The Abject Blackness under the White Gaze in the Bluest Eye

Abstract

Morrison carefully depicts the process of dehumanization and epidermalization in the Bluest Eye, illustrating the internalization of
the white gaze. Under the white gaze, the black is seen as an animal part whose humanity is concealed altogether to maintain the myth of undifferentiated whole white body (Bhabha 92). They undergo epidermalization, a process where the black identify with their blackness which
becomes the emblem for everything hateful about them. In this regard, Fanon shares Morrisons concern about the white gaze and its effects
on the black. In The Bluest Eye, where the black peoples identity is constructed by the gaze of the white people that controls their codes of
behavior, the white gaze is at work where all the black are under constant watch. The white are eager to reinsert the black into the dehumanized/invisible/evil discourse with the crushing power of their constant gaze.