Content warning: This section of the guide discusses racism and emotional abuse.

The motif of dark skin color is central to the story. Sweetness is ashamed of her daughter’s dark skin color and goes to great lengths to distance herself from her daughter, even insisting that her daughter call her “Sweetness” that instead of “Mother” or “Mama.” The motif of dark skin color highlights the societal and cultural biases that exist toward people with darker skin. The mother’s experiences with discrimination and prejudice due to her race shape her perception of herself and her daughter. She believes that her daughter’s dark skin color will limit her opportunities in life and is ashamed of the way people look at her when they see her with her daughter.

By the end of the novel, dark skin color takes on different connotations that correlate with Lula Ann’s character development. Sweetness finds her “striking” because she starts “using [her skin color] to her advantage in beautiful white clothes” (Paragraph 10). This indirectly illustrates the way Lula Ann has started to unlearn biases towards people with darker skin, and Morrison presents dark skin as something “beautiful.”