Every person is made up of several facets of an identity that give them a unique experience and come with a certain amount of privilege. Americanah deals with intersectionality, especially with regards to race, sex, nationality, and wealth. Each character in the novel faces a set of challenges unique to their situation which Adichie makes clear are caused by the varying identities they hold. This is primarily seen through protagonist Ifemelu who is a Nigerian woman and immigrant to the United States where she faces racism, sexism, and poverty. Ifemelu moves to America in order to finish her university education where she leaves a comfortable life in Nigeria just so she can have more opportunities. This novel makes clear that opportunity is synonymous with choice. In the opening scenes, Ifemelu travels to Trenton simply because there is no other place to get her hair done. She moves to the United States because her university is always on strike “campuses were emptied, classrooms drained of life” (Adichie 120). Nonetheless, she cannot choose to go anywhere else in Nigeria for an education. Her desperation for work forces her to take on an unsavory job with the tennis coach. For the most part, her life in America is not chosen but forced upon her because of the way her identity is molded.
Adichie is critical of the white American liberal throughout the novel because of their inability to recognize the privilege of choice they have. The author forces readers to reflect on why their experiences don’t mirror the characters'. Kimberly serves as a mirror for Americans to realize that without seeking cultural understanding, their well-intentioned help can be patronizing and ignorant. Kimberly can choose to learn about Ifemelu’s situation and she can choose to educate herself and her sister, Laura, but doesn’t. Rather, willful ignorance is a privilege she has because of her status as a white, upper middle-class American. Ifemelu’s blog is another way Adichie can call out the white liberal on often performative activism. “Black people are not supposed to be angry about racism. Otherwise you get no sympathy” (Adichie 275). The blog exposes the white liberal need to qualify and validate experiences that aren’t their own. Nobody’s experience can speak for an entire population of people, and this novel serves as a powerful reminder. Our assumptions of people are always anecdotal, and it is easy to choose to ignore the difficult parts of reality that come with conflicting identities. If we have the privilege to make choices, the least we can do is choose to listen to and learn from one another.
I appreciate your discussion of the concept of choice as being a privilege that one must acknowledge and not take for granted. The way that you framed choice as being something that Ifemelu does not have the privilege of once she immigrates to the United States is interesting to me, especially when considering that a large part of why Obinze wanted to immigrate to the UK is because he wanted to be able to make choices. Obinze says, "They would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness" (Adichie 340).
ReplyDeleteObinze believes that by immigrating, he has escaped choicelessness; he makes this comment even after encountering problems in England. Yet when evaluating his experiences throughout the novel, we can see the situations he and Ifemelu have faced without being able to make any decisions to combat their circumstances effectively. Their new countries have stripped them of their privilege of choice. Ifemelu and Obinze both took jobs they would never choose to have in Nigeria, Obinze committed to a marriage that, by nature, was arranged and constrained due to his need for a green card, and Ifemelu, as you said, can't even choose where she gets her hair done due to the lack of options around her. The land of opportunity and appearance of choice crumbled as Ifemelu and Obinze spent time in their new, respective countries, even though this dissolution goes unrecognized by Obinze.
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ReplyDeleteI was able to resonate with this post because of the point that was brought up about the privilege of choice. I grew up in a predominantly white middle-class area, and many of the people that I have interacted with are reminiscent of Kimberly and Laura. They mean well but also lack cultural awareness. For example, “She was wonderful, and she did not get along with the African-American woman in our class at all. She didn’t have those issues” (Adichie 207). The blog posting puts Adichie’s thoughts on this into words, “...their well-intentioned help can be patronizing and ignorant.” The posting strengthens Adiche’s claim in this book, which explores a sector of privileged choice that is not as highlighted as the other major themes in the novel and shows the lack of awareness of the white upper-middle class.
ReplyDeleteThe post speaks on the learning aspect of privilege, ending with the powerful statement, “If we have the privilege to make choices, the least we can do is choose to listen to and learn from one another”. This mirrors what I believe Adichie wants the white, upper-middle-class liberal to take away from the novel. They will never fully understand the black experience, especially that of an immigrant trying to “make it” in the United States, the U.K., or any other country. The least that they can do is sit and listen and more importantly learn from one another. Moreover, recognize what the people around them have endured and gain some comprehension of the day-to-day interactions that make up the black experience.