Here is my favourite scene (so far) from “Americanah” (2013), a novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Ifemelu’s boyfriend, Curt, is at her apartment. He is what Audre Lorde would call the Mythical Norm: White, thin, male, young, heterosexual, well-to-do and (presumably) Christian. He looks at Essence:
“This magazine’s kind of racially skewed,” he said.
“What?”
“Come on. Only black women featured?”
“You’re serious,” she said.
He looked puzzled. “Yeah.”
“We’re going to the bookstore.”
“What?”
“I need to show you something. Don’t ask.”
“Okay,” he said, unsure what this new adventure was but eager, with that childlike delight of his, to participate.
She drove to the bookstore in the Inner Harbor, took down copies of the different women’s magazines from the display shelf, and led the way to the café.
“Do you want a latte?” he asked.
“Yes, thanks.”
After they settled down on the chairs, paper cups in front of them, she said, “Let’s start with the covers.” She spread the magazines on the table, some on top of the others. “Look, all of them are white women. This one is supposed to be Hispanic, we know this because they wrote two Spanish words here, but she looks exactly like this white woman, no difference in her skin tone and hair and features. Now, I’m going to flip through, page by page, and you tell me how many black women you see.”
“Babe, come on,” Curt said, amused, leaning back, paper cup to his lips.
“Just humor me,” she said.
And so he counted. “Three black women,” he said, finally. “Or maybe four. She could be black.”
“So three black women in maybe two thousand pages of women’s magazines, and all of them are biracial or racially ambiguous, so they could also be Indian or Puerto Rican or something. Not one of them is dark. Not one of them looks like me, so I can’t get clues for makeup from these magazines. Look, this article tells you to pinch your cheeks for color because all their readers are supposed to have cheeks you can pinch for color. This tells you about different hair products for everyone – and ‘everyone’ means blonds, brunettes, and redheads. I am none of those. And this tells you about the best conditioners – for straight, wavy, and curly. No kinky. See what they mean by curly? My hair could never do that. This tells you about matching your eye color and eye shadow – blue, green, and hazel eyes. But my eyes are black so I can’t know what shadow works for me. This says that this pink lipstick is universal, but they mean universal if you are white because I would look like a golliwog if I tried that shade of pink. Oh, look, here is some progress. An advertisement for foundation. There are seven different shades for white skin and one generic chocolate shade, but that is progress. Now, let’s talk about what is racially skewed. Do you see why a magazine like Essence even exists?”
See also:
- White privilege mindset
- golliwog
- What if there were a Black Default?
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- being universal
537
Remember people – All Magazines Matter!
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That cover seems like the strangest thing in the world in terms of disconnect given that the Financial Crisis was fully underway.
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What happens next with this clueless Curt character? How can he be dating a black woman when he is so thick about basics like the whiteness of the media?
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@ Satanforce
I was supposed to be first you jerk!
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Don’t they have any Black magazines that are not full of sports figures?
If not why not?
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I remember my mom collecting 27 owned black books like Hue, Essence, etc.
These books support black people in resources and news. When white or nonblack people purchased black business like monopoly pieces. They made sure those dollars went to white people’s pockets and limit sources for black people to survive. Meanwhile, white companies just put a black face as pseudo for multi cultural (they wouldn’t get sue). The main books strongly support fair skinned females.
You could Google image the word Beauty.
No black women.
Abagond can you write a piece about Sarah Page is reason why Black Street Wall is destroyed and list of black magazines.
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Black women are invisible.
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I just Google imaged ‘beautiful women’. Out of 150 images I saw seven Black women – nearly invisible. Over a hundred images showed White women as beautiful. I also Google imaged ‘handsome men’. Out of 150 images I saw nine Black men – nearly invisible. Over a hundred images showed White men as handsome.
Yes, I Google imaged ‘ugly women’. There were more images of “ugly” Black women than beautiful Black women. The same for Black men. There were more images of “ugly” Black men than handsome Black men. Welcome to Amerikkka!!!
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The scenario is pretty spot on it describes the cluelessness of whiteness in regards to black people.
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the heathens they just dont know
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Sadly, some white people would still act completely oblivious and still cry unfair. They would go on to say how magazines like “Essence” is racist while omitting the white privilege that’s right in front of them.
Ironically, they don’t see “race” when they see themselves. But when black people or POC create something for themselves, that’s when they get upset and cry “racism”. “Why is such-and-such for black people? Why can’t it be for all people” meaning “Why isn’t there any white people there” while ignoring that white people are EVERYWHERE!!!
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Brilliant scene and the absolute truth.
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I know this may be off topic, but why is she even with this man? Why choose such a partner? These issues that she is trying to explain to him are so fundamental and basic to Black people, why would you choose a partner that is COMPLETELY clueless to your erasure in Western society? Someone Who has no idea that you are viewed as less than. Less of a woman, hell just plain less human, than he or she is. That’s just insane. WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BE WITH SOEMONE LIKE THAT? I don’t feel sorry for Ifemelu or anyone else that INTENTIONALLY places themselves in this type of romantic situation. Just crazy…but so is internalized racism and inferiority…soooo, yeah.
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@Kiwi, @Jadapoo1
It should come as no surprise that Chescaleigh also dates white.
Somehow, it seems that these “certain” blacks , seem more concerned with showing white people just how wrong they are, and just how right, intelligent and socially oppressed blacks are. I suppose there is something to gain at feeling smart at another’s expense.
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@ Kiwi
Well, apparently Ifemelu reunites with the [black Nigerian] lover of her youth. Take a look: http://chimamanda.com/books/americanah/
@Kiwi,Jadapoo1,Satanforce,and anyone else actually
It’s always been (well as far back as I remember) the culture on this blog to waste no time with tossing out “internalized racism”, etc on the flimsiest of catalysts. Having said that, I do think the above novel excerpt is pretty strange because it doesn’t seem like real life to me. To wit: if one is so blind to the overwhelming whiteness of U.S. media how does one end up dating a black female, in the first place!? Based on the excerpt it seemed to me like the author was clumsily forcing a sketch of the clueless white male (in real life we’ve all met this f**king guy) in a context that was forced and awkward. That was why I wanted to know what came next; you know, because even though the scene feels forced, I can’t take my eyes off the car wreck.
But here’s the thing: the post is just an excerpt. Maybe there’s a natural reason for Curt and Ifemelu coming together. Also, we certainly don’t have enough information to judge Ifemelu as suffering from internalized racism. We’d have to read (more of) the book. I tried to coax Abagond to give us more but so far he hasn’t indulged my literary lazyness! For what it’s worth, the book has well over 2000 reviews on Amazon and near 5 star rating. I also selected the listen option on Amazon and heard a couple pages of the book. It flowed and didn’t have the seeming artificiality of the excerpt in Abagond’s post, it’s probably a good book for what it is.
(my intuition [based on the books slightly touchy-feely marketing] tells me it stays away from “darkness” like the black male incarceration pogrom and the school to prison pipeline pogrom, etc.)
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Well Ta-Nehesi Coates loves this book I have yet to try and read some of Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s work. Maybe I’ll make an attempt in the future.
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Look, Legion it is just a book, in which instead of a rational answer like: “It IS a magazine for black women, silly. We happen to be a significant set of consumers on our own, you know.”
(Pronounced in the same manner as “I am a virgin” to clueless white guy wondering about “measurements”) is replaced by a rather silly story of demonstration to drive the point home to the reader, not that Curt guy.
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Everyone should read Americanah. However, I would start with Half a Yellow Sun; the book is a classic. I also enjoyed her book of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck. I can’t believe everyone here hasn’t read these books.
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I am still reading “Americanah”, but I am close to the end and will likely do a post on it when I am done.
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@Legion
Very perceptive!
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@Brothawolf: ““Why is such-and-such for black people? Why can’t it be for all people” meaning “Why isn’t there any white people there” while ignoring that white people are EVERYWHERE!!!”
Yeah, like if it has ONLY WHITE PEOPLE then it’s OK — they don’t complain that there aren’t Black people so that the WHITE-only things can be for “ALL” people. It’s ALWAYS whenever Blacks or other peoples of color stick up for themselves that the “all lives matter” and “all people” canards are trotted out. These White people want White people to be in EVERYTHING — not even the TINIEST thing can be left free of Whiteness, and they complain about how it’s “not fair” when there’s no Whites in something but then utterly FAIL to complain about how it’s “not fair” when there’s no Blacks in anything. The hypocrisy is head-poppingly terrible.
If these Whites _sincerely_ believed “all lives matter” or “all people should be included”, why didn’t THEY come up with it FIRST, instead of coming up with it only AFTER Blacks started wanting inclusion and acceptance? Actually, they SHOULD have — then we wouldn’t have had systemic racism!!! And now they want to bitch and moan about how all this pro-Black stuff is “RACIST” and so forth. No, sorry, it seems that many Whites are still learning how all lives can matter and some are thinking about it all ass-backwards.
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