Reader Response Criticism
My own race gives me a clearer perspective on the main characters of this novel, especially Ifemelu. I migrated to a new country when I was younger, and so understand much of the paranoia, and confusion that Ifemelu felt when she first migrated to America. Many people who have experienced the struggles that Ifemelu and Obinze felt after migrating would empathize with them: it was not their fault for migrating, they were only seeking a better life.
“How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives we imagined.” Ifemelu and Obinze may not have lived a life of fame and wealth in Nigeria, but believed, like any other migrant, that they would be able to start fresh in this new land, ‘where all dreams were possible’.
Ifemelu writes in her own blog that “black people are not supposed to be angry about racism” because their anger makes whites uncomfortable. This is absurd. Essentially, racism is the belief that one’s own race is superior to that of all or specific others, and treating an individual from another race with inferiority. Ifemelu stands against racism, and yet contradicts her own views by supporting that blacks should remain silent. It would have been clear that, at the time, blacks were reminded of ‘white power’ through racial abuse on a day to day basis. Therefore, the majority of African-Americans may have believed Ifemelu’s quote to be true, and unknowingly let racism prolong.