I have chosen Chapter 37 of Adichie’s Americanah. In this section, a conversation arises between Ifemelu, along with other characters Shan, Grace, Ashanti, Blaine, and Maribelle. The six discuss novels and the difference between black and white writers. One topic that came up was about having labels in America. Ifemelu then wrote a blog post titled Is Obama Anything but Black? One part of the post that actually stood out to me the most was when she says “In America, you don’t get to decide what race you are. It is decided for you” (Adichie 418).
Many immigrants want to come to America in hopes of creating a better life or themselves. But in terms of race, it can be difficult to do so because of who you are. Do you agree with the quote about having racial labels in America? If, so why do you think it’s like this in our country?
Adichie, Chimamanda, N. Americanah. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, 2017.
The idea of racism is a topic that I think every country around the world deals with. I think that the quote of having racial labels in America is true in todays society. The reason that it is that way is also because of stereotypes. Stereotypes play a big role in this. This quote describes the biggest stereotype in my opinion which it also is a huge radical label in America. “Black people are physically inclined and white people are intellectually inclined” (Adichie 464). Many people in America think this and believe this. It is really hard to get a table like this off. It surprises many people to see an African American male or female as a surgeon. There are people put in America that believe that those African American people shouldn’t be doctors or surgeon or that they are not competent enough to do that job. I believe that this is really wrong to hear and say that they shouldn’t be a doctor just because they are African Americans. I believe that it is like this in our country because of the way that people were brought up and that the area that you live in plays another role into why people are like this. its normally for everyone in a certain area to feel the same and or think the same way as everyone else. So if one person believes that its more than likely that everyone else in the neighborhood to think the same way.
My question is what will it have to take for this to not be an issue in America anymore?
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, 2017.
I do agree with the quote about having racial labels in America. On page 439 of Americanah, Ifemelu is reading a post online that says ” How can a monkey be president?… A black man will never be in the white house, dude, it’s called the white house for a reason.” When Obama was running for president, I know there was a lot of controversy because he is African American. There are many people in today’s society that still think a white man should be president because of these racial labels. Everyone always has a bias and people judge others based on their looks, it’s natural to humans.
My question is do you think that these racial labels will always exist, whether they are intended to or not, or can we change the labels that have been set?