Reading "Americanah"

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.