Comparing Sapphire's 'Push And Racism In Reality'

“Reality”

“...the end, nothe BEGINNING.” Perfectly stated byRhonda Patrice Johnson and devoured by a captivated audience, Push delivers the reader to a newbeginning in a realistic world most seek to deny. Written by the anonymousauthor, Sapphire is bent on delivering realism in its thickest and most pureform, Push catapults the reader intoa world wrought with poverty, horrific abuse, and surreal sadness permeated bya stench of undying racism. In order to achieve this intense sense of realismand a sincere connection with a world many purposely forget, Sapphire deliversa story of hope and unshakable sadness through the eyes of a young black girlby the name of Claireece Precious Jones. It is through these innocent youngeyes that the audience
is able to consciously connect with a realistic worldplagued by an undying thirst for racism, and drenched in the atrocities ofsexual, mental, and physical abuse.

Throughout Push, Sapphire consistently andmethodically outlines color and induces a heavy dose of racism within arealistic world.
From beginning to end, Clareece delivers a potent sense ofracism from the description of her school principle as a “White cunt box” toher obsession with “Farrakhan” and his racial doctrine of, “Crackers is thecause of everything bad.” (Sapphire p.34). Furthermore, Clareece continues tooutline her hatred for whites as she alludes to a “Farrakhan” story describinghow white men would force themselves on the wives of slaves while forcing theslave man to watch. Clareece continues to elaborate by stating, “Miz Rain saywe is a nation of raped children, that the black man in America today is theproduct of rape.” (Sapphire p.69).Interestingly enough, Clareece reveals this story to the audience whileattempting to describe her hatred for her own father and his actions towardsher. To elaborate, by delivering this comparison between her father and thewhite man, Clareece feels she is adequately describing her hatred for each. Sapphirealso incorporates an indirect method of eliciting color and race throughvernacular. Throughout Push, thereader is continuously confronted by the use of Ebonics and the usage of otherterminology consistent with those that are typically black. Such terminology includes the words, “ax” andthe use of the word, “Pig”, in reference to a police officer. It is importantto also note that Sapphire creates the perfect stereotypical black
character.To elaborate, Clareece is a poor young black girl who happens to be pregnantwith her second child living in the Harlem projects. To continue, she is alsodepicted as being uneducated and having a mother on welfare. Sadly, thisperfectly depicts the stereotype that many whites carry against blacks intoday’s so called modern American society. Sapphire even carries the stereotypeas far as Clareece’s diet, describing meals that include greens, cornbread, andmac and cheese. All of these foods consider by whites as a staple item in everyblack diet. By a character flawlessly stereotypical of a black female, not onlyhas Sapphire created a racist character, but also a racist audience perfectlyadept at seeing color. All in all, Sapphire, through the eyes of a young honestcharacter, is able to evoke the sense of color and racism that permeates thesoul of all.

By consistentlyincorporating an unending series of verbal, mental, and physical abuse,Sapphire drastically pulls the curtain on a world much more real than mostwould prefer to see.
From her specificand intricate depictions of rape by both her father and mother, to her schoolterrors brought on by the verbal abuse of her classmates, Sapphire utilizesClareece as a living breathing catalyst designed to speed up the injection ofrealism. By introducing an unending spectrum of abuse, Sapphire is able toessentially bring the audience to their knees, gasping for air in a world freeof the stench of harassment and terror. To continue, Sapphire is able to divedeeper into the soul by also including auxiliary characters along with theirown horrific stories of mental, physical, and sexual abuse. From Rita Romero’stragic tale of mental and verbal abuse ending in the murder of her mother byher own father, to Rhonda Patrice Johnson’s sickening story describing hersexually abusive brother, Sapphire sends her audience through an abusive rollercoaster through hell. To add to the horror, most of the abusive stories in Push involve love ones and familymembers. It is hard not to deny the factthat most if not all wish to ignore reality to this degree. Such a fact isperfectly outlined when Clareece frustratingly states, “I just want to say whenI was twelve, TWELVE, somebody hadda help me it not be like it is now.”(Sapphire p.125). Heart wrenching and utterly frustrating, though nurses,police,
teachers, and social workers understood the sexual abuse Clareece wasenduring, none did anything to help. Sadly enough, such an atrocious story is far too common in reality. Allin all, Sapphire is able to deliver a heavy blow of reality by creating aseries of mental, physical, and sexual abuses felt by all the charactersbirthed within her novel Push.

From theincorporation and systematic development of racism and color to the horrificdepictions of sexual, mental, and physical abuse, Sapphire, through the eyes ofan innocent young teen, generously delivered a captivating dose of realityunseen in today’s literary world. Thoughmany desire to ignore such realities, all must accept the idea that society isfar from perfect. Confronted by the need to survive in such a harsh realisticworld, all must hope for a better life in order to survive. As ClareecePrecious Jones boldly stated, “I don’t know what ‘Realism’ mean but I do knowwhat REALITY is and it’s a mutherfucker, lemme tell you.” (Sapphire p.83).