How is race and ethnicity represented in Tar Baby and White Teeth? Are race and/or ethnicity questioned in these narratives, and if so, how? Terence-Jade Estrada Monday 13:00 4489543 terencejade.estrada@live.vu.edu.au As Josselson (2012) argues, it is easier for people to lump multicultural or multiracial individuals into a single cultural or racial identity, although realistically most people find it difficult to categorize themselves into a single margin. This is evident in the reading of White Teeth and Tar Baby, in which the character's identity is influenced by a socially ingrained habitus of values, expectations, and self-understanding, or lack thereof. To understand the challenges of racial and cultural identity in these novels, I will first examine the characters Son and Jadine from Tar Baby and Samad and her twin children, Millat and Magid from White Teeth. Each of them knew the world as it was intended. or it should be. One had a past, the other a future and each carried culture in his hands to save the race. Black man spoiled by mom, will you mature with me? Black woman bearer of culture, what culture do you carry?' (Morrison 1981, p. 269) This statement summarizes the obvious differences between Son and Jadine and their irreconcilable worldviews. More specifically, what it means, or should mean, to be black. First, let's take a look at Jadine's character. According to Krumer, “young people do not see themselves as capable of simply choosing their own identity” (Morrison 1981, p. 190) which I believe is why Morrison created the character Jadine. She is a woman of color who believes that the future is best pursued through exposure to European culture and “whiteness.” She herself acknowledges that she has very little...... half of the paper ......Textual Practice, Taylor & Francis, UK Josselson, R, 2012 Navigating Multiple Identities Race, Gender, Culture, Nationality, and Roles, Oxford University Press, OxfordKarner, C, 2011 Negotiating national identities: between globalisation, the past and the "other", Ashgate, U.KKrumer, M, 2012, "Wounded identities”, Navigating Multiple Identities Race, Gender, Culture , Nationality, and Roles, Oxford University Press, OxfordMorrison, T. Interviewed by: Noudelmann, F. Villes-Mondes (4 September 2011) French national radio station Taylor-Guthrie, D, 1994 Conversations with Toni Morrison, University Press of Mississippi. , JacksonWeedon, C, 2004 Identity and culture: narratives of difference and belonging, Open University Press, Maidenhead Witalisz, W, 2013 Migration , Narrative, identity: intercultural perspectives, Peter Lang, Frankfurt