103 pages • 3 hours read
Alicia D. WilliamsGenesis Begins Again
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Harmful Effects of Internalized Colorism
One of the most important themes in the novel that is woven throughout almost every storyline is the harmful and long-term effects of colorism. Colorism is a form of discrimination based on skin tone that typically occurs amongst people in the same ethnic or racial group.
The characters in the novel have internalized beliefs about colorism that have been passed down from generation to generation, eventually leading to Genesis. Grandma’s father’s “family tradition” of “marrying up,” or keeping their lineage as light skinned as possible, has led to generations of emotional trauma, affecting Grandma, Genesis’s parents, and Genesis. Grandma claims it isn’t “luck” that light-skinned people are more successful than dark-skinned people. Genesis’s outraged dismissal of that claim highlights that Grandma has internalized her father’s colorism so much that she talks about his beliefs as if they are facts. She says to Genesis, “It’s just…look around. Who’s getting arrested? Who gets the worst jobs? Don’t you see, honey? My papa didn’t make the rules; he just understood them” (153).
Both Genesis’s mom and dad’s families passed down harmful stereotypes to them that they may not consciously recognize, but Genesis does. Genesis thinks to herself while Mama is doing her hair that even though Mama doesn’t realize it, she has also internalized some of Grandma’s colorism because of little comments she makes while doing Genesis’s hair. Genesis’s dad’s mother also instilled within him a shame for being dark-skinned, calling him ‘‘no good” and “trifling” and “black this and that” (211). Emory developed such sorrow that it turned into self-hatred, which he takes it out on Genesis because she looks so much like him.
Colorism stems not only from Genesis’s family, but also her peer community. Regina and the other girls who walked with Genesis after school to her house call her rude names like “Eggplant,” “Charcoal,” and “Blackie.” Troy, also being dark-skinned, tells Genesis later on in the novel that he has experienced the same discrimination and has been called the same names. This serves as a point of connection between Genesis and Troy and emphasizes that they are foils to one another. Genesis desperately seeks a “solution” that will lighten her skin because she is exhausted at feeling so much grief and shame, whereas Troy has come a little bit farther in his journey to self-acceptance than Genesis has. He says, “But then I kinda realized, what’s so bad about the way I am? So I started telling myself, ‘Today I’m gonna beat the odds. Today I’m not gonna be a stereotype. Today I’m gonna be whatever.’ I have to psych myself up on the daily” (323).
Williams evokes the pain and suffering that colorism causes, particularly in the Black community. By telling the novel through Genesis’s perspective, it emphasizes the intergenerational nature of colorism. Genesis is only 13 years old and has absorbed most of her beliefs from those around her, such as her family and her peers. Her suffering over the course of the novel is learned and internalized, even if she isn’t fully cognizant of it early in the novel.
The Effects of Poverty and Addiction
Over the course of the novel, Genesis’s father demonstrates the damaging effect that his addictions to alcohol and gambling have on his family, especially Genesis, who finds an eviction notice on the door of their new home not long after they move in. Genesis lives in a constant state of anxiety wondering when they will be kicked out of their home again and forced to move or stay with Grandma, or worse, with her dad’s friends. Poverty and addiction go hand-in-hand in the novel, both of which lead to financial and emotional turmoil for Genesis.
Genesis and Mama both live in a state of constant fear that they will lose their home again. The novel begins with Genesis coming home to her house in Detroit to find they have been evicted yet again, but this time, it hurts even worse because Genesis’s “friends” are there to see it. They call her names, and Regina tells her, “Just admit that your folks are bums” (3). Genesis is already desperate for validation from her peers, so when her newfound group finally agrees to go to her house and sees the deadbolt on the door, Genesis goes right back to being severely bullied for something out of her control. Genesis can’t control her dad not paying the rent, just like she can’t control or change the fact that she has dark skin.
Genesis’s dad’s drinking habits affect not only her financial security, but also her emotional well-being. When he drinks, he gets mean—usually to Genesis. The memory of her dad drunk in the basement, going off on her for not looking like Mama, is perhaps the most traumatizing memory of Genesis’s life, so much so that she physically harms herself with a scouring pad and some lemons in an attempt to make her skin lighter. Now, when Genesis notices her dad is drinking, she steers clear of him because she is afraid of what he’ll do or say to her. Her dad’s drinking is a sickness, as Mama tells her multiple times, but that doesn’t make it any easier for Genesis, who feels anxious for the inevitable evictions and devastated by her dad’s drunken comments.
The Relationship Between Bullying and Self-Acceptance
Williams demonstrates throughout the course of the novel that bullying can come in many different, equally harmful forms. Genesis is bullied by her classmates, her father, and arguably she is bullied indirectly by her grandmother and her “family tradition.” Her peers’ nicknames for her like “Eggplant” and “Charcoal” and her father’s cruel comments directed at her and her appearance directly affect her ability to find self-acceptance and self-confidence.
Perhaps the most poignant example of how bullying has scarred Genesis emotionally is The List. Genesis’s list of things she hates about herself is a recurring symbol throughout the novel that represents her journey from self-hatred to the beginnings of self-acceptance. Genesis begins to fully process at the end of the novel that instead of getting rid of a list that her peers made about 100 things they hate about her, she not only kept it but added onto it. The words of her bullies left such a deep impact on her that she ended up bullying herself. She says while looking at the list, “this is another thing that I can’t believe that I did to myself” (361).
The novel continuously shows how for those who have been bullied, learning to stand with confidence is twice as hard. Sophia is bullied for her OCD and Troy is bullied for being “a nerd,” but both have done the difficult work of trying to overcome it. They serve as a contrast to Genesis, who not only doesn’t work to overcome it, but piles onto it with the list. Her ability to stand up to Yvette at the end of the novel, defend Troy against his bullies, and finally have a cathartic conversation with her father shows that Genesis has begun to grow.
