The Origin of Others

Black towns refer to settlements inhabited predominantly by African Americans. Formerly enslaved people and freedmen established these towns from 1865 into the mid-20th century as safe haven for Black people escaping the racial terror that characterized Reconstruction and Jim Crow. However, as Morrison discusses in Chapter 4, they were exclusionary in terms of skin complexion, work skills and abilities, and the property that inhabitants arrived with (56-57). Morrison’s discussion points out that the threat of racial terror and the need for a sense of belonging and acceptance motivated the founding of towns with their own discriminatory practices (64).

Colorism is a form of prejudice or discrimination based on skin color whereby those with darker skin are treated poorly relative to those with lighter skin, even within the same social/cultural group. Morrison devotes attention to colorism in Chapters 3 and 4. Colorism appears in white American literature, where skin color “reveal[s] character and drive narrative” (42). It also appears in the discussion of Black towns; Morrison notes that the Black towns were predominantly inhabited by the light-skinned (57), and that color coding amongst Black people was one of the realities that motivated the towns’ founders (64).