Blonde Roots

Blonde Roots
By: Bernardine Evaristo
Terri Thampan 804

     I have recently read the book "Blonde Roots". It's a flip side on history, what could have happened if it was the Africans (spelled Aphrikans) enslaved the Europeans (called Europanes). I found this very interesting, me being totally fascinated by history and all. The main character is an European woman named Doris Scagglethorpe, who is a slave. She is given the chance to escape slavery, and escapes it. The book, is her tale.
     I found it weird that the book was a satire. I mean, what kind of humor is there in making fun of slavery. But the whole thing just points fun at slavery, of course, white supremacists would be angered that the mere idea of being enslaved themselves by "the lower race" even existed. But what I found funny, was that The author purposely made it so that Doris had to have the initials of her masters' name branded into her skin. That isn't funny, but what the Author made the initials read was pretty funny. PIG, was the first one. But the second was kind of bad in humor, but I still understood the joke, The second master's initials to be branded onto Doris's skin came out KKK. Oh, is it just me, are some white supremacists rolling in their graves that the initials of a black SLAVE OWNER are the initials of their group?
     Anyways, the story is about Slavery. But you want to know more than that, right? What's even more complex about this story? Well, it really touches upon what is humanity. Weirdly enough, a lot of my blogposts relate to humanity. But really, in this book, you also see from the perspective of Doris's master. And when you see his thoughts and the inner workings of his mind, he's just as normal as any hardworking man. You see his morals, and then you think, hey, he's not that bad of a guy. Because people, aren't just black and white, they're gray (no means to the actual skin color, but in their personalities). And then you see what he thinks about those with different skin colors than his own, you can see the difference between you growing.
      Bwana, that's what Doris refers to her master as. Bwana, thinks of those who have different skin colors as inferior. He thinks them as less than a man, like an animal. It reminds me of how Charlie is treated, not human like, except these people, the ones who are made slaves, are aware of it. The big issue is that of recognizing the humanity of others. Through the perspective of Doris, you can clearly see that she has her own emotions and thoughts and ideas and feeling to make her human. Like I have stated before, being human is to have those feelings, emotions, and thoughts that set us apart from other animals. But what if we don't believe that others have the same humanity as us? That is the problem Bwana faces. He doesn't believe that the white people have emotions and thoughts of their own, that can make them human. This is where the more complicated ideas come in. How do you treat something when it isn't human? Before, people treated animals badly, or didn't care how they treated their pets or animals. But now a days, in our own culture, treating our animals in a horrible way, is a crime.
    This makes me think of the book "Uglies". That's because in the book, the people were all basically raised in an environment that made them think they had to be pretty to be worth anything; they had to think that they were ugly. In this world, in our own history, we treat anything we deem inferior to ourselves badly, until some Radicals come along with the plan or a change. These people thought that the White people were less than human. This story isn't just about humanity, this is about having your human rights, the mere thought of you having humanity, all taken away. Instead, these people are being thought of like pets, or little robots to do what they are told, and not to feel or think or disobey.
   Another thing that piqued my interest was how the continent of Aphrika was flourishing. It made me think, maybe the reason why Aphrika and India are known as "third-world" countries now a days, is because we ruined them, when we started to take over their lands, and enslave the people there.
   Another thing I realized, was the huge culture difference. Women who are fat, are thought of more beautiful. Not only are there differences in beauty, but also in fashion, religions, and many different things. Men can marry more than one woman, and in today's society (of America anyways) that is looked down on, in fact, a man can only have one wife, and if he cheats then he is considered lowly. Even back before women had rights, you were to only have one spouse.
   Also, instead of people converting others into Christians, this time people are trying to convert people to Voodoo. When you read this book, you realize just how different the world can be, if this actually happened instead of Europeans enslaving Africans. You start to look at the world more closely. And of course, who can ignore the blatant comparisons of The United Kingdom of Great Ambossa and The United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.