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The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae
c.2015, Atria
Books
$26.00 / $32.00 Canada
224 pages
By Terri
Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
There
is life after high school.
And were
you ever happy to learn that! You couldn’t imagine spending
the rest of your days feeling like you did at thirteen, or
enduring a not-cool lifetime of zits, hormones,
self-consciousness, bad hair, and Mean Girls.
You were
only able to endure it then by remembering that you weren’t
alone. And in The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
by Issa Rae, life got better.
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For much of
her early childhood, Jo-Issa Diop never worried about being
cool.
Coolness
wasn’t an issue when, until age three, she lived with her
parents and her father’s extended family in his native
Senegal. There, she was surrounded by loving aunts, uncles,
and assorted cousins, all living within the family compound.
Coolness
never came up when she started grade school in Maryland with
a diverse group of children of many races. It was, in fact,
barely discussed…
… until
Diop’s family relocated to South Central, between Compton
and Watts, near L.A. There, she attended a series of private
schools, in all of which she was one of a small handful of
black kids. The family moved a lot – and with each new
location, it became harder to keep up, harder to be one of
the Popular Kids. It was harder to be cool.
Oh, but she
tried!
She
attempted to give herself a cool nickname, but it didn’t
stick. She haunted online chatrooms, but her profile lies
were quickly discovered. She was taunted by classmates for
her inability to dance, by peers for not having “cool”
music, and by family for being overweight. Valentine’s Day
was particularly embarrassing. Even after moving to New York
as an adult and assuming a new name, Issa Rae felt like a
misfit.
And then
she realized a few things: she didn’t need constant
companionship. She needn’t laser-focus on black culture, or
think about racism. She could use innate talents to make
videos, launch a new web series, write TV shows, and win
awards. She could be liked for who she was in person. And
she didn’t have to say yes to every man; she could love
herself enough to find real love.
Mistaken
me: I misunderstood The Misadventures of Awkward Black
Girl as a comedy piece, and I was initially
disappointed. Yes, it’s got its crack-a-smile moments but
it’s not hilarious. As turns out, there’s really so much
more to it.
Author Issa
Rae writes with a wonderful universality: no matter who you
are, there’s been a time when you’ve felt out-of-place and
floundering. Because of the candor Rae applies to her
essays, we intimately know the feelings of which she writes
and it’s easy to see her as an ally and cringe along with
her, since we’ve been in that same situation. And then,
we’re delighted when things finally go her way.
So, while
this isn’t a laugh-a-minute book, it’s a nice memoir that
will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt like an oddball.
If that’s you, then The Misadventures of Awkward Black
Girl is pretty cool. |
