Genesis Begins Again

“Who do you think’s gonna love you with the way you look? Cackling echoes through the mirror so loud it could shatter. ‘I can’t stand you,’ I say to my reflection.” 

Genesis’s insecurities stem from a deeply internalized belief that being dark-skinned is not beautiful—it is something to be ashamed of. When she looks in the mirror, she hears the “cackling echoes” of her harshest critics, especially her father, who have shaped her standards of beauty and have in turn caused her to develop a strong self-hatred. Genesis's reaction to her own reflection supports one of the novel’s major themes of the negative impact of internalized colorism on identity.

“Trust me, ain’t no boys checkin’ for her with that never-seen-a-comb hair, ’cause where I’m from, if your hair’s not straight, bobbed, pixied, or even braided, then you can forget it. It’s a waste to be a Lite-Brite with a nappy hairstyle like dreadlocks.” 

Genesis initially forms an opinion about Nia based purely on Nia’s hairstyle. In the novel, hair is a symbol of cultural standards of beauty and status, and just as Genesis judges her own hair as a reflection of her character, she also judges others in the same way. Her first impression of Nia reflects her internalized beliefs about beauty at the beginning of the novel before she begins to see herself and others for who they are and not how they look.

“And apparently no one told Mrs. Hill that we don’t talk about slavery anymore, because she goes on like she’s proud to know her ancestors were picking cotton.” 

Genesis’s initial reaction to Mrs. Hill’s story about “Follow the Drinking Gourd” reflects Genesis’s struggle with her identity as a young Black woman. Throughout the novel, Genesis desperately tries to distance herself from her identity as a dark-skinned Black girl when she uses the bleaching cream to lighten her skin and lets Yvette put a relaxer in her