Everyone has felt at one point in their life that they did not belong or fit in because of specific standards and expectations that have been socially constructed by society, for example being attracted to the same sex, being too big in the waist or simply just because they are considered to be the wrong skin colour, whatever the case may be, everyone of these people have wanted to at least once in their lifetime go unnoticed. In Danzy Senna's novel Caucasia main character Birdie is a young bi-racial girl who is pushed to explore the idea of race by being forced to leave her racially mixed environment in Boston and disappear into the white nation of Caucasia. The beginning of the novel starts with Birdie's recollection that says "a long time ago I disappeared. One day I was here, the next I was gone."" Birdie has come to think of herself as having "disappeared"" when living as Jesse Goldman because she does not fit into the idea of race in society's perspective and has chosen to only identify with the race that allows her to blend in and create less conflict, this being the Caucasian race, which she seems to pass for rather than the black race. Race is a central focus in the novel Caucasia and allows its readers to take notice that Birdie's ability to disappear can be greatly appreciated and considered a blessing and we see this through identifications such as her standpoint, identity and race in general.
Standpoint theory is the idea of the relationship between subordination and dominance and the effects on what people see or do not see. Any system of difference shapes those on whom it grants privilege as well as those it oppresses (Frankenburg, 1993, p. 1). .
Birdie's standpoint is different from many, because of her racial background, mixed with both black and white, she sits on boundary of whiteness and blackness and can see both viewpoints of both races.
