Ifemelu's blog posts reoccur throughout the novel to provide some insight regarding Ifemelu's feelings immediately after an experience that has shaken her, or one that gives her inspiration to create a statement or theory about society. She uses the blog to vent her frustrations with both American and non-American cultures and societies in a way that calls for change and acceptance for minorities.
While Ifemelu encourages her readers to "break the mold" of what society considers commonplace, I feel like she fails to follow her own rules in the real world (Adichie 265). Ifemelu chastises American blacks for claiming to have "Indian" blood to make them seem less black, while some European whites claim to be dark because they are from Greek or Italy (264). She continues on to describe the stigma around colors, but focuses on the mold that appears to have formed in relationships across cultures: blacks marrying lighter skinned people. Even though she praises Obama for breaking that mold and displaying that success can be attained by marrying a dark woman, she arguably has one of her happiest relationships with Curt.
When she dates Curt, she feels like a "woman free of knots and cares," as she relies heavily on his white privilege for her own comfort (241). She even describes herself as "lighter," and feels like she finally has fit into a class, simply because she decided to have a relationship with a white man. Even as she agrees with Jamilah977 on HappilyKinkyNappy.com who claims that "there is nothing more beautiful" than the hair that God gives them, she eventually ends up chemically straightening her hair for a job interview (264). A bit of an outside reference here, and I expect that you will call my attention towards the fact that racism during the hiring process played a role in Ifemelu's decision, but Colin Kaepernick made a choice that sacrificed his career for the purpose of making a stand. Ifemelu abandons the ideals that she loves and preaches, failing to act in support of her own values.
Ifemelu even claims that the solution to the problem of race in America is romantic love, a subject touched upon in class. To delve a little deeper into the topic, Ifemelu's idea is so far-fetched and hypocritic in an overall view of the novel. Ifemelu requires an extreme side of a relationship to be present to solve race, a "real deep romantic love" that is so rare, most couples in the world fail to find it (367). After relationships with Obinze and Curt, and casual friendly relationships with other characters in the novel, a new pattern is shown. While Ifemelu disregards comfortable relationships, I embrace it. In order to truly understand each other, the first step is to allow yourself to become comfortable with a person or culture you are unfamiliar with. By taking such initiative, people are able to slowly immerse themselves into other cultures in a way that doesn't come off as offensive or sympathetic. Since Ifemelu clings to this notion, she is unable to open herself up to new comforts, only finding criticisms within others to blog about.
Working off of the idea of inconsistencies between Ifemelu’s writing and actions, I would like to point out the inconsistency in her attitude towards educating white liberals. In some situations, such as in the blog post on page 328, in which Ifemelu instructs non-black readers to “ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable asking questions and then ask anyways,” as well as in the instance when she allows the white woman to touch her hair on page 314, Ifemelu seems appreciative of the efforts of individuals who cannot understand racism, but do their best to counteract it. However, in other situations (such as in the case of Kimberly), Ifemelu gives off the impression that she is offended and exhausted by the white liberals’ attempts to be, for lack of a better term, woke. It is reiterated several times that Ifemelu does not consider educating white people about race to be part of her job.
ReplyDeleteWhile both of these attitudes could potentially be valid, they seem as though they should be mutually exclusive. It can be concluded that the fluctuation between the two approaches, both online and in her daily life, is a result of Ifemelu not having grown up with race being a factor in her society. Coming to term with race at a much later age than black Americans, Ifemelu has had less time to develop her attitude to the issues that the problem creates, and therefore does not follow a singular code of conduct.
I think that using most of the above, Adichie is simply trying to show Ifemelu's humanity. It's true that Ifemelu sometimes seems mildly annoyed with Kimberley's attempts to be "woke" - for instance when she tells her she "'can just say 'black''" (Adichie 181). I think part of this is to be attributed to Kimberley's constant attempts to be "woke," though - she walks on eggshells around Ifemelu, afraid to say anything that could be even slightly construed as racist, while somehow simultaneously acting as though she understands Ifemelu's experience - perhaps because she's been to India, or is involved with a charity in Malawi (Adichie 183,185). Aside from all of that, Ifemelu is written as a human being who gets moody and annoyed from time to time, and who falls for Curt not as a political action, but because she fell for him. She's written to not feel like going to a protest once. She's written to buy into the status quo occasionally, as you mention above about her willingness to straighten her hair, especially to get a job, because that's what people do. Ifemelu had only years before resorted to prostituting herself to pay rent - she doesn't have the means to do what Colin Kaepernick did, which was incredibly brave, but cannot be the standard expectation for every person who happens to be black. She's written to be a human - not just a token black character, but a full character with flaws, emotions, and values to which even she cannot always be true - because no human can perfect all of the time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the sentiment that there is a distinct gap between the things that Ifemelu blogs about and how she actually lives her own personal life. However, I feel that this can be traced back to the essence of what the blog is supposed to represent and the fact that Ifemelu would not be able to say the things that she writes on her blog in public. In my opinion, the blog is supposed to be an outlet for Ifemelu to talk about race and other touchy subjects in a blunt manner while also creating discussion about how to possibly fix these massive issues. However, as an individual, Ifemelu would not be able to express her true opinions in a public setting. Adiche shows this by having Ifemelu receive threats and negative feedback from her first public speaking event. The discourse that Ifemelu presented her first group of people with was blunt and decisive on race and other topics, scaring the people she was speaking to and even having them label her as a racist. As a result, Ifemelu realized that she couldn't truly live out her blog in the public space, resorting to the safety of a mouse and keyboard, explaining the drastic difference between Ifemelu's words and her actions throughout the novel.
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