Chelsea Deuel

Profesora Sipin
English 110C
2/18/2015
Growing Up Black; One Point of View From Two Different Minds

Growing up as a black women has been described almost identically yet intriguingly
different in the articles The Danger of the Single Story by Adichie, and The Color of Beauty is
Hard to Imagine by Ashley Lee. These two pieces of literature describe the way Adichie and
Ashley Lee relate themselves to the rest of the world as young black women. Both young women
had a pretty good perception of what it meant to be white, but ironically not what it meant to be
black; the color of their own skin. Ashley Lees story takes place at a predominantly white school
in America and depicts the confusing times and not so confusing times she experienced growing
up a minority. Adichies story starts out taking place in her home town, Nigeria, and has a bigger
message behind the text, explaining the relationship between stereotypes and educated
understandings of different cultures.
Adichie was a young black girl who often wrote stories about white blonde haired
characters eating mangos an drinking ginger beer; all things that white people could only do
according to Adichie. She explained how she once believed that literature was only made up of
such fantasies and didn't include black people, more specifically, Nigerians. Once she discovered
that literature was filled with Nigerian writers like herself, she began to read and write about her
own race. I believe this was the turning point in Adichies life where she finally got the chance to
discover who she was; a black Nigerian writer. When she decided to attend college in America,
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she encountered a few racial and politically incorrect understandings of who she was. Adichies
college roommate, who was a white American, was astonished to learn that Adichie could cook,
wasn't poor, and had a Mariah Carey cd! Although, this hit a soft spot for Adichie and she
became reluctant to keep an open mind about people in America, she recalled a similar situation
where Adichie herself was guilty of false identifying a race. Adichie had the pleasure to visit
Mexico, where she was led to believe the people there were all poor, had no food, and lived on
the street. She felt ashamed when she walked into a bar/restaurant where Mexicans were
drinking and laughing and living just like she would. She realized other peoples perception of
her growing up in Nigeria was the same as her perception of Mexican people. Her mind quickly
changed and the wheels of who was who started spinning. Adichie then decided to teach others
and read her stories at seminars. One college student asked her at a seminar, I heard that
Nigerian men beat their wives, is that true? Adichie replied I just got done reading the novel
American Physco. This alone explained the widespread of stereotypes and how Adichie grew
up in a bubble until she was able to attend college in America. This relates significantly to the
upbringing of Ashley Lee and her story about her childhood in the article The Color of Beauty is
Hard to Imagine because Lee also had a depicted picture of what it meant to be black and faced
similar struggles entering adulthood.
Ashley Lees article describes her simple life growing up black at an all white school and
tells her story about how innocent her adolescent years were compared to how she was treated
for being a minority once entering high school. Lee shared significant feeling she had in
elementary school and being the only black girl in class. At this young age there was no
discrimination against her race by her peers. Her friends saw her as a person, not a black person.

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This all changed for Lee once she turned thirteen and began high school. Her friends started to
learn about black culture in class and some of them pitied her for being black. Ashley felt
ashamed of her heritage and wished she was part of the white race she tried so hard to be a part
of. Lees parents even tried to help her embrace her black culture by pushing her to do her hair
like other black girls do, and read magazines about black music and culture. Ashley Lee refused
to participate in any upbringing of black heritage. Sadly at the end of her story, she still has not
embraced who she is and obsesses on participating in white cultures and styles. If only Lee could
listen to the inspirational story by Adichie, then maybe she would see the tie between their two
separate lives and embrace who she is; a black women.
Its very trivial how these two stories interconnect. First, stating the obvious, they are
both black writers who grew up without any knowledge of the difference between their culture
and white culture. Lee didn't think much into the fact that her physical features were different
than those of all her friends when she was in elementary school and Adichie was unaware that
black Nigerian authors even existed. This proves that both writers had no full understanding of
their race at this point in their lives. There is a strong connection between the two stories once
Adichie and Lee both seem to realize that there is more to being black than they thought. When
Adichie attends college in the states she runs into several racial and politically incorrect
understandings that other Americans have on Nigerian culture and she also finds out her
assumption of other cultures was incorrect as well. Around the same age in Adichies life, Ashley
Lee attends high school and discovers the differences between her peers and herself such as the
color of their skin, the way they talk, and the texture of their hair. Adichie and Lee have opposite
endings to their stories. Adichie became well educated on stereotypes, cultures, and more
importantly, herself. As far as Lee, the poor girl I believe is still to immature and not yet socially

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rounded enough to understand that things such as color of skin, hair, and speech do not define a
person so she ends her story still wishing she was a white girl instead of loving who she is. This
goes to show that sometimes it takes a little life experience to get out of the bubble we are
sometimes put in by the people who raised us..
I am a strong believer in the saying you are a product of your environment. The most
impressionable years which are those at a young age have such an impact on the outcome of our
how our minds work, think, and what they believe. However, how does one find out about other
cultures, places, and social identities if they were not taught as a child? The answer is to go
experience the world by traveling, reading, and learning. Luckily for Adichie, attending collage
in America after growing up in Nigeria built a strong basis for understanding and learning the
world. Unfortunately for Lee, she hasn't yet discovered Adichies theory on the stereotypical
world we live in.

Chelsea Deuel

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Profesora Sipin
English 110C
2/19/2015

Bibliography

Chimamanda Adichie, The Danger of The Single Story http://www.ted.com/talks/

chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en, 2009
Ashley Lee, The Color of Beauty is Hard to Imagine,http://thoughtcatalog.com/ashley-lee/
2013/07/the-color-of-beauty-is-hard-to-imagine-growing-up-black-in-a-whitecommunity/, 2013

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