing her race and her mother, Hughes was continuously glorifying the Black people in his works. These varied perceptions on Black life conform to a strong self-concept.
According to , Nigrescence theory, which was spearheaded by the Black Power Movement of 1960s, had been expanded to address six issues: “1) the structure of the Black self-concept wherein individual identity differs from reference group orientation, 2) the vast universe of Black identities with subsequent decision considerations, 3) identity socialization covered from infancy to early adulthood, 4) adult identity conversions, 5) identity recycling and 6) identity functions” (2001).
The first issue was building an individual, personal identity which will be later integrated to an external environment. In the movie, Sarah Jane had her own weaknesses and these stemmed from the pressures of belonging to the society as a whole. However, she perceived that she would only be accepted by the people around her if she is going to hide her true identity. This hurts her mother but Sarah Jane runaway instead. In addition, there were so many perceived identities for the Black people and this blurs with Sarah Jane’s idea; thus, she created her own identity while disregarding the teachings of her mother. If there was one thing missing in her life that would be identity socialization because she had always dismissed the idea that she does not belong to Black race. Then she had resocialization experiences in the White culture taking advantage of the material, earthly things that the culture endows.
After the death of her mother, Anne, Sarah Jane could have redeemed herself, based on the theory, through finally accepting the real about her life, that she is a Black. In the first place, she was the one who had limited herself of opening-up to her mother, to other people and to her race. She had been very self-centered. She did not gave herself a chance to prove her worth and to show her mother that she truly loved her which Anne deserved so much. Looking at the final scenes, Sarah Jane must feel ashamed of herself because if only she saw how other people had respected her mother, she would truly understand what self-acceptance meant. Going back, she could have always chosen to take pride at being a Black. After all, there are so many Black people whom had surpassed the era of racial discrimination, whom are also successful and well-respected today. What had happened to her was her fault and she deserved it.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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