Caucasia (novel)
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| Author | Danzy Senna |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Bildungsroman |
| Publisher | Riverhead |
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Publication date
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1998 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
| Pages | 413 |
Caucasia (1998) is an American novel written by Danzy Senna. Caucasia is the coming-of-age story of Birdie and Cole, multiracial sisters who have a white mother and black father. The novel is set in Boston, Massachusetts during the turbulent mid-1970s.
Much of the novel centers around the theme of racial passing. Senna upends the traditional “tragic mulatto” storyline by exploring Birdie's desire to be accepted as black, although she appears to be white. The author presents a non-singular concept of being “white.” There are many shades of white that Birdie’s visible mixed ethnicity seems to allow her to pass as: Puerto Rican, French, Italian, Pakistani, Greek, Cape Verdean or Jewish.
Senna also explores themes of invisibility and disappearing. Birdie is multiracial; she feels invisible to her father, who seems to prefer her older and darker sister. She disappears with her mother, whose paranoia about being followed by the FBI leads her to construct new Jewish identities for them.
Throughout the novel, Birdie seeks to understand who she is and how she fits into the world. Growing up on the run and fearful that her true identity could endanger her mother’s life, Birdie struggles to know her authentic self. She longs for her sister Cole and their father, ultimately running away from home to find them.
Caucasia is set in 1975 Boston, Massachusetts. Violent protests disrupted the city as forced desegregation was implemented in the public schools beginning in the 1974 school year. Boston busing desegregation flamed racial tensions, resulting in riots, beatings and violence which persisted for many years.
Birdie's parents, she tells us, met in January 1963 during the Kennedy administration. They marry and have their first daughter, Colette/Cole in 1964. Birdie is born in 1967. At that time there were anti-miscegenation laws in many of the United States. These were not overturned until the Supreme Court ruling Loving v. Virginia in 1967.
During this time period the strategy for social change through peaceful protests that are associated with the Civil Rights Movement were being challenged by new black leaders. Malcolm X urged a demand for human rights By any means necessary. Stokely Carmichal is credited with the first popular use of term Black Power in 1963 at a Civil Rights rally. Following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was created by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton.
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