Simone's Story

“I feel like in America people don’t really care how you’re doing.”

This is the 1st edition of Inverted Blackness, a photoblog documenting Africans living in the United States.

---

SIMONE: “I feel like in America people don’t really care how you’re doing. They ask you, How are you doing?, but they don’t always mean it. I think some small towns and cities are warm in terms of their people. Like here in Providence. But, overall, in the U.S., there’s no larger sense of community, or of doing things for the betterment of the people. Everybody is individualistic. Everyone is prioritizing themself, asking: Well, what do I get out of this if I vote for you? Or if I listen to you? Stuff like that. I know that’s how we human beings are. We’re like, I should prioritize myself for my safety. But I feel like I wasn’t exposed to this almost-proud selfishness until I arrived in the U.S. It was very different from the communal and familial structures back home in Zimbabwe.”

Polaroids from Simone’s bedroom wall.

“When I think of America, I am reminded of a book I once read: The Lonely City by Olivia Laing. The author writes about the loneliness of living in New York City, and connects it to the loneliness of different artists who had lived there, like Warhol and so forth. And there’s this painting in the book, Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper. It’s a painting of some people sitting inside a diner, and you can see them from outside. And there’s a man sitting close to them, isolated, drinking alone. There’s a stillness and a silence to that painting that contradicts the loudness of New York. And it made me realize how people are like that in the U.S., how you can be surrounded by so many people, and yet feel so isolated and so alone.”

---

Born in Gaborone, Botswana, Simone was raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. At eighteen, she moved to the United States for the first time. She holds an MFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design.

---

Thank you for reading Inverted Blackness! This photoblog publishes stories and photographs of Africans living in America, offering a glimpse into the African diasporic experience in the United States.

If this newsletter is shared with you, kindly consider subscribing and sharing it with others. Please, whitelist the email so you never miss anything from us. Thank you!