Canaries in a Coal Mine: Marilyn Wickenheiser

On the first day of Everyday Hybridities, we were all presented with the idea that race is a social construct—that it doesn’t really exist. Birdie’s entire journey ends in California with her father and sister, where they come to this same conclusion. It took splitting up and a trip to Brazil for her father to realize it, but he bases his book on the idea that race is an illusion. He writes in his book that, “the mulatto in America functions as a canary in the coal mine.”(393). They gauge the race relations in America. If they survive, it is likely that races will get along. Cole and Birdie agree that their father’s philosophy is right, but society and even their own parents have made it seem like race isn’t just an illusion.

If you look back to their experiences, society has made it less than easy for someone of color to be invisible—to simply blend in. It all began at the Nkrumah school. In a society of black majority, Birdie was originally an outcast. When Birdie stands to say Black is Beautiful, someone shouts out “Guess you must be ugly” (45). The kids don’t hesitate to point out that she is lighter skinned. Birdie goes on to have her experiences in New Hampshire where she isn’t exactly outcast because she’s passing, but sees the way people treat others who are of color. Nicholas is constantly making jokes, such as the black baby joke, or telling Birdie about how he slept with a black prostitute. At school she is angered by the way her friend Mona treats the adopted black girl named Samantha. When Stuart comes to school, everyone tries to force them together just because they are both black. Finally on their trip to New York, Mona calls the boys on the street corner niggers, and Birdie punches her for it.

Birdie’s family also poisons her with the idea that color is of importance. Her father never treated her and Cole the same. Deck always tried to explain his work and ideas to Cole, but never to Birdie. Even Carmen and Cole had a different relationship. Deck and Carmen didn’t know how to raise someone who could pass for white. Their grandmother also treats the girls differently. She always gave Birdie normal presents, but gave Cole a Golliwog doll. She would talk to Birdie a lot, but Cole was always in a different room watching TV whenever they went to visit. By making up an entire new life, as Jesse and Sheila, while they are on the run, Sandy makes it clear that to be part of anything black wouldn’t be advantageous for them.

In both Nkrumah School and New Hampshire, things do eventually look up. Cole says that at her high school in California mulattos are a dime a dozen. Deck finally realizes, after treating his daughters differently, that Cole is not like him, and that color doesn’t mean anything. Sandy also realizes that it’s okay for people to know that Birdie is black and confesses their real life to her boyfriend, Jim, who accepts them. It proves that things are looking up for race relations at this time in America. Birdie’s name was just something that Cole called her, and it stuck, but it finally fits her now because she and her sister are the first generation of canaries to survive.