Pecola, Pauline, and Claudia struggle with the pressure of not conforming to white society's beauty standards, a reflection of the racism that has affected Black people since their forced arrival in America. While Morrison explores this facet of white racism, she also examines the complexities within Black communities and the influence of white attitudes on Black individuals.

Initially, Morrison portrays white characters who display racist behavior toward Black individuals. For example, when Pecola visits the candy store to buy Mary Janes, Mr. Yacobowski immediately shows his disdain for her. The narrator somewhat excuses his behavior by pointing out that he is simply different from Pecola, describing him as "a fifty-two-year-old white immigrant storekeeper with the taste of potatoes and beer in his mouth." However, he is also depicted as a symbol of white people in general, as Pecola perceives the same disgust and "glazed separateness … lurking in the eyes of all white people."

Another example of racism against Black individuals is a pivotal moment in Cholly Breedlove's coming-of-age story. On the day of his Aunt Jimmy's funeral, Cholly ventures into the woods with a neighborhood girl, Darlene, and they engage in sexual activity. This being Cholly's first sexual experience, it becomes a defining moment when two white hunters stumble upon them. The hunters force Cholly to continue having sex with Darlene while they watch and laugh. Cholly's humiliation renders him impotent, but he doesn't direct his hatred toward the white men because he realizes that "hating them would have consumed him, burned him up like a piece of soft coal, leaving only flakes of ash and a question mark of smoke." Instead, he redirects his anger towards Darlene, someone of his own race, over whom he can exert power. This experience drives Cholly to seek out his father, and when his father rejects him, Cholly becomes "dangerously free," having lost both his family and his dignity. This "freedom" becomes significant later in the narrative. Reflecting on Cholly's "love" for Pecola, Claudia observes that "love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man [Cholly] is never safe."

The novel's depiction of racism is not confined to interactions between white and Black individuals. Several key moments involve racism among Black characters themselves. Morrison introduces Maureen Peal, described as a "high-yellow dream child with long brown hair braided into two lynch ropes that hung down her back." Maureen possesses everything that Pecola, Claudia, and Frieda lack: wealth, nice clothes, and a beauty that earns her admiration from both white and Black people. Claudia notes that she and Frieda are both captivated and annoyed by Maureen, attempting to downplay her significance by calling her names and mocking her minor physical flaws.

At a certain point, Maureen comes to Pecola's defense when she is taunted by a group of Black boys due to her dark complexion and a rumor about her father sleeping unclothed. Initially, Maureen seems genuinely interested in befriending Pecola, but when Pecola, feeling uneasy, brings up her father after Maureen asks if she's ever seen a naked man, Maureen begins to ridicule Pecola too. Claudia tries to confront Maureen but accidentally hits Pecola instead. Maureen then yells, "I am cute! And you ugly! Black and ugly black e mos. I am cute!"

Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola face not only the cruelty of their peers, who prefer Maureen, but also Maureen's own use of her looks against them when they refuse to admire her. In an interview with author Gloria Naylor titled "A Conversation: Gloria Naylor and Toni Morrison," Morrison clarifies that Maureen suffers similarly to Pecola because her self-worth relies on societal validation of her beauty, rather than her own self-assurance and identity.

Eventually, Morrison introduces Geraldine, a character representing Black individuals attempting to "rise" in society by adopting white cultural norms and rejecting anything that reminds them of their Black heritage. This theme also appears in Morrison's novels Song of Solomon and Tar Baby. Morrison considered this type of person problematic following the Civil Rights Movement, the era during which she wrote The Bluest Eye. In her essay "Rediscovering Black History," she states: "In the push toward middle-class respectability, we wanted tongue depressors sticking from every black man's coat pocket and briefcases swinging from every black hand. In the legitimate and necessary drive for better jobs and housing, we abandoned the past and a lot of the truth and sustenance that went with it."

Geraldine epitomizes this kind of woman, described in The Bluest Eye as "brown girls" who go to great lengths to eradicate the "funkiness" from their lives—anything that reminds them of the dirt, poverty, and ignorance they associate with being Black. Geraldine specifically prevents her son, Junior, from playing with "niggers" and even differentiates between "niggers" and "colored people": "They were easily identifiable. Colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud." When Junior brings Pecola into their home and torments her with his mother's cat, Geraldine immediately despises her. She perceives Pecola as one of the little Black girls she had seen "all of her life … hanging out of windows over saloons in Mobile, crawling over the porches of shotgun houses on the edge of town … hair uncombed, dresses falling apart, shoes untied and caked with dirt." In her view, Pecola is like an unwelcome fly in her home, and she dismisses her with the words, "Get out … you nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house," leaving Pecola once again rejected because of others' perceptions of her ugliness.