Unveiling Color-Blind Racism: Racial Violence, Identity, and Resistance in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees

Abstract

Racism is pervasive in society; its roots have been deeply ingrained into individuals’ lives, hindering African Americans' ability to achieve stability and peace. It is established in favor of societal convictions that primarily benefit whites to maintain their superiority and dominance over Blacks. Naturally, white people are the foundation of racial supremacy, pretending to treat Blacks equally through practices such as color-blind racism yet limiting Blacks in different fields. African Americans continue to be victims of the dominant ideology of color-blind racism, which produces significant racial tension and conflict in American culture. Correspondingly, they face racial inequities in their daily lives. This study's primary goal is to examine how racial violence still exists in the form of color-blind racism in one of Kidd's most famous novels, The Secret Life of Bees, in which Lily, the white protagonist, is prejudiced against African Americans. Eventually, Lily realizes her ingrained white racial guilt and strives to change it once she embraces the Black community by valuing their identity. In addition, the study also examines how Lily recognizes society's color-blind racist approach, which attempts to instill racism in order to impact and constrain Blacks as an inferior race. Finally, the findings of this study provide a clear picture of the hegemonic ideology known as color-blind racism and how its ideals in practice affect the lives of Black people while favoring the prejudice and discrimination of white characters in the novel.