In danzy Senna essay the color of love what is the significance of the scene about the broken vase?

It represents the changing of the guard, so to speak. The grandmother's angry interactions with the housekeeper causes the narrator, Danzy Senna, to assert her true feelings. Their relationship shifts after this incident. One can almost say that it is as if Senna was shaking off her mother's and her own veneration of age and rank and finally breaking the bonds of subservience.Symbolically it seems as if she is renouncing her second class position and the second class nature of her race.