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Maxine Beneba Clarke
Cleopatra “Cleo” Clarke is Maxine’s mother. Born to Guyanese parents and raised in London, Cleopatra was an accomplished actor in her youth. After Cleopatra married Maxine’s father, Bordeaux, the young couple decided to emigrate to Sydney, Australia after Bordeaux obtained a professor position there. The way Maxine tells it, Cleopatra was reluctant to move to Australia and had deep regrets after arriving due to the signs of ingrained racism she saw, but eventually established herself in the community of Kellyville, the suburb where the Clarke children grow up. Cleopatra is shown to be upset at the racism she and her family experience in Australia, but she tries to hide it around her children. She is levelheaded and attentive to her children, although she sometimes struggles to discuss topics of racism with them. When Bordeaux leaves her at the end of the memoir, she retains custody of the Clarke children.
Cleopatra Clarke Quotes in The Hate Race
The The Hate Race quotes below are all either spoken by Cleopatra Clarke or refer to Cleopatra Clarke. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
Despite these racial tensions, migrants of colour and their British-born children had truly made London their home. In Tottenham, a few island grocery shops had sprung up: aisles stacked with jerk seasoning, tinned ackee, smoked salt fish and bruised plantains. The occasional black hair salon could be seen, with racks of multi-coloured hair-weave pieces, giant tubs of sticky dreadlock wax and netted sleeping caps spilling onto the footpaths. After twenty or so years, a strong black community was being forged.
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Chapter 2 Quotes
Cleopatra reached instinctively for one of the few coloured packets in the cheese section of the refrigerator. Bordeaux caught his young wife’s hand mid-air, recoiling in shock. In giant blue lettering, the word coon leered at them.
Again, those beasts of doubt, waking and turning, deep in my mother’s gut. What have we done? What have we done?!
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Cleopatra Clarke Character Timeline in The Hate Race
The timeline below shows where the character Cleopatra Clarke appears in The Hate Race. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...his community. During this time in Bordeaux’s life, he also marries a Guyanese actress named Cleopatra. Their time in Britain is fraught due to racial strife, both domestically with violent race...
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...teaching position in Britain, but the country’s economy is stagnating. A couple that Bordeaux and Cleopatra are friends with soon move to Australia and encourage Bordeaux and Cleopatra to do the...
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Chapter 2
Bordeaux and Cleopatra arrive in Australia in 1976. They ride out to Chatswood, in awe of the bright...
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...men of African descent during Australia’s original colonization. Despite their rather unwelcoming surroundings, Bordeaux and Cleopatra have three children in Kellyville: Cecilia, Maxine, and Bronson. Although the early 1980s see race...
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Chapter 3
...of her peers could be seen as undesirable. Carlita’s mother fails to reprimand her, causing Cleopatra to tense. In the first few years of Maxine’s life, Cleopatra has made herself a...
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...Carlita bullies her for her lisp. After seeing Bella cry during school drop-off, Maxine tells Cleopatra about Carlita. Cleopatra says it’s natural that nobody would want to spend time with Carlita...
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The day after telling Cleopatra about Carlita, Maxine decides to wait outside the school for Carlita. When Carlita arrives with...
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Chapter 4
...1985, Maxine starts at the local primary school. The school is close to home; while Cleopatra occasionally drives her in, she usually walks to school with her older sister Cecelia, who...
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Chapter 5
...doll is white and blonde. Jealous, Maxine goes to beg for her own doll from Cleopatra, who exasperatedly tells her that it will be her birthday and Christmas present combined.
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...of Black Aboriginal Australians celebrating as their land is returned to them. When she asks Cleopatra about them, Cleopatra explains that those people are the “original Australians,” who were there before...
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Chapter 6
...be connected to the generational trauma of the Atlantic slave trade. Even so, Bordeaux and Cleopatra enroll their children in swimming lessons, although all three of them hate the lessons. At...
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Maxine eventually admits to Cleopatra that she does not want to go to gymnastics due to her issues pulling in...
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Chapter 7
...Christian holidays, the only time she has been in a church is when she and Cleopatra take shelter from a sudden rainstorm. However, Maxine still prays to God every night for...
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Cleopatra takes Maxine to a dermatologist, which frustrates Maxine, as she feels her mother is trying...
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Chapter 8
...her with, and they begin to call her “Patch,” the name of a classmate’s dog. Cleopatra begins to apply her own foundation to Maxine’s face every morning, which temporarily hides the...
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Chapter 9
...flag and signs that say things like “WHITE AUSTRALIA HAS A BLACK HISTORY.” She asks Cleopatra about this, and Cleopatra explains that it is a protest against celebrating the bicentennial, since...
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...which confuses Maxine since Aboriginal Australians were already there when the settlers arrived. One day, Cleopatra discovers that Cecelia has traced a picture of Captain Cook surrounded by racist caricatures of...
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...which all the children are required to dress up in colonial-era clothing. Maxine notices that Cleopatra seems displeased when she learns about this, but she sews the girls dresses and bonnets...
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Chapter 12
One day, Maxine goes to the gas station to get a slurpee—a freedom Cleopatra now gives her the privilege of enjoying. While there, she runs into Carlita, who is...
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Chapter 16
...to do so, she begs her mom to let her get her hair straightened, and Cleopatra eventually relents. Maxine gets her hair done by a stylist named Greek Charlie. The straightener...
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...even though the girl in question made clear that her mom made her invite Maxine. Cleopatra puts mascara on her burn to hide it. When the girl’s mom asks why Maxine...
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Chapter 17
...she recovers, her scars from the illness begin to puff up and spread. She and Cleopatra go to a dermatologist, who diagnoses Maxine with keloids, a condition he describes as common...
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A new youth group starts in Kellyville, and Cleopatra encourages Maxine and Selina to go. The girls are unenthusiastic at first, but the first...
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...Mick, regularly meeting him at the youth group and talking to him on the phone. Cleopatra knowingly inquires, but Maxine is reticent to share anything. Mick is in theatre, so she...
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Chapter 22
...up with more choreography and does so without getting caught. Her secret is safe until Cleopatra eventually hears about it from a local gossip, but the two never discuss it again.
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Chapter 23
...a slim and gorgeous young woman. She decides to enter a local modeling competition, which Cleopatra supports but which Bordeaux severely disapproves of, to the point that he refuses to go....
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Chapter 24
...school’s production of Twelfth Night. She is determined to get the lead role of Viola. Cleopatra helps her with her audition, but she asks who would be cast as Viola’s twin...
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...off, but the next week, she comes home to find Bordeaux’s things gone. Maxine calls Cleopatra, who hurries home. While Maxine waits, Bronson arrives home, and she has to tell him...
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