I recently finished reading “Americanah” by Chimamanda
Adieche. It was an interesting look into
privilege and racism from the perspective of an educated Nigerian
immigrant. A few things stood out that I
was unaware (or only mildly aware) of previously.
We have in the USA the notion of race. In the USA, race is denoted by a few external
markers – skin color/tone, hair texture/color, and eye shape being the three
most notable and broadest markers. In
this system, an immigrant from Africa is of the same race as a descendent of
slaves (and usually slave owners as well) brought to American 300 years ago;
the same is true for Chinese and others, though they were never mentioned in
the book. Black people are, for
historical reasons, at the bottom of the racial hierarchy in the USA, and are
significantly more likely to be poor, uneducated, and have the various
disadvantages associated with that status.
An immigrant (or non immigrant student) from Sub-Saharan Africa
automatically assumes the same position in the hierarchy upon arrival, no
matter their education level, English competency, social status at home,
etc. This is untrue for a similar
immigrant from, e.g. Germany or Russia, who enters as a white person at the top
of the hierarchy.
That is the main message of “Americanah.” African immigrants from Nigeria and other
countries, as well as black people from the Caribbean, are immediately put at
the bottom of American society and are resentful of that fact. The non-American (for lack of a better term)
blacks are portrayed as disdainful of American black, who are seen as lazy,
uneducated, criminal, etc, similar to stereotypical portrayals in general
American media. The attitudes go so far
as parents in Nigeria not wanting their children who go to the US to have
intimate relationships with black Americans.
(Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and European parents of people who
come to the US for graduate study have the same attitudes, in my experience.)
There is something discomfiting about this. The solution to the problem, as seen by the
well-off Nigerian immigrants (the protagonist is a college student, her aunt
who lives in the US is a medical doctor) seems to be more tribalism, not
greater inclusiveness. Attempts are made
to be not categorized with a different group with whom one shares certain
superficial traits (i.e. erecting more barriers), as opposed to attempting to
break down all barriers and remove racial/tribal classifications. (As a note, this is in opposition to some black
Americans’ push to be more affiliated with their African heritage – the
immigrant communities want nothing to do with black Americans, but black
Americans would like to be more included in African culture, with the black
power movements of the 1960s and later going in that direction. I realize that, as a white person, I might be
portraying this improperly, and I maybe shouldn’t even be writing about
this. Anecdotally, I was once getting on
a shuttle from the airport to the subway station and a black man asked a young
lady if he could use her phone. She
responded that she was from Spain and didn’t have a working phone. He responded that he was from Africa, and
when asked which country, kind of stammered and said he didn’t know, that’s
just what he’s been told.).
I do not know what the author’s intent was for this book,
whether to portray these attitudes as bad for society and inclusiveness
(basically, the main characters are antagonistic protagonists, people whose
actions and viewpoints we should not emulate), or whether to inform the reader
that the all-inclusive “black” (and by extension, other all-inclusive terms
like “Asian”) is not a good category. I
don’t think the latter is a good take-away message, since it conveys definite
tribalism and national-originism, and more tribalism is not what our world
needs right now (or ever). Most likely
it is an amalgam of both; of course, the message is entirely dependent on the
reader and the reader’s viewpoints and history.
Personally, I was a little put off by the characters’ tribal arrogance. I would like for society to move towards a
more post-racial society, with educational and life opportunities available to
all regardless of racial or poverty status, and to move beyond stereotyping
based on historical privilege. This book
made me think more about this, and in that sense it worked as literature
should.
