In her short story White Rat, Gayl Jones “curses” White Rat with a black club-footed baby after he decides to leave his black family and visit the white bar. By cursing him after he visits the white bar, Jones portrays how Rat essentially goes back on his ‘vow’ of being black and examines the idea that once someone claims black, black will always be a part of their identity. Without the curse there would be no way to relate White Rat’s actions to those of the priests breaking their vows, taking away the effect of claiming black as a lifelong vow. I will use quotes from Rat’s priest stories, quotes about the club-footed baby, and quotes from when Maggie leaves Henry with Rat in order to prove how Jones relates a priest breaking his vows to Rat visiting the white bar, to prove that Rat views the black club-footed baby as a curse, and to then prove that (one of) Jones’s points is that once someone claims black, it will always be a part of their identity.