Examples Of Racism In Americah By Chimamanda Ngozi Aidichie

In the book Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Aidchie, Ifemelue is a college student who moves from Lagos, Nigeria to South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In order to assimilate to American life, Ifemelu is forced to lose parts of her identity, and is heavily effected by racism. Through the process of Ifemelu’s difficult assimilation to American life, Adichie explores how internal and external racism affect Ifemelu’s state of mind. Hair is a big part of Ifemelu’s identity, and racism in America forces her to change it in order to assimilate to life in America. In the first chapter of the book, Ifemelu goes to an African hair braiding salon, which “ were in the part of the city that had graffiti, dank buildings, and no white people” (Adichie 10).
When Ifemelu was searching for a job, she at first didn’t realize that is was racism, she thought it was her own fault. She didn’t know what she was doing wrong, and nothing she did was working, and this make her feel useless. “She hated that Ginika had bought her groceries last week,” (Adichie 188) proving that she hates this feeling of uselessness. Her depression worsens over time, “She woke each morning, slowed by sadness… She cared about nothing… She knew there was no point in being here, in being alive, but she had no energy to thing concretely of how she could kill herself” (Adichie 192). Ifemelu is missing classes at school, she is broke, unable to get a job, too ashamed to reach out for help, and is at this point suicidal. Ifemelu’s internalized racism contributes to this, because rather than thinking racism is to blame for her not getting jobs and having no money, she blames herself. Her experience with the tennis coach also contributed to her depression, by making her feel used and dirty. She felt that she had done something wrong, but it was in fact the tennis coach who had. Ifemelu, again, blames