Struggling with Ethnic Heritage-Jacob Smith

In Chapter 11 of the novel, James creates a very interesting internal dialogue for Lillith. While it is true that from birth she has been surrounded by an immeasurable amount of violence, she seems to still struggle with coping. It isn't just the physical act of violence that she can't seem to cope with; she has a hard time understanding how easily the white masters are able to deal with, and almost enjoy, all of the violence. "Slave death is nothing new and a strong nigger learn to walk past it but Lilith look down on her hands and keep seeing blood. Lilith wishing and begging that she can call up the white part of her, the part that can bear with killing a nigger like is nothing. She still hoping that her white half, her green eyes, can save her from her own looking glass that don't hang on no wall. To kill a nigger is like to kill a horse, she think. She invoking the white skin to come up and bury the black" (123). The most obvious thing here is that clearly Lilith is traumatized, but what's more interesting is that James brings an aspect of Lilith's that has been there, but not emphasized, into the foreground in this passage. He brings her racial mixing to almost another level of importance. Anybody with a mixed ethnically background has probably felt this at some point in life. I know I have. There is this want to become part of the majority to avoid standing out or discrimination. In a country where the majority is white (U.S.), I can say from personal experience that I sometimes wish I was more white than Asian because of discrimination I've envountered in the past. While the area that Lilith resides does not have a population that comprises of a larger amount of white people (Jamaica?), she is surrounded by another majority: violence. Violence is always present, and while it is not a physical entity, the few white people in the country seem to be able to work their way into that majority. So, like a mixed minority trying to somehow work its way into the majority, Lilith is having an internal struggle with her genetic lineage. She's so close to being able to join this abstract majority, but not being able to physically join this minority.