Intertexts

Intertexts, Vol. 6, No. 2,2002 Canadian Biraciality and Its “Zebra” Poetics For Adrienne ShadtF George Elliott Clarke U N I V E R S I T Y O F T O R O N T O P r e a m b l e LikeallAfricandiasporicwriting,African-Canadianliteratureengagesthe symbol and the image of the mixed-race black because this figure violates the sanctityofracialpolarities,thusremindingAfncansandEuropeansofthe white-initiatedsexualviolenceagainstblackwomenthatensuredthesadism ofslavery.ScholarRichardNewmanstressesthat“slaveswereproperty,like animalsorobjects,theyhadnorights,andallblackwomenweresexu^y availabletoallwhitemen”(1320).Hence,“Virtuallyevery[US]plantation produced children of mixed race” (1320). The Canadian experience v^ onlyslightly.In1788,therevelationthat“Rev.DanielCock,ahighly esteemedministerofthePresbyterianChurchinTruro[NovaScotia],was theowneroftwofemaleslavesexcitedpublicfeelingsandcontroversy (Best,Fire[vol.l],121).BlackLoyalistLydiaJackson,eightmonthspreg nant,foundherselfenslavedandbrutalizedbyherwhiteNovaScotianmas ter.Dr.Bulman(Walker,Black,50).HistorianRobinW.Winksreportsthat “[o]f 573 children of slaves [in Nouvelle-France] for whom there is ae quate record, 59.5 percent were born outside any form of marriage, an whileinmanycasestheparentsmayhavebeenofthesamerace,theentryin theregisters—pereinconnu[fatherunknown]—nodoubtcoversmanywte 1_.”(11).Thedramasofwhite-blackcouplingmandatethatmiM figures should spark the imaginations of African-Canadian authors, ascinatingly though, it is Western Canadian mixed-race blacks who liinn, most fetishistically, a“zebra” consciousness. To engage the exploration of rmxe racestatusinthisparticular Afncan-Canadianliterature,wernustfirstccmsidertheappearanceofthe ‘mulatto’ ingeneralNewWorld Afncanthought. ! m e n t o o r a c e Tragedizing the Mulatto Inhisfinicky,obsessiveaccountofEuro-AmericanracismanditsAfiicanAmericanvictims .AnAmericanDilemma:TheNepiroProblemandtheMod¬ ernDemocracy(1944),SwedishsociologistGunnarMyrdalasserts,Everyno matter how far body having aknown trace of Negro blood in his veins 2 0 4 I N T E R T E X T S backitwasacquired—isclassifiedasaNegro.Noamountofwhiteancestry, except one hundred per cent, will permit entrance to the white race” (113)! Myrdal’s findings were not news for blacks, particularly those of mixedheritage ,someofwhomwereeagertotracetheirentirelineage—ifonlythey could—to whites.2 Because they could not, ambivalence and alienation their lot.3 Honeying this agony—this estranging straddling of the color line—thesalutaryeffectoftheso-calledone-drop-rulewastoupthepoten¬ tialnumberofAfiican-AmericanwarriorsavailabletofightUSapartheid. Thus,relativelyfight-skinnedblackslikeW.E.B.DuBois(1868-1963), MalcolmX(1925-1965),andAngelaDavis(1944-)wereabletojoinforces withdarker-skinnedbrethrenandsistrenlikePaulRobeson(1898-1976) MartinLutherKing,Jr.(1929-1968),andAudreLorde(1934-1992) promoteimmediateequalityforblacks.^Simultaneously,thedepictionof the “Tragic Mulatto” in literature and film stressed that the person of mixed racebelonged,absolutely,toaninescapable—and,forsome,debilitat¬ ing—blackness.^ Formstance,theessaysoftheincisive,Martiniquan-bornfoeofracialist imperialism, Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), branded the mixed-race black as suspect, that is, as aready collaborateuryAxh white supremacy. Theoretically, butdamningly,heorshewastheoffspringofablackparentwhohad sought, through sexual intercourse with awhite partner, to experience the S pleasure of avicarious whiteness. In Peau noire, masques blancs (1952)[BlackSkm,WhiteMasks{\96S)],FanoninsiststhatwhentheMartoquanauthorMayotteCapeciaannouncesinherautobiographyJesuis Marttmquaise [I Am aMartiniquan Woman] (1948) her desire to marry a whiteFrenchman,sheisseeking“lalactification”(40)[“akindoflactification ” {Black 47)].6 Discussing an allegedly recidivist black male lust for whitewomen,Fanon’spersonaexplains,“Danscesseinsblancsquemes mamsubiquitairescaressent,c’estlacivilisationetladigniteblanchesqueje fais miennes” (53) [“When my restless hands caress those white breasts, they paspwhitecivilizationanddignityandmakethemmine”{Black63)].Ifthe jo^g of black and white is inherently pathological, as Fanon’s exhibits indicate, how can the offspring not voice self-hatred and negrophobia? With this worry in mind, Fanon claims of the mixed-race woman in Abdoulaye Sadji’sNini(1955?)thatshe“nonseulementveutblanchir,maiseviterde regresser. Qu’y a-t-il de plus illogique, en effet, qu’une mulatresse qui 6pouseunNoir?”(46)[“wantsnotonlytoturnwhitebuttoavoidslipping back.Whatindeedcouldbemoreillogicalthanamulattowoman’saccept¬ anceofaNegrohusband?”{Black54)]Fanon’stoneisunduly,startlingly vindictive,asifthedesiresofanimaginarybeingindicted,somehow,his actual,raciafizedmasculinity. Nevertheless, the catalogue of treacherous Creoles or mixed-bloods or mixed-races or half-breeds or mulattoes^ in New WorldAfrican literature is solongastobealmostconvincing.InhisexaminationofJuanFrancisco Manzano’sAutobiographyofaCubanSlave([1835],1937),WestIndianfitr a c e w e r e t o Canadian Biraciality and Its “Zebra” Poetics 2 0 5 erary critic Lloyd King points out that Juan Gualberto G6mez, an eminent Cuban mulatto, “advised his followers to accept aplace as second-class citi¬ zens and suppress their own originality: ‘What do Isay to my my people? Let us invent nothing, let us develop no taste for originality in any sphere of activity, let us accept the minor role’” (“Some” 23). Demonstrably, Manzano ’s Autobiography emerges from a“matrix of victimhood” (“Juan” 28). King urges that Manzano’s masochism arises from an odd misfortune: “Although born aslave, as achild he was treated by his first mistress almost as if he were white, and he never quite recovered from his childhood experi¬ ence” (“Some” 7). Even after he...