Race plays a crucial role in the immigrant experience. In America particularly, black immigrants have a much different experience than immigrants of other ethnicities. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Americanah, she explores how immigrants of African descent get treated in their new countries. She examines how race impacts beauty standards, opportunities, and the hierarchy of prejudice for black immigrants. One prevalent theme of race throughout in novel is the assimilation to western beauty standards. Many female characters in Americanah are coerced into looking more Caucasian. Hair is one of those beauty standards that many black women struggle with fitting into. For instance, the main character, Ifemelu, is pressured into
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In the job market, for example, an immigrant can struggle with getting a job if they have an accent. Ifemelu experiences great difficulty entering the work force because of her accent. Some perceive having an accent as a lack of intelligence because some people talk slower in the language of their new land. She resorts to faking an American accent after she learns that it would make her sound white and more educated. However, she does eventually drop this fake accent. Furthermore, Ifemelu notices that it is often for African-Americans to get opportunities like jobs or casted roles in the media merely to fill a racial quota. Adichie displays here how white people earn their place in the world, while black people get jobs just because their …show more content…
This concept can be illustrated in the novel by the wrongful arrest of a black man for allegedly selling drugs. This character, Mr. White, was falsely accused of selling illicit substances when he was giving a friend money in the parking lot of the library that he works at. This powerful scene shows how black folks are subjected to greater suspicion by the police. After learning about Mr. White’s experience, Ifemelu notes the injustice of how if a black man gets arrested for drugs, he is more likely to go to jail, compared to if a white man gets arrested for drugs, he is more likely to get sent to rehab. This injustice in the novel tells us that people assume that black immigrants and African-Americans get subjected to the assumption that they do not have the best
In the job market, for example, an immigrant can struggle with getting a job if they have an accent. Ifemelu experiences great difficulty entering the work force because of her accent. Some perceive having an accent as a lack of intelligence because some people talk slower in the language of their new land. She resorts to faking an American accent after she learns that it would make her sound white and more educated. However, she does eventually drop this fake accent. Furthermore, Ifemelu notices that it is often for African-Americans to get opportunities like jobs or casted roles in the media merely to fill a racial quota. Adichie displays here how white people earn their place in the world, while black people get jobs just because their …show more content…
This concept can be illustrated in the novel by the wrongful arrest of a black man for allegedly selling drugs. This character, Mr. White, was falsely accused of selling illicit substances when he was giving a friend money in the parking lot of the library that he works at. This powerful scene shows how black folks are subjected to greater suspicion by the police. After learning about Mr. White’s experience, Ifemelu notes the injustice of how if a black man gets arrested for drugs, he is more likely to go to jail, compared to if a white man gets arrested for drugs, he is more likely to get sent to rehab. This injustice in the novel tells us that people assume that black immigrants and African-Americans get subjected to the assumption that they do not have the best