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Chapter 21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hate Race, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racial Discrimination in Australia
Racism, Childhood, and Loss of Innocence
Race and Beauty Standards
Injustice and Complicity
The Power of Words
Summary
Analysis
In the mid-nineties, Australian politics take a hard-right, racist turn. This alarms Maxine, who is finally old enough to be attuned to current events. At the same time, her school is preparing to celebrate Multicultural Day, in which students dress up in “cultural” clothing and some students perform. Mr. Brady, the English and drama teacher, approaches Selina and asks her to perform belly dancing, which she’s been taking classes in and is extremely good at. Selina accepts, but both she and Maxine are wary of Maxine being left alone in class. Maxine offers to perform, but Mr. Brady tells her that her public speaking is not interesting enough. Maxine then lies and says she trains in tribal dancing in order to join Selina in performing and get out of class.
Maxine’s decision to lie about tribal dancing shows her willingness to exploit the cultural appropriation endemic to her school. Although Maxine’s public speaking would give her ample opportunity to talk about her culture and history, but because it is not visually striking like Selina’s, Mr. Brady rejects it, showing how “Cultural Day” is really about costumes and flashy performances rather than deep exploration of different cultures. Thus, Maxine’s “tribal dancing” takes advantage of this.
Themes
Maxine enjoys her time outside of class with Selina, but eventually Mr. Brady asks the girls to demonstrate their dancing, putting Maxine in a tough spot. However, she soon grows angry that the school is excited for her to exploit her Blackness after being uninterested in her public speaking skills, which she often uses to recite speeches by Black activists. She decides to come up with her own choreography. When she demonstrates for Mr. Brady and Miss Silverstein, the other drama teacher, she’s shocked to find that they’re delighted. Her performance on Multicultural Day is also received without incident, and another drama teacher, Mr. Payne, asks her to perform for his class. Maxine is annoyed, but she comes up with more choreography and does so without getting caught. Her secret is safe until Cleopatra eventually hears about it from a local gossip, but the two never discuss it again.
The extent to which Maxine is able to get away with her tribal dancing shows how ignorant the teachers at her school are about different Black cultures. The dances Maxine is performing are completely made up by her, and yet those at her school are so willing to exoticize Blackness that they accept this without question and even encourage Maxine to go further. It’s only when the news gets back to Cleopatra, who obviously knows better than to think Maxine has any real knowledge of “tribal dancing,” that the jig is up.
Themes
