The Brown Woman’s Invisibility in If You See Me Don’t Say Hi
Sentence analysis or r/opinion: “Meanwhile, I harbored unrequited crushes on white girls… who, unlike my cousin Monali, didn’t have to bleach their arm hair or wax their upper lips. They were girls who seemed to know their place in the world without ever questioning it.” (Patel 82) Although If You See Me Don’t Say Hi centralizes around the fickle relationship between brothers, the theme of race prevails above anything else. The narrator, after experiencing countless microaggressions and feeling a sense of ostracism throughout his childhood, internalizes all the racism endured. Consequently, the narrator idolizes white women, viewing their beauty through the lens of eurocentrism, whilst simultaneously bringing down brown women. The quote: “Meanwhile, I harbored unrequited crushes on white girls… who, unlike my cousin Monali, didn’t have to bleach their arm hair or wax their upper lips. They were girls who seemed to know their place in the world without ever questionin