Race in Cane by Jean Toomer

I am a member of this new race. It is neither white nor black nor in-between. It is the American race'4 that no one should be defined by their colour or heritage. Against all of Toomers aversions to be associated with the movement, the heterogeneous plotless modernist style of Cane illustrates the horrors of African-American experience during the earlier 20th century. Documenting lynchings, race riots, Jim Crow and a newfound consciousness.
             Many African-American writers considered Toomer as a 'race traitor' as he so desperately tried to 'challenge his culture's demand for absolute distinctions between white and black'.5 His characters exemplify these boundaries set up by the Negro community, as progression seemed to be frowned upon. Esther is out of her comfort zone when she goes to confront Barlo about her romantic feelings for him, when someone remarks 'so that's how the dictie niggers does it'.6 A dictie is defined as a black person who behaves as though they are white, is educated, or a black person who moves out of their racial or gender boundaries. Esther is labelled a dictie because of her confidence and command when confronting Barlo simply because she is a woman. Toomer was a middle-classed and educated mixed-race man, making it highly probable that he would have been called this slur as well, as he did not want to be 'confined' by his race as a Negro man. Toomer continually struggled with his own identity 'I wrote a poem called "The First American", the idea of which was that here in America we are in the process of forming a new race, that I was one of the first conscious members of this race'.7 Cane however, was still marketed by Waldo Frank as 'a book about Negroes by a Negro'8 and this slogan appeared in the New York Times and New Book Review. Toomer was angered by Frank's choice of marketing as he thought that by mixing elements to create a story it would work as symbolism of the racial mixtures present in America.