Colorism
Colorism is discrimination occurring among people of the same ethnic or racial group against people with a dark skin tone. It is the central theme in "Sweetness." As a "high yellow" black woman who is accustomed to the privileges her light skin gives her in a systemically racist society, Sweetness is disgusted by her daughter's inexplicably dark skin, which she refers to as "Sudanese black" and "blue-black." Sweetness justifies her reaction to Lula Ann's black skin by discussing her family's desire to pass in order to avoid the humiliations of racial segregation. Having assimilated racist attitudes toward dark-skinned people, Sweetness refers to her daughter as a "pickaninny" and insists "her color is a cross she will always carry." However, Lula Ann thrives in her life and career in spite of her mother's colorism-based instructions to "keep her head down." Emphasizing the beauty of her dark skin by dressing in bright white clothes, Lula Ann embraces her blackness, prompting Sweetness to admit that her daughter is "striking." By the end of the story, Sweetness acknowledges that times have changed, since dark-skinned people are now featured in media and fashion.
Denial
Denial is another of the story's major themes. Sweetness's denial arises because of Lula Ann's reluctance to visit her, which Sweetness interprets as punishment for the harsh manner in which Sweetness raised Lula Ann, fearing that her dark skin made Lula Ann liable to "go bad." At multiple points throughout her narration, Sweetness is emphatic in her insistence that "it isn't my fault." The "it" she refers to is purposefully ambiguous, as the word seems to refer at once to the inexplicable darkness of Lula Ann's skin, Sweetness's prejudice toward her own daughter, and the fundamentally racist society in which she and her daughter live. With this evasion of blame, Sweetness shows how she is in denial about the fact that she might have been wrong to raise Lula Ann the way she did. Sweetness prefers to explain the historical context in which her attitude was formed, rather than acknowledge that she could have embraced Lula Ann's blackness the way Lula Ann and society do by the end of the story.
Passing
Light-skinned black characters' ability to pass as white is another dominant theme in "Sweetness." Early in the story, Sweetness comments on how almost all mixed-race people in America used to pass if they "had the right hair," meaning straight hair. She comments on how her grandmother passed as white and married a white man, subsequently rejecting any contact from her children. Sweetness says her mother could have passed but decided not to, and as a result she was subjected to the daily humiliations of racially segregated public spaces during the Jim Crow era. Sweetness suggests that passing was necessary in order to avoid a loss of dignity, because people who didn't pass might be elbowed on the street, spat on, or would have to clear the way to let white people walk past. Ultimately, "Sweetness" presents the concept of passing in its full complexity, showing it to be both a survival strategy for minorities living in a racist society and a result of internalized racial prejudice.
Abandonment
Abandonment is a central theme in "Sweetness." The concept of abandonment first arises when Lula Ann is born and Sweetness considers giving her up for adoption or leaving her on the steps of a church. Abandonment comes up again when Louis leaves Sweetness and Lula Ann because he is unable to accept Lula Ann's dark skin or believe that Sweetness was faithful. The abandonment continues in less overt and more insidious ways as Lula Ann grows up and Sweetness distances herself from her daughter, asking not to be called mother for fear of confusing other people, and refusing to let Lula Ann wear her hair how she would prefer to. By the end of the story, Sweetness discovers that her lifelong abandonment of her daughter has resulted in Lula Ann abandoning Sweetness, who puts Sweetness in a nursing home and rarely visits from California.
