Ida Mae and Ahmed's "Uprootings and Regroundings"

                The “here” versus the “there”, according to Ahmed et al’s article “Uprootings and Regroundings” is a complicated collection of intertwining relationships that have no real defined boundary. The former “here” effects the “there” and sometimes we never leave. Once “there” the ones who already consider it their “here” effect the adjustment and assimilation into the new place. We already know that borders and nations are fluid entities that appear different and function uniquely depending on who and where you are in history.

Ahmed writes that, “They have made us aware that the greatest movements often occur within the self, within the home or within the family, while the phantasm of limitless mobility often rests on the power of border controls and policing of who does and does not belong.” (5) This brings to mind the story of Ida Mae in “Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson. We discussed in class that it’s possible to leave the “here” but never really arrive “there”. In Ida Mae’s story, she is a woman who finds few complaints about her current standing in life, whether she is in Mississippi, or her eventual home of Chicago. Wilkerson describes Ida Mae as, “too good-natured to waste energy disliking them [Whites] no matter what they did but looked upon them as a curiosity she might never comprehend. She learned to give them the benefit of the doubt but not be surprised at anything involving them” (31). Ida Mae is a rarity who makes due with whatever she is given. Her “here” seems to always reside in herself.

Ahmed writes that “… much work goes into the making of homes, national and otherwise, and the labor of re-producing them is often designated as ‘women’s work’.” (5) We cannot speak about migration and it’s complexities without respect to Ida Mae’s gender. Her function in her family is mother and caretaker. She leaves her social support in Mississippi- her family, friends, and neighbors- to land in a place where she knows nothing of the people or the social norms. She finds barriers at every turn, whether it be the Whites, the international immigrants, or the Blacks who had been in her new “there” for decades. She is taken advantage of by landlords, neighbors, and employers. Yet, she remains herself always with unshifting values and a sense of self that keeps her grounded in her version of “here”- grown by her mother, changed by her husband, but ultimately a consciousness of her own making that enables her to own herself no matter where she lands in life.