Mina represents a transplanted Diaspora in America as Indian American, later at the age of 24 years she gets into romance affairs with Demetrius. However their relationship is constrained by her family due to the skin color, that they believe is an illustration of one’s ethnic trait. Mina’s skin color “Indian skin” has erotic value and symbolizes whiteness. Mina’s father, Jay, values this skin color and establishes the cultural forces that scheme against Demetrius.
Mina’s family believes that, they are African first and then Indian second thus they should maintain the Indian heritage. Therefore, mina’s family possess the cultural identification and frequently imposed and superficial. Mina is African but Demetrious is American, their difference is shown by their skin that even confuses their definition of ethnicity.
The film illustrates how the Indian opposed the aversion of being identified with the black community and this was show how they were racist of their own. They desired to be identified with the whites rather than Negros. Although Mina has traits of Indian, her dark skin gave a trait of black. That is why Demetrious’ brother considered that Mina was just like them as “an Indian who has never been to India, like they're Africans who have never been to Africa”. However, Mina’s family did not want to associate with the blacks, they wanted to identify themselves with white.
The film outlines how the racism can be big issues in determining the relationship. Racial discrimination has been a problem in US typically being as a result of immigrant groups. Demetrius viewed that Mina’s father should not base racism on the difference of their skins. He believed that that Diaspora behaves like and associate well with black but one they are in US they want to associate with whites. Therefore, they color of their skin should not be a constraint of their relationship.
