Passing into Post-ethnicity: A Study of Danzy Senna's Caucasia

Abstract

Radier, Gunnar (like Birdie in Caucasia) is a chameleon, unable to find a stable identity or home in either the predominately white or black environments that he inhabits, forcing him to adopt a performative identity, culminating in his selfproclaimed role of a messiah, encouraging African Americans throughout the country to commit suicide in response to what he believes to be the doomed chimera of equality and civil rights. What follows is a battle between the "Empiricists" and "Intuitionists" about elevator safety and productivity, a cleverly masked allegory for the philosophical debate about African American advancement and the quest for race equality with the elevator serving as a metaphor for upward mobility.