# Hazel Mason — The Blacker the Berry character guide

> Hazel Mason in The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** vulgar Hazel Mason

**First appearance:** 0003-part-i-emma-lou

## Snapshot

A dark-skinned woman whose unapologetic loudness repels Emma Lou, exposing the self-hatred she cannot bear to see reflected back.

## Who they are

Hazel Mason is everything Emma Lou fears being read as: dark, unpolished, and unbothered by the standards that have governed Emma Lou's whole life. Emma Lou recoils from her as "vulgar," but the disgust is tangled with recognition, since Hazel wears the same skin Emma Lou has spent years trying to disown. She matters because she tests Emma Lou's loyalties, revealing how readily the wounded will turn on those who remind them of the wound.

## Relationships

### [Emma Lou Morgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_blacker_the_berry_se/characters/emma_lou_morgan)

_friendship_

Hazel is a friend and peer from Emma Lou's social network in Harlem.

## In the story

### [Part I: Emma Lou](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_blacker_the_berry_se/chapters/part-i-emma-lou)

A loud, dark-skinned Black student Emma Lou encounters at the university, whose flamboyant style and grammar embarrass Emma Lou and trigger her own insecurities.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_blacker_the_berry_se/characters/hazel_mason
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_blacker_the_berry_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_blacker_the_berry_se/characters