Caucasia

Part 2 opens with Birdie and her mother having been on the road for four years. Sometimes they sleep in Sandy’s dilapidated van, other nights they stay in motels in the small towns where the van breaks down. Sandy has decided that they will settle in a rural New Hampshire town “made up mostly of poor farmers and trailer parks, the world she said she most admired” (142). Birdie’s observation that her mother admires this world most reveals Sandy’s identification with the white community rather than a black or multiracial one. The town is close to a university, which Sandy says will make it easy for her to find a job. She tells Birdie that academics are “naïve” (142) and never check her references. For all her supposed racial consciousness, she does not attribute their implicit trust of her to the fact that she is white.

Birdie marvels at her mother’s transformation into a slender, demure, middle-class white woman. Sandy introduces herself as “Sheila” to her new landlords—the Marshes—wearing a V-neck sweater and Keds (148). Having lost 70 pounds, Sandy flirts with the white men she encounters. This behavior bothers Birdie because it makes her feel like her mother is becoming Sheila, rather than playing a part.