Over the past three days I was surrounded by 25 African feminist writers. I was one of two whites, the only man, and the only non-African. I was surrounded by women who, though mostly younger, were clearly more intelligent than I, better read, better writers. I’ve never felt so much like an outsider in my life.
“It’s something everyone should experience at least once,” the writer Yewande Omotoso told me. I nodded in agreement. And I do agree. I have often said that at some point we should all work in a restaurant and experience being a minority.
It’s different as a white American, of course. No matter where you are, there’s an expat bar nearby. The hotel staff greets you submissively. A flight back to comfort is always possible, and you won’t feel the anxiety of having your visa denied, or being detained at the immigration check point. But still, it’s important for white Americans to feel the natural exclusion of being different — because so many others do.
On the flight to Uganda I finished reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. I have yet to read her other books, but already she’s poised to join my short list of favorite contemporary writers: Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, Barbara Kingsolver, Milan Kundera. Ifemulu, the protagonist, is also a blogger and her blog posts afford Adichie a platform to preach without being didactic. In one of those embedded blog posts, Ifemulu posts the following quiz based on Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack.”
- When you want to join a prestigious social club, do you wonder if your race will make it difficult for you to join?
- When you go shopping alone at a nice store, do you worry that you will be followed or harassed?
- When you turn on mainstream TV or open a mainstream newspaper, do you expect to find mostly people of another race?
- Do you worry that your children will not have books and school materials that are about people of their own race?
- When you apply for a bank loan, do you worry that, because of your race, you might be seen as financially unreliable?
- If you swear, or dress shabbily, do you think that people might say this is because of the bad morals or the poverty or the illiteracy of your race?
- If you do well in a situation, do you expect to be called a credit to your race? Or to be described as “different” from the majority of your race?
- If you criticize the government, do you worry that you might be seen as a cultural outsider? Or that you might be asked to “go back to X,” X being somewhere not in America?
- If you receive poor service in a nice store and ask to see “the person in charge,” do you expect that this person will be a person of another race?
- If a traffic cop pulls you over, do you wonder if it is because of your race?
- If you take a job with an Affirmative Action employer, do you worry that your co-workers will think you are unqualified and were hired only because of your race?
- If you want to move to a nice neighborhood, do you worry that you might not be welcome because of your race?
- If you need legal or medical help, do you worry that your race might work against you?
- When you use the “nude” color of underwear and Band-Aids, do you already know that it will not match your skin?
I leave you with this conversation between Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:
Thanks for sharing this, David. Sound like you had a great experience. I just read this book with my book club and loved it.
Yes!