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Chapter 6
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
Maxine is raised in an atheist family; although her parents occasionally attend church on Christian holidays, the only time she has been in a church is when she and Cleopatra take shelter from a sudden rainstorm. However, Maxine still prays to God every night for the thing she wants more than anything: to become white. One day, she believes her wish has come true. In the bathroom, her parents examine her and spot a patch of pale skin on her cheek. Maxine takes a bath and fantasizes about how she’ll eventually become completely white. However, she also feels guilty at the prospect of leaving her family behind when she escapes the specter of racism. She is not happy because she dislikes being Black; she just wants to be more like everyone else she knows, and they’re majority white.
Maxine’s joy at the prospect of becoming white is a damning indicator of how much she’s internalized the racism around her, to the point that losing her Blackness is a joyful thought for her. However, it’s also significant that it is not the sheer fact of being Black that Maxine dislikes, but the fact that it gets her mistreated by those around her. However, because Maxine sees no way to change the racism around her, “becoming white” is the only path she sees to improving the way people treat her.
Themes
Cleopatra takes Maxine to a dermatologist, which frustrates Maxine, as she feels her mother is trying to take her whiteness away from her. The dermatologist cannot currently do anything except watch how things progress, which upsets Cleopatra and pleases Maxine. That night, Maxine overhears her parents worriedly talking about her and looking at photos that they seem to find distressing. After they go to bed, Maxine sneaks out and looks at the pamphlet, which is about vitiligo. Maxine looks at the pamphlet’s photos, which are of people whose skin is marbled pink and brown. Maxine takes this as confirmation that, like them, she will gradually become completely white. She returns to bed overjoyed.
The contrast between Maxine’s overjoyed reaction to her burgeoning vitiligo and her parents’ dismay at it illustrates how, as a child, Maxine does yet understand race the way her parents do. While Maxine believes her vitiligo is a path to whiteness, her parents understand that it will only lead to Maxine receiving more racist harassment. That Maxine is ignorant of this is tragically ironic, showing how she is unaware of the difficult experiences she will soon face due to her “turning white.”
Themes
