Caucasia | Social Concerns

Caucasia Social Concerns

As the children of a white mother and a black father, living in the racially tense city of Boston in the 1970s, Birdie Lee and her older sister Cole are forced to confront racial issues at a very young age, particularly since Birdie looks white, while Cole looks black.

The two sisters are extremely close, but they quickly learn that their external appearance radically affects the way they can interact with the world. Throughout Caucasia, Danzy Senna questions the way race is so linked to visibility in contemporary culture; for Birdie and Cole, these visible differences become the wedge dividing them as everyone around them focuses only on their differences.

Caucasia also suggests that the political cannot be divorced from the personal, a fact that Sandy and Deck Lee cannot see. When Sandy and Deck fall in love and decide to marry, they are both optimistic...
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