"Ah can't stand black niggers. Ah don't blame de white folks from hatin' 'em 'cause Ah can't stand 'em mahself" (Hurtson 141).
Mrs. Turner dislikes her own race, and sympathizes with white supremacists because she does not like the commonness of black people. She sees herself as more civilized than the people she is surrounded by. Mrs. Turner likes "Janie's coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls like the other women who worked in the fields" (140). Mrs. Turner was able to overlook Janie's work in the field because she had the features of a white woman. Janie's physical appearance attracts Mrs. Turner's attention because she is unlike the rest of the black women that they are surrounded by. Janie's appearance causes Mrs. Turner to believe that Janie is too superior to be married to Tea Cake.
Katie-You comment on one of the challenging and even paradoxical aspects of the novel--Mrs. Turner's vision of herself and the African Americans around her. The question is, why does Mrs. Turner feel this way?
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