White people can be pretty annoying sometimes. I know that people are going to look at this post and freak out saying “OMG NOT ALL WHITE PEOPLE” but saying that doesn’t help anything, it honestly just makes you look dumb. Yes I’m aware that not every single white person has acted upon their internalized racism but every single white person has definitely benefited from the system that continues to oppress nonwhite people. Sorry if my words hurt your feelings, but I will always put institutional oppression of marginalized groups above your feelings.
I think curiosity about different cultures is different from plain ignorance. In the book there comes a point at which Ifemelu simply says she doesn’t really like dogs and immediately people jump on that wondering if that’s for ‘cultural’ reasons. That would be an example of ignorance rather than curiousity, just because we look different than your average white person doesn’t mean that everything we do or feel represents how our entire race feels. We actually see this more than you’d think. Whenever a person of color is the ‘first’ of their race to do anything, (i.e. first black president, first Indian governor of a US state, etc) they have a lot more on their shoulders than just another white person. Anything they do, any mistake they make will most probably be blamed on their race so the pressure is ten times more than it would be for another white person. We’re forced to represent our entire race and frankly it’s kind of annoying. I wish we could just represent ourselves, without worrying about the consequences it might have on our entire race because it’s not that big of a deal right now but for people of color in higher, more important positions it’s extremely stressful because everyone is watching them, waiting for a mistake.
Teri Deewani 