…“ —Jesus Christ! They make you do that?
—Dem people would sooner give him donkey milk if it be more easy. Dem don’t care and he? He nah remember ten, fifteen year from now when he same one whipping de life out o’ me.
—How come you have breast milk? You have a young’un too?
—Did have two. Twin. Massa Roget sell dem last fortnight. Or he kill dem, me no know.
Dulcimena give Lilith a chuckle but it weaker than before and she look away from Lilith quick, dart back and look away again. Then she let out a loud laugh, though the kitchen didn’t shake.
—Nigger life! What you gone do? she say.” …
I believe you can assert a behavioral trait of the said character Dulcimena from the text above.
She is a slave who accepts her condition without questions. She believes she is inferior, and as with most slaves she only sees herself thru the eyes of her master, so she calls herself a Nigger.
For someone born into slavery, her behavior is not far fetched. Only I have known countless africans from Africa and the diasporas who enjoy liberties that Dulcimena would never fathom, people living today, free of bondage, but unable to free themselves from the same mentality bore by Dulcimena.
It is called self-hatred. If you think you are inferior because of the social construct so-called race, you are also a racist!
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