Americanah

 The novel “Americanah” features many different aspects to race and culture discrimination. The main protagonist, Ifemelu, deals with many struggles that are caused or worsened by being a black women, especially on in the United States. In the beginning of the book, before she initially moves back to Nigeria, her experience at a hair braiding salon is depicted in detail. She is judged by her race by a fellow black woman. Ifemelu faces much judgment by both black people and white people. This causes a lot of conflict within herself because she is confused about her identity. The judgement from society leaves her questioning weather she is too assimilated or too Nigerian. This impacts her relationships with others, how she sees others, and how she sees herself. Unfortunately, these themes are very prevalent in our world today. Specifically with people who immigrated to the United States. With new generations being born in America to immigrant parents, people tend to question weather they should relate more to their parents, or to the people in the place they were raised. At this point in time, with many immigrants in the US, this issue will persist. A big contributing factor to this confusion is the media and their idea of what it means to be American, because even though in actuality the meaning of “American” is evolving, an American is still depicted the same way, with the same stereotypes. I believe that if our definition of American was able to change into something more accepting, there would be fewer inner conflicts among immigrants who are feeling pressured from multiple places to “fit in”, similar to Ifemelu and her journey.