1 Introduction

Americanah, the 2013 novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, may be a piece of literature, but it contains profoundly relevant sociological insights. This paper aims to unpack those commentaries through a sociological perspective that can shed more light on the extent of inequity in the United States and the ways in which interpersonal interactions reinforce these inequities. In particular, I’m using a symbolic interactionist framework, influenced primarily by Goffman, to investigate the ways in which Americanah reflects the impact of racism in the United States on individuals’ identity and behavior. Racism, even in implicit or less visible forms, deeply hurts a person’s sense of self, driving them away from their identity and causing marginalized people to feel like strangers in their own land — a phenomenon that occurs to the protagonist, Ifemelu, and makes her life in America an emotionally trying, often unfulfilling one. The core tenets of symbolic interactionism help us to understand how and why this process of individual alienation occurs. This sociological paradigm will be intertwined with a deeper analysis of racism to show why the alienation impacts Black people in particular; this analysis will be chiefly driven by the work of W.E.B. DuBois and Michelle Alexander.

My argument revolves around investigating the subtle, insidious ways in which racism — specifically anti-Black racism — continues to pervade lives in America. Given the massive expansion of the Black Lives Matter movement in the past year, I thought this topic was timely and hoped that this paper could form a contribution, however tiny, to the discourse about America’s relationship with anti-Blackness. I believe that writing is one of the most powerful tools for connecting with others and fostering empathy, inspiring me to leverage this paper as — ideally — a force for good in the world. With that being said, I acknowledge that I myself am not Black and can never know firsthand the trials and tribulations of being Black in America. Americanah has enabled me to place myself in the shoes of people like Ifemelu, but I realize that once I put the book down, I am free to return to the other side of the proverbial DuBoisian “veil,” a privilege that Black Americans do not enjoy. I recognize my positionality and strive throughout the essay to avoid making definitive pronouncements about the experience of Black Americans.

However, I believe that the awareness and empathy Americanah foments in non-Black readers is a crucial part of its value. As such, I wrote this essay in part to show the value of literary works in teaching us about society and the world we live in. I believe that a novel carries equal value to more academic, ivory-towered pieces of writing; indeed, novels can often be a more accessible way to communicate messages to the greater public. In writing Americanah, Adichie has crafted a wonderful addition to the literary canon as well as the sociological world by helping us better understand what’s happening around us. I want this paper to honor her work and properly acknowledge the value that it holds in tying together a multitude of sociological concepts to prove the ongoing prevalence of interpersonal and institutional racism in the United States.