Helen Oyeyemi’s My Daughter the Racist
Summary:
Helen Oyeyemi’s short story, My Daughter the Racist, begins with the narrator’s daughter proclaiming that she is a racist toward foreign soldiers which have occupied her country. The story continues with the narrator being prodded to engage into a marriage with a local villager Bilal who she refuses to marry. One day, as the foreign troops are passing through the village, the narrator’s daughter stands in front of the vehicle, in an attempt to protest their presence. Oyeyemi describes it as, “But my daughter ran out of the front door and into the path of the army truck, yelling: ‘You! You bloody soldiers!’ “. Shortly after, one of the soldiers befriends the young girl and her mother, continuing to visit day after day. During his visits, there is a sense of understanding that is beginning to be created between the soldier and the narrator and her daughter. However, these conversations are not seen in good light by the other villagers and they therefore force the narrator to end all communication with the soldier and send him away. The daughter his confused by the soldiers absence, but the protagonist ensures the daughter that he mark on the soldier will remain forever.
Response:
Oyeyemi’s short story is quite relevant to the world we are living in today. The idea that individuals can look at one small group of people and cast an over-arching judgment or opinion about a complete race is something that occurs far too often. However, much can be taken from this story. After getting to know and understand the soldier, the mother and daughter realize then that he was not like the others and it could have been possible that all the soldiers were not one in the same, and the same was learned for the soldier about the villagers. In addition, by the end of the story the mother makes mention that, “ Maybe the friend will talk about you sometimes, to other friends that live around him, and then that’s almost as good as being there yourself. You’re in several places at once! In fact, my daughter, I would even go so far as to say that the further away your friends are, and the more spread out they are, the better your chances of going safely through the world…”. Through explaining this idea to her daughter, the protagonist insights that when individuals from different worlds get together on a basis of understanding, though others may not have experienced that same understanding about a race, place, or people, that one individual can take what he has learned and understood and spread that knowledge to others. The further that knowledge goes that more people get exposed and begin to understand and relate to individuals that they may have an opinion about. This eventually, allows for those racial or objective barriers to be broken and out of that comes a much safer world. MyDaughterTheRacist
The World of Helen Oyeyemi 