Summary
In the second section of the story, Sweetness admits that she sometimes feels bad about how she treated Lula Ann when Lula Ann was younger. Sweetness claims this treatment was necessary in order to protect Lula Ann, who didn’t know what the world was like, and Sweetness took it upon herself to inform her daughter about how cruel the world could be.
Sweetness says there was no point in being tough or sassy when you had skin as dark as Lula Ann’s—not when you could be sent to juvenile detention center just for talking back or fighting in school, or when you would be the last person hired and the first fired at workplaces. Sweetness says Lula Ann didn’t know about these realities, or how her black skin would either frighten white people, make them laugh, or provoke them to try tricking her.
Sweetness recalls how she once saw a ten-year-old girl who was not even close to as dark as Lula Ann: a group of white boys tripped the girl and repeatedly knocked her over again when she tried to get up. The boys were bent double with proud laughter, and continued to laugh long after the girl had run away. Sweetness says she was watching through a bus window, and if she hadn’t been on the bus she would have helped the girl by pulling her away from “that white trash.” Sweetness says she trained Lula Ann to cross the street and avoid white boys when she sees them coming. Sweetness says the lessons she taught Lula Ann paid off: in the end, Lula Ann made Sweetness “proud as a peacock.”
Sweetness says she wasn’t a bad mother, but that she may have done hurtful things to Lula Ann in order to protect her. She says she had to—because of “skin privileges.” Sweetness says she at first couldn’t see through her daughter’s blackness to know who Lula Ann was and to love her. Sweetness says she does love her—she really does.
In a defensive tone, Sweetness says she thinks Lula Ann understands now that Sweetness really loved her, a statement she quickly undermines by repeating “I think.” Sweetness says that the last two times Lula Ann came to see her, Lula Ann looked striking; bold and confident. With the repeated visits, Sweetness forgot how black Lula Ann was because she used her blackness to her advantage by wearing beautiful white clothes.
Sweetness says Lula Ann’s stunning appearance taught her a lesson she should have known all along: What you do to children matters, and they might never forget. Sweetness says that Lula Ann left her as soon as she could, leaving Sweetness alone in the awful apartment. Lula Ann moved as far away as she could, “dolled herself up,” and found a high-paying job in California.
Sweetness says Lula Ann doesn’t call or visit anymore. Lula Ann sends her mother money and things occasionally, but Sweetness hasn’t seen her daughter in such a long time that she can’t remember when the last visit was.
Analysis
While Sweetness doesn’t live her own life as a white person like that her grandmother did, it is clear that Sweetness is accustomed to enduring far less racism than what she has witnessed people with dark skin dealing with, and she worries that Lula Ann will become the target of bigotry. Sweetness uses this fear as a justification for the way she treated Lula Ann.
Because Lula Ann is oblivious to the cruelty of the world, Sweetness takes it upon herself to prime her daughter for the cruelty. Sweetness is oblivious to the irony in her words and logic, unable to take responsibility for replicating within their household a lack of love analogous to what she has witnessed in the world. Rather than teaching Lula Ann to be proud of who she is, Sweetness’s lessons are designed to program into Lula Ann a sense of inferiority that prompts her to clear the sidewalk out of a fear of white people, as Sweetness assumes Lula Ann’s skin would frighten white people, cause them to laugh, or provoke them into harassment.
Returning to the theme of denial, Sweetness refuses to acknowledge that her lessons—which were informed by Sweetness’s prejudice against dark skin tones—amounted to a lack of love for Lula Ann. She admits that at first Lula Ann’s blackness prevented Sweetness from seeing Lula Ann as a person worthy of love, but Sweetness says she really does love her. Sweetness repeats the statement, suggesting that she is not entirely confident in the veracity of her claim.
In an instance of situational irony, Sweetness reveals that Lula Ann has grown up to be striking, confident, and beautiful. Sweetness takes her daughter’s success as evidence that Sweetness’s lessons must have been beneficial, but her inference ignores the fact that Lula Ann has in fact done the opposite of what her mother taught her: instead of being ashamed of and concealing her blackness, Lula Ann shows off her beauty by wearing white clothes that contrast with her dark skin. In this way, Lula Ann embraces the black identity that her mother and ancestors spent so many decades denying through colorism and passing.
The second section ends with a reversal of the power dynamic between Sweetness and Lula Ann: While Sweetness struggled for so long to learn to love her daughter, by the time she finally feels proud of Lula Ann, Lula Ann has moved to California to put as much distance between herself and her mother as she can. With this ironic reversal, Morrison returns to the theme of abandonment—but now Lula Ann has abandoned Sweetness.
