The story 'Sweetness 'portrays the effect racial discrimination has on relationships. Elaborate

Colorism is discrimination occurring among people of the same ethnic or racial group against people with a dark skin tone. It is the central theme in "Sweetness." As a "high yellow" black woman who is accustomed to the privileges her light skin gives her in a systemically racist society, Sweetness is disgusted by her daughter's inexplicably dark skin, which she refers to as "Sudanese black" and "blue-black." Sweetness justifies her reaction to Lula Ann's black skin by discussing her family's desire to pass in order to avoid the humiliations of racial segregation. Having assimilated racist attitudes toward dark-skinned people, Sweetness refers to her daughter as a "pickaninny" and insists "her color is a cross she will always carry." However, Lula Ann thrives in her life and career in spite of her mother's colorism-based instructions to "keep her head down." Emphasizing the beauty of her dark skin by dressing in bright white clothes, Lula Ann embraces her blackness, prompting Sweetness to admit that her daughter is "striking." By the end of the story, Sweetness acknowledges that times have changed, since dark-skinned people are now featured in media and fashion.