Genesis Begins Again

Genesis finds Mama planting flowers out in the yard. Mama tells her that they are moving. She laments that they let it get so bad that their own child was trying to rescue them. She tells Genesis that she never wanted to be one of those women who put their “man” before their child.

It means a lot to Genesis to hear Mama admit this because it has always made her angry that Mama constantly takes her dad’s side. Genesis apologizes again to Mama for everything, and Mama apologizes for not listening to her.

Later that night, Mama and Genesis are both shocked when Genesis’s dad casually walks in while they are eating dinner. He has been gone for three days since their explosive fight on Friday night. He makes himself a plate and sits down at the table to eat, but it isn’t long before he picks a fight. Mama asks if he’s been lying about going to AA meetings, just like he has been lying about everything else. He says those meetings are not for him, and he’s tired of everyone nagging him about something. Mama is eerily calm as she leaves the table.

Afterward, Genesis sits on the back porch and thinks that maybe it won’t be so bad moving back to Detroit. After a while, her dad joins her on the porch. He tells her that he was going to pay the rent. Genesis is tired of his lying and tired of believing him. He pulls out a bottle of whiskey, and Genesis asks him why he chooses alcohol over her. She asks if it’s because he hates her for not looking like Mama. He raises his voice and tells her that he doesn’t hate her, but then says a little quieter that it would have been “a lot easier…” (296).

He doesn’t finish the sentence. Genesis wishes that she could not care, but she does. She is about to break down, but then decides she wants to be brave. She tells him that she auditioned for the talent show and got in, and she hopes that he will come. As she turns to go back inside, she is still hoping that he will tell her that he is proud of her. Instead, he quietly tells her that he is trying.

Genesis’s package with her bleaching cream arrives the next day. She is excited to read that she should see results in five days. Despite her worries that something bad might happen, she rubs the cream all over her face, hands, and neck and prays that she will become beautiful and light skinned and have good hair.

After dinner, Mama and Genesis go on a walk, and Mama tells Genesis that it is time for them to start packing. Genesis panics and tells her that they can’t move yet. She tells Mama it’s not just that she’s made friends like Sophia, but also that she was brave enough to audition for the talent show and it has made people finally pay attention to her. She asks if they can stay at least until after the talent show, and Mama says okay. When Genesis asks if they could stay maybe until the end of the year, Mama tells her that she will try, but she can’t make any promises. Genesis thanks her and hugs her.

On Saturday, Genesis goes to Yvette’s house to rehearse. Afterward, Yvette puts a relaxer in Genesis’s hair. Genesis notices that her head feels much lighter, and when she brings her head up, the wet strands of hair stick to her face “just like white people’s hair when they get out of the shower” (306). Yvette and Belinda give her a makeover afterward, and Genesis barely recognizes herself. For the first time, she loves her hair, and she loves the way she looks, and she loves her new pretty, popular friends.

The next day, Genesis is so excited to see that the cream is actually working. She can finally see little light spots on her face. Troy notices and asks her if she bought the cream he saw her looking at on the computer that day. Genesis is defensive. She tells him she bought it because she wanted to be pretty, and Troy says she already was before. She tells him that even though he is as dark as her, maybe he doesn’t have to deal with getting called names like “Ape” or “Blackie” because he lives in a “fancy bubble” (310). Troy tells her that he deals with name-calling all the time, too, and he is always stereotyped; everyone always expects him to be a rapper or athlete. He tells her that that cream won’t work, that she will still be Black. As Genesis stands up to leave, she tells him that he is wrong, and he does live in a bubble because he is playing classical violin at a talent show.

Genesis catches up to Jason on her way to chorus and asks him when they are going to rehearse, and Terrance laughs. They tell her she isn’t going to perform on stage with them. She is just going to record her part of the song and they’ll play it. Genesis is humiliated. Yvette shows up and appears to stand up for Genesis, but as Genesis is walking away, she hears Yvette say something like “do whatever it takes to win” (313).

Genesis asks Mrs. Hill after class if she can borrow another CD. She looks through her collection and samples a few CDs, but nothing jumps out at her. She puts in an Etta James CD and plays a song, and she suddenly realizes it’s the mystery song her dad is always humming.

Chapters 25-29 clearly show the divide between the people who actually care about Genesis and the people whom Genesis wants to care. A prime example is Genesis’s brief “friendship” with Yvette and Belinda. Even though Genesis knows that something happened between Sophia and Yvette, she pushes that worry aside because being friends with Yvette would mean a chance for popularity, and even better, a chance to finally have “good” hair like Yvette. After Yvette and Belinda give her a makeover, Genesis thinks, “I can’t imagine how they could possibly be mean to [Sophia]. I want to ask, but I can’t ruin this moment. At last, I have friends—pretty and popular friends. Could Sophia be wrong?” (308). Genesis has a blind spot when it comes to beauty and popularity because there are clear signs that Yvette and Belinda are not as friendly as they might act on the surface. They make fun of Nia’s hair, and they make snide comments about Genesis’s hair, like when Yvette tells her she can “smell [her] cooked hair” (255).

Genesis’s desire to feel beautiful and popular clouds her judgment, not only when she decides to join Yvette and Belinda, but also when she decides to buy the bleaching cream. When Troy recognizes that she has been using the cream and expresses his disappointment, Genesis is surprised to feel shame. She says, “I was all proud of my changes, hoping the world would notice, but now he makes me […] want to run for cover. He’s asking all these questions that, I don’t know […] I thought I had figured out. Now I want him to look at anything else besides my face” (324). For so long, Genesis only sought the approval of those she desperately wanted to like her. Now, she has people who already like her, friends like Troy and Sophia who truly see her. So, when Troy expresses his disappointment in her for “chasing the hype,” it hurts even more because it is coming from someone she trusts. Troy asks Genesis to consider what she thinks is beautiful, signaling more movement in her coming-of-age character arc, as she will soon abandon the beliefs and traditions of her grandmother and father and develop her own concepts of beauty and worth.

Troy and Genesis’s conversation also highlights how they act as a foil to one another, particularly in terms of their response to their racial identity. Troy does understand how it feels to be stereotyped and bullied, but he has had to learn how to take charge of his own destiny—to not let others define him based on the color of his skin. Genesis isn’t quite there yet. Genesis grew up in a home where being dark-skinned is not beautiful, whereas Troy grew up in a house with books by iconic Black thinkers who taught him to take pride in who he is, to own his identity. Troy and Genesis’s drastically different levels of comfort with their racial identity highlights just how pervasive colorism is and just how important it is to have a supportive family who will love them, accept them, and teach them to think for themselves, rather than internalize hateful ideologies.