The World of Americanah

We are making our way through Ifemelu's world in Adichie's Americanah.  Here's what we are thinking, discovering, and questioning so far:

How does Ifemelu explain the process of her becoming “black” in the US? 

During her undergrad years, she was asked to give a black perspective but she did not know what it mean. According to Ifemelu, the deal with being Black: 

• “Watermelon” and “tar baby” are terms to be offended. 
• You must be aware of the “black nod” (since it means you are not alone in this white society)
• You must use the word “strong” while you are talking about a black woman (because they are supposed to be strong.) 
• You shouldn't tell everything that you think if you are a woman (because “strong-minded black woman is labelled as scary”)
• And if you are a black man, you shouldn’t show too much excitement (because someone may be afraid that you might pull out a gun)
• People expect you to be offended by racist language.

“When a crime is reported, pray that it was not committed by a black person” considering this, discuss the repercussions on the black people living in the society?

Black people are seen as criminals because of the racial profiling which is a fixed concept in American society.(No matter what your ethnicity, job or class is, what defines you is your physical attributions. Therefore, black people stay away from crime scenes since they feel that they might be mistaken as the ones who committed the crime because people blame the whole black race for a single crime (GENERALISATION!!). It doesn't even need to be a crime scene, as long as there is a small assault among black people or between black people and whites, the only people blamed are the blacks. As we see in the movie, The Fruitvale Station, you might be stopped just because you fit the profile. It is mostly effected by distorted perspective of police towards black people.

Why is Ifemelu obsessed with learning a language she already knows? Why is she obsessed with learning English in a way that world allow her to be allowed in the American society? 

One of the most outstanding incidents Ifemelu confronted was the dialogue she had with Cristina Tomas during her admission to the university. She was judged by her English due to her nationality and the appearance. Cristina Tomas immediately thought that since Ifemelu is coming from Nigeria, she can not speak or understand English properly. However, the case was just the opposite. Ifemelu can speak English very well. Yet, the only problem is her accent. Throughout her assimilation process, she tries to overcome this problem by starting to practice her American accent in order not to be criticised based upon her race, she imitates her friends’ accents and reactions; for example, her starting to use the word “excited” all the time as American people without even noticing.  

Aslı AYGÜNEŞ, 

Hacer BAHAR, 

Tansu ÖZAKAMAN, 

Ezgi ULUSOY, 

Bige YILMAZ

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Q: Accepting the racist approach towards black people, what did Chimamanda tell black people to do?

A: When you come to America, no matter your ethnicity, you will be directly counted as black. If you are black women, do not talk about your ideas and ideals like you do back in your country because in America that kind of behaviour is considered SCARY. Additionally, when you hear a racial slur about black people in TV, you must immediatelly be offended.

Q: What is the significance of the theme "togetherness" for people coming from same racial and ethnic background, living in an alienated space of a society?

A: "Togetherness" is important because it will help them to keep their identities and cultural values intact. It is important to point out that there is a difference between African-American and African associations; because they are two different communities, the African-Americans are born in the US, they are more akin to the culture but, Africans are not so therefore they have to create their own version of the American culture.

Irem

Ilkim

Selen

Kaan

***

Q1) Ifemelu thinks that the usage of the “N word” and the meaning/intention depends on who says it, but another girl claims that the usage and the meaning of the word is same everywhere. What do you think?

Ifemelu thinks that way because when a white person uses the word “N”, it becomes huge issue and he/she is accused of being racist. However, when a black person uses the word, it is not seen as offensive. So, we agree with Ifemelu on this issue. Meaning and assumption of people change according to who says it. Because,  we can see many examples that “N” word is used in many blacks cultural products especially in hip hop culture. Black singers use it as their staples and no one blames them to be racist.

Q2) why did  Mwombeki wants Ifemelu to delete the three years of Nigerian education from her resume?

In America, Ifemelu looks for a job and Dorothy says thather restaurant was hiring employees.  Ifemelu goes there to apply the job but Mwombeki,  the Tanzanian double major in engineering and political science, looks over her cv and wants her to delete her 3 year education in Nigeria.  He wants such a thing because he says that American employers did not want to hire too educated employees for low level jobs.  They do it because they want them to be weak enough to accept everything they order including wage they offer and working conditions they provide. ..etc.

Berivan Uğurlu

Pınar Ilgar

Burcu Karatekeli

***

Question ; How does Chimamanda make connection between hair and ethnic race throughout the book? Discuss the term she uses “ethnic hair”. (page 203)

The hair is a particular visual that shows the main issue of appereance shown itself first. So her statement about Ruth shows that there are different kinds of interpretations about hair. When we think about Nigerian style of hair we can see clearly that there are major differences like as Chimamanda mentioned Braids, rasta locks and more. However there are reasons people doing those things in Nigeria because the style and the way of living is becoming necessary for it. Ruth suggest that “lose the braids”, but in the extenstion that lose the weight of your past basically when you came to the America.

The memory that Chimamanda shared in the book is a good example. The hairdresser scene in the Chapter 19 shows us how they and how others define them by just looking the hair. Of course it is the skin color that they seen first but the hair is also the completing part of the stereotypical aspect of the racial identification. Thinking about the braids that she had and because of itchy feeling that she had she needed to change is hair and straightened it to become more and more Americanized and the word from the hairdresser “ you’ve got the white-girl swing!” which was the actual reference of selling the product or the service by blinding yourself of the color. Likewise;

Question; Why does Alexa think that African doctors should stay in Africa? (Page 273)

Because the opportunities in United States is quite more efficient and giving more salaries then their own soil. When we think about it even being a doctor would not help you to get relevant salary in your own country, it is acceptable that most doctors chose to come and starting to work in America as an indigenous. “Aunty Uju moved away from the window and set down at the kitchen table. I don’t even know why I came to this place. The other day the pharmacist said my accent was incomprehensible. Imagine, I called in a medicine and she actually told me that my accent was incomprehensible.” (pg 273). Thant is why Alexa thinks that African doctors should stay in Africa.

Question: How does Kimberley the women Ifemelu was a babysitter for, represents the guilt and pitty may white Americans feel toward Africa and Africans? (152)

They think that Ifemelu as an African girl cannot have a driving license and cannot really manage something in America as a non-American citizen and they interrogate her too much as if she lies to them.

Serhat Başak

Dilan Algan

Gözde ipek

Özge Başak

Hasan Bayram 

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1. In one of Ifemelu's post, how does she encourage black people to behave in order to adapt to US society.

In her post Ifemelu is explaining that since Black people are perceived as a homogeneous group, they cannot afford to express their indivudiality because the acts of one indivudual stand for the whole group. So, if one Black fellow does  something wrong it's the whole Black community that would be blamed. In order to 'fit' the American society, Ifemelu give them some pieces of advice, above all, not complaining, acting as nothing is a big deal "making fun of it if possible". Being bitter is supposed to be white thing.
America is pretty different from 'their' countries so they need to change their behaviour in order to conform to the white society. For instance, as a Black woman, she explains that in America, speaking your mind out loud is not something to do, contrary to in any of their countries, otherwise, they'll become "SCARY".
Black people are stereotyped as being biologically unable to tip properly, so Ifemelu is encouraging them to over-come their nature by "tip(ping) generously". And accordingly, the whole community will receive awful services.

Ifemelu also mentions that members of the Black community are expected to like watermelon, be hyper-mellow, nevet get too excited, not complain, be forgiving, never get angry about racism.
Anyways, it is America that shapes them as 'Black'.

2. How is Ifemelu being judged by others because of her culture ?

 As we saw in the first question, Ifemelu, as a Black woman is supposed to represent the Black culture. So, when she is doing something that is judged different by some white fellow, they automatically link this 'strange' behaviour with foreign culture. That's why, when Ifemelu told Elena that she did not like dog, this latter asked her if it was "a cultural thing" expecting her to be representative to the culture she belongs to.
Ironically, this act of linking individual behaviour to the whole culture is undertaken by Ifemelu as well when she expresses that the simple absence of a sponge makes them "unreachably alien" to her. 

3. How is Ifemelu insulted by Cristina Tomas in terms of her intellectual ability in Chapter 14?

Cristina in order to explain the process of registration speaks in a way as if she talks to a mentally disabled person, slowly emphasizing each single word. Although, Ifemelu thought that Cristina was the one who had some sort of problem of speaking, she was the one who was considered as disabled. Her being Nigerian was the source of Cristina’s assumption that she was incapable of understanding her. When Ifemelu says that she can speak English, Cristina’s reaction when she says “I bet you do, I just don’t know how well.” affirms her bias about Ifemelu’s belonging to an inferior group. 

By stating this, Cristina implies that although Ifemelu has grown up talking English in her native country, her English abilities still doesn’t match the standards of the community dominated by “Americans” and therefore she doesn’t exactly fit in. 

Deniz 

Sera

Murat 

Murat
Inès