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A review by teonnareads_
For Black Girls Like Me by Mariama J. Lockington
4.0
I want to chant Makeda's name as loud as I can. I wish I could hug her and sing her a song so she knows she is beautiful and brilliant. I want to sing her praises of love and laughter. But since I cannot, I will sing praises of this book.
I appreciated this book because of Makeda's strength, her honesty, sensitivity. Makeda is a 11 year old whose family is uprooted from Baltimore to New Mexico. To add to this pressure and stress, Makeda is an adopted daughter in a white family. While in New Mexico she feels lonely and is constantly presented with how different she is from her family. The students at her new school are unfriendly and attempt to ridicule and denigrate her. She confesses to a teacher that a student called her a nigger, yet her claims are not taken seriously. As a result, her mother withdraws her and her sister from school and begin homeschooling. Yet, this makes Keda feel even more ostracized as she internalizes this as she is at fault. Furthermore, her mother begins to act in depressive and manic moods, her older sister becomes distant, and she feels that her voice is not heard, and her father is away touring for work. To cope, her best friend creates an online journal they use to update each other on their life. However, this offers little reprieve as Lena stops answering her calls or writing back.
All of this stress and struggles culminates when her mother attempts suicide. These leaves her entire family stunned and in pieces. After her mother spends a month in a mental institution, Keda and her family learns her mother suffers from bi-polar disorder. The book ends with her family attempting to reconcile and learn a new routine.
With that being said, I appreciate the authenticity of this story but I feel that Keda's family failed her. Keda was tasked with looking after her mother during the summer of her mother's manic and depressive moods. She lacked an outlet for her to be acknowledged and affirmed as a young, Black girl in a white family. I wish her family did a better job of ensuring she felt comfortable confiding in them. Although her mother was enraged to find out about Keda being called a nigger, she still did not create a space in which Keda expressed her full emotions and thoughts from being called this. I was also annoyed with her mother making comments of being color blind as this further silenced and diminished Keda's emotions, being, and identity. I am upset, sympathetic to, and amazed at how Keda is able to construct her girlhood with little assistance.
I appreciated this book because of Makeda's strength, her honesty, sensitivity. Makeda is a 11 year old whose family is uprooted from Baltimore to New Mexico. To add to this pressure and stress, Makeda is an adopted daughter in a white family. While in New Mexico she feels lonely and is constantly presented with how different she is from her family. The students at her new school are unfriendly and attempt to ridicule and denigrate her. She confesses to a teacher that a student called her a nigger, yet her claims are not taken seriously. As a result, her mother withdraws her and her sister from school and begin homeschooling. Yet, this makes Keda feel even more ostracized as she internalizes this as she is at fault. Furthermore, her mother begins to act in depressive and manic moods, her older sister becomes distant, and she feels that her voice is not heard, and her father is away touring for work. To cope, her best friend creates an online journal they use to update each other on their life. However, this offers little reprieve as Lena stops answering her calls or writing back.
All of this stress and struggles culminates when her mother attempts suicide. These leaves her entire family stunned and in pieces. After her mother spends a month in a mental institution, Keda and her family learns her mother suffers from bi-polar disorder. The book ends with her family attempting to reconcile and learn a new routine.
With that being said, I appreciate the authenticity of this story but I feel that Keda's family failed her. Keda was tasked with looking after her mother during the summer of her mother's manic and depressive moods. She lacked an outlet for her to be acknowledged and affirmed as a young, Black girl in a white family. I wish her family did a better job of ensuring she felt comfortable confiding in them. Although her mother was enraged to find out about Keda being called a nigger, she still did not create a space in which Keda expressed her full emotions and thoughts from being called this. I was also annoyed with her mother making comments of being color blind as this further silenced and diminished Keda's emotions, being, and identity. I am upset, sympathetic to, and amazed at how Keda is able to construct her girlhood with little assistance.