Julia Knapp

Professor Smyrl

ENGL-123-5009

7, May 2021

How Wealth Status Plays A Big Role In Race

Themes of race and wealth class occur in many scenes from Toni Morrison's book Tar

Baby. Tar Baby shows the relationships between white and black characters. Race affects the

power dynamic between the relationships of white and black characters. The classes and races

that each character is born into have an effect on how they view others. White people look down

on black people based on their race and social background. Black people who grew up wealthy

down on poor black people based on their class in society. This causes a rift in the black

community which makes it harder for black people to come together.

Morrison emphasizes the power struggles in white and black people relationships. An

example that proves Morrison's point is when Valerian and Margaret are arguing with each other

during breakfast. Valerian and Margaret Streets are a wealthy couple that has a big house and

black servants. Sydney, the Streets servant, tries to calm them down. Sydney tells Valerian “I

know my work. I’m a first-rate butler and I can’t be first-rate in slippers.” (Morrison, 26)

Valerian confronts Sydney “You know your work, but I know your feet. Thom McAn will be the

death of you.” (Morrison, 26). Valerian tells Sydney that he would be willing to threaten

Sydney’s job if he has to. Valerian knows being a white wealthy man allows him to threaten and

control his black servants without consequences because black people do not have many job

opportunities. When black people get jobs, they try to keep them because they are easy to lose if
they make one tiny mistake. White people control black people with power through their jobs

which contributes to one of the factors that help divide the black community.

Morrison highlights how Blacks judge one another based on their wealth differences.

This creates a division in the black community. In Tar Baby, Jadine and the black servants look

down on black people who do not live in wealthy houses and grew up poor. Jadine encounters a

black man, Son, in a closet at the Streets mansions. Jadine thinks to herself “But in talking to

Sydney she knew what it was. The man was black. If he’d been a white bum in Mrs. Street’s

closet, well, she would have felt different” (Morrison, 109). She looks at him with suspicion

because he is a poor black man who does not match her level of wealth. Jadine has negative

beliefs about black men. She does not see them in a positive light like she sees white men. Jadine

also has positive beliefs that white men are less threatening than black men. From previous

scenes, we learned that Jadine grew up in the Street's mansion with wealth and power. From her

childhood, Jadine learned that white people hold the most power and black men are scary and

poor.

Morrison makes an important point that emphasized how white people get wealth by

profiting off of black people through cheap labor. In one scene, Son watches Valerian, who is

eating ham. Morrison adds in that “Son’s mouth went dry as he watched Valerian chewing a

piece of ham, his head-of-a-coin profile content, approving even of the flavor in his mouth

although he had been able to dismiss with a flutter of the fingers the people whose sugar and

cocoa had allowed him to grow old in regal comfort; although he had taken the sugar and cocoa

and paid for it as though it had no value, as though the cutting of cane and picking of beans was

child’s play” (Morrison, 208). This shows that Son views Valerian and Magaret as white people

who profit off of black people’s hard work and talents to obtain their wealth. Black people had
sugar and cocoa that white people took from them. He knows that slaves were forced to do labor

like picking up cotton and cleaning for white people. The white people became wealthy off of

their slave’s labor. Son also has a different mindset than Jadine and the other black servants who

lived with the Streets. He believes that the Streets and the other white people do not care about

black people and often hide the truth about what they think about black people. White people

have taken things from the black community to make a profit off. They also divide up the

wealthy blacks and poor blacks.

In the last scene, Son and Jadine are arguing over education and wealth. Jadine believes

that she knows a lot by studying in a good college and believes that the Streets care about her.

Son has a different perspective than Jadine. Son argues with Jadine “Why not educate you? You

did what you were told, didn’t you? Ondine and Sydney were obedient, weren’t they? White

people love obedience—love it! Did he do anything hard for you? Did he give up anything

important for you?” (Morrison, 269). Son informs Jadine that she knows nothing about education

and how white people treat black people. He tells Jadine that what the Streets taught her to have

a negative outlook on her views of poor black people. Son grew up poor and knows the in and

out’s of how white people treat black people. White people manipulate black people who are

surrounded by wealth into going against black people who are stuck in poverty.

Tar Baby shows many examples of how the wealthy play a role in how black and white

people view each other. Reading from different character's perspectives allows us to understand

how the class can divide the black community and give white people more advantage over black

people. White people are a main factor in dividing the black people community up. They teach

wealthier black people to discriminate against poorer black people. This contributes to black

people seeing each other as competitors than allies who can come together to help fight for
equality for their community. It is important for the readers to understand how the concept of

wealth and race play a role in how we treat people and how people treat us. It is also important

that the black community comes together to fight poverty instead of dividing themself up by

classes.
 Work Cited:

Morrison, Toni. Tar Baby. Paw Prints, 2008.

Morrison, Toni. C:/Users/Jukna/Downloads/The%20Tar%20Baby%20by%20Morrison%20Toni

%20(z-Lib.org).Epub%20(2).Pdf.

Dear Professor Smyrl,

Essay Letter
What I liked the best when writing my essay was finding different quotes to back up my points in
the essay. The most difficult thing about writing my essay was finishing my essay. I am a big
procrastinator when it comes to getting homework assignments done. The main change that I
made from my draft essay to my final version of the essay was making a better conclusion
sentence for my last paragraph. From my peers’ suggestions, I made my title name interesting. I
also worked on adding more sentences to my introduction and ending paragraph. From your
suggestions, I decided to write more about the impact that wealth and race have on character’s
relationships with each other in my essay paragraphs.

From Julia Knapp