Families are meant to connect us but in Song of Solomon, Morrison shows how racism tears them apart. Their name is “Dead”. Morrison gives this family a name that already means loss. It’s a mistake written by a white clerk, showing how racism begins by naming, by stripping identity.

Colorism, as Margaret Hunter explains in “The Consequences of Colorism,” is a system that gives lighter skin advantages and darker skin disadvantages within the same racial group. It is racism’s shadow—quiet, internal, and deeply damaging, born from racism itself.