Everyday Use

Dee being cruel

Dee being cruel

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Dee’s persona is loud, garish, and judgmental. She operates under the guise of “Black Pride” and a return to pre-slavery identity that was popular with many black college students in the 1960’s. Dee’s colorful attire and insistence she be called "Wangero" seems forced and without nuance. Her appreciation of "everyday" objects like the butter churn or quilts lies not in their practical usage, but in the heritage she seeks to reclaim as an artifact rather than a way of life. Her treatment to mama and Maggie is degrading and cruel. She treats them like the artifacts: remnants of the slave era.