"Recitatif" is "too often overlooked," Morris wrote, but the story's structure and clever themes of people's perceptions of race have made it one of her favorite works to explore with students.
Excerpt:
]]>Morrison’s purposeful obfuscation of race really invites readers to consider what we really know when we “know” someone’s race. This is particularly interesting in the classroom. I invite students to speak openly about racial stereotypes and how they often function as a type of social technology for us to make sense of the world. Often, students’ first reactions is to argue that one character has to be Black or, alternatively, white—because everyone knows that these people are really like this or that. The moment they uncover their own flawed logic is always a transformative one.