Something that was particularly interesting and eye-opening to me in this novel was the amount of microaggressions that Ifemelu and other non-American blacks were exposed to throughout their daily lives. Before Ifemelu left Nigeria, she was unaware of race because in Nigeria, she was not black. In America, the color of her skin was the first thing people noticed about her and used it as a way to define her. Whether it be Laura talking about how Ifemelu was privileged in America compared to the people in Nigeria who lived off less than a dollar a day (Adichie 207) or Dike not receiving sunscreen from his camp group leader because she didn’t know that he needed it (Adichie 226), the microaggressions were present throughout the entire novel. The microaggressions were a thing that many non-American blacks seemed to dismiss, “You wanted her to give you the sunscreen, too, right?”, “I guess so. I just want to be regular” (Adichie 227) while Ifemelu thought about them deeply and eventually decided to write blog posts about how she experienced the world around her. The microaggressions ranged from small conversations from the non-black people in their lives, to having their lives interrupted because of prejudice. When Ifemelu asked to get her eyebrows waxed but the asian woman said that she wouldn’t do curly hair (Adichie 361), the refusal came from a place of ignorance and bias. Her eyebrows had the same hair texture that she used to waxing but due to the color of Ifemelu’s skin, she was denied before she even had the opportunity to explain the similarities in their hair. The microaggressions weren’t always from random people such as with the salon, but even continued into her personal life such as Curt’s friends' interactions with Ifemelu. “I don’t need her to reassure me that she likes black people (Adichie 363).” Although Curt may have looked at this situation and been pleased that his friends were trying to be kind to his girlfriend, Ifemelu felt ostracized based on her race and felt as if there was a pressure being put on her. Throughout the novel, I found all of these microaggressions unsettling yet intriguing because I had not previously realized how common it is in many people’s day-to-day lives. I think it is important that everyone, especially white people who may unconsciously be adhering to microaggressions, understands the ramifications of their words and is aware of how their small comments may affect the people around them. Through this book, I was able to learn about this prejudice from a new perspective on the world. It is crucial that, as white woman in America, I understand the prejudice and racism that exists in this country. This book was eye-opening in so many ways and I think it shows perfect examples of the microaggressions that exist in this country. Although microaggressions may not seem as significant as other acts of racism, they have similar effects and create a division in our country.
The book also opened my eyes to just how common and hurtful microaggressions are. We always hear stories about how non-white people need to strive for whiteness to be accepted in various spaces, but examples like the one on page 251 where Ifemelu is essentially forced to relax her hair against her will show the pain many people have to go through to the reach this standard of whiteness that is forced on them. "At night she struggled to find a comfortable position on her pillow. Two days later, there were scabs on her scalp. Three days later, they oozed pus." (Adichie 252). Ifemelu, and many others like her, was forced to endure not only the physical pain that came along with relaxing her hair, but she also had to feel the emotional weight of changing something about herself that she genuinely likes just because someone else deemed it"unprofessional". I also want to add onto the microaggressions you addressed in your original post. I do not know if these instances exactly count as "microaggressions", but they are still innapropriate reactions by white people. Many times throughout the book, white characters go out of their way to prove that they are "okay" with black people by saying or doing something that is clearly performative. Some examples of this are on page 181, when Ifemelu notices that Kimberly calls every black woman she sees "beautiful" until it loses all meaning, or on page 363 when Curt and Ifemelu visit Curt's aunt. Claire, the aunt, makes an effort to bring up everything she knows about Africa in extremely glowing terms, but she gets upset when Ifemelu says that she did not walk around abrefoot in Nigeria to feel connected to the Earth. She gets upset when Ifemelu is not the "right" kind of black person. Because I have never experienced any of these interactions, I honestly cannot say which would be worse, but I can imagine that neither type is an enjoyable experience, and Adichie does a good job of showing that throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteI really found it eye opening, as you mentioned, just how common these microaggressions came up throughout the novel. Once you notice one, they seem to appear in nearly every interaction. It happens most often while she's dating Curt, due to her interaction with upper class white people, who are the main people saying these microaggressions. One such example is when Ifemelu recalls when Curt took her on a date, and the hostess looked at both of them, and then asked Curt "Table for one?" (Adiche 296). Curt then tells Ifemelu that the hostess didn't mean it "like that", and Ifemelu said nothing. The objectification that these comments cause is incredible, and over time, this is really what causes Ifemelu to shift from the person she was in Nigeria to an "Americanah", because she gets so worn down by the small battles of microaggresions, that she gives up, and merely accepts her status of lower value than white people, such as Curt.
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