“So is it me or is that the perfect metaphor for race in America right there? Hair” (367). Adichie uses the metaphor of hair to demonstrate how the privileged do not notice race. Their ignorance is depicted at the beginning of the novel, through Ifemelu’s usage of hair products, and Ifemelu’s blog.
Adichie opens the novel with Ifemelu riding on a train to Trenton to get her hair braided, because Princeton, the town in which she lives, has so few black people that there is no need for a black hair salon. The narrator explains that “she waited at Princeton Junction station for the train, on an afternoon ablaze with heat, she wondered why there was no place where she could braid her hair” (1-2). From the first page in the novel, Adichie comments on the trouble of black hair, illustrating to the reader the inconvenience and injustice of taking a train to another city just to get hair done. The reader is prompted to reflect on his or her own privilege and compare it to Ifemelu’s experience, thus promoting empathy as the reader understands the inconvenience of forcing yourself to look white. It prepares them for Ifemelu’s examinations of race as a Non-American Black.
Ifemelu’s use of hair products also demonstrates racial inequality. When finally given a job interview, she relaxes and straightens her hair to be professional. Although she gets the job, her hair begins to fall out, and she becomes self conscious about her natural hair. When finally given the courage to show her natural hair at work, her co-workers criticize her. Enduring physical and emotional pain causes Ifemelu to realize the true inequality of race. Society dictates that to get a decent job, she must poison her hair to acclimate to white culture. Whites do not understand the pain involved in forcing black hair to become straight, just like they do not understand her struggles from being black.
Ifemelu shows her pride in her hair and race through her blog entries. When she discovers “Happilykinkynappy.com,” a natural hair website, she undergoes a transformation. One day, she finally “looked in the mirror…(and) fell in love with her hair” (264). By taking pride in her hair, she also gains appreciation for her race. She understands that she herself needs to confront American culture to accept blacks and does so by writing her blog posts. In her blog post “A Michelle Obama Shout-Out Plus Hair as Race Metaphor,” Ifemelu comments on how white Americans fail to understand black hair, as they are naturally born with straight, sleek hair. Another post states that white privilege is something that white people do not understand because they have never dealt with the consequences of being Non-White. Her blog symbolizes her revelation of her pride. She understands that not all Americans feel the consequences of race and writes her blog to inform the public on her experience. Her courageous posts demonstrate her acceptance of herself and her desire for all black women to feel pride in their culture.
I had not thought about how big of a role hair plays in terms of the metaphor for race in America, however, it is one of, if not the most prevalent metaphors for the theme of race and self seen in this book. As the book and Ifemelu’s time in America progresses, her hair is also reflection of her trying to find herself in America. Ifemelu was introduced to the concept of relaxed hair is the only way people will take you seriously in chapter 11, where she was visiting Aunty Uju, who was going to her interviews for medical school, and Aunty Uju said she had to take her braids out for her interview, which Ifelemu questioned. Aunty Uju explained that “if you have braids, they will think you are unprofessional” (146 Adichie). Ifemelu did not understand this, and it took her until she was living in America to understand that having natural hair as a black woman was not considered a respectable hairdo by many Americans. As mentioned above, Ifemelu soon recognized how her hair was a way for others to negatively profile her, so she too began to relax her hair to appear more professional and get different jobs. This depicted a time where Ifemelu was much more self-conscious about the way others perceived her, and fell into the ideology that the relaxed not natural hair was the only way people would like her. Once she discovers the happilykinkynappy.com website, as stated above, she becomes more proud of her natural hair and ethnicity, and overall becomes happier and more at peace with herself, especially in comparison to before. The state of her hair reflects her attitude about how she thinks she will be profiled.
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