Being Racist in Modern America

While reading Americanah I came across one particular blog post of Ifemelu’s that I found to be extremely thought provoking and interesting.   In her post, titled Job Vacancy in America – Arbiter in Chief of “Who is Racist,” Ifemelu makes a bold and slightly shocking assertion that “In America, racism exists but racists are all gone.  Racists belong to the past.”  (Adiche, 390).  This assertion is quickly followed up with an explanation that made me think deeper about the topic of racism and what it means to be racist.

The final lines of her post read “Somebody needs to get the job of deciding who is racist and who isn’t.  Or maybe it’s time to just scrap the word ‘racist.’ Find something new. Like Racial Disorder Syndrome. And we could have different categories for sufferers of this syndrome; mild, medium, and acute,” (390).  While I believe Ifemelu may be poking fun at the fact that (at least in her mind) Americans have a “self-absolving need to turn everything into an illness,” (Adiche, 194), I also believe that she is touching on something very important when it comes to advancing the conversation of racism and what it means to be racist.  In his TED Talk titled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race, Jay Smooth expands on this idea and discusses how in today’s society the idea of someone being racist is extremely black and white.  What he means by this is that people are put into two distinct categories and those categories are the person is either racist, or they are not. Too many people, including myself before reading Americanah and watching Jay Smooth’s TED Talk, think this way and view the entire subject of racism as a simple, black and white issue, when in reality it is much deeper and complex and has a very big grey area.  While I don’t agree with Ifemelu when she states “racists are gone,” (390), I think that she is on to something when she suggests having different categories for racism (or “Racial Disorder Syndrome” as she calls it) and believe that it is a good start when it comes to advancing conversations surrounding the topics of race and racism. 

This is because Ifemelu’s “categories” acknowledge the fact that racism is a spectrum and isn’t black and white.  People, as Jay Smooth states, make mistakes and may occasionally say something racist or offensive, even though it is not their intention (like Kimberly and Curt).  While what they said should not be downplayed and should be brought to their attention immediately due to the fact that it is serious, they should not have to worry about being labeled as a full-blown racist because that will only make them shy away from touching on the topics of race and racism in the future, when instead they should be openly discussed so that people can learn from their mistakes and advance the conversation, which is something that I believe Ifemelu would want.