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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s culturally enriching novel Americanah was a truly fascinating read that provided new perceptions on America’s “race issue.” This story as a whole, I feel, really opens readers’ eyes to a completely different perspective on the United States’ ideology, stereotypes, lifestyle, and cultural norms. Being citizens of the United States of America, one of the most powerful countries in the world, I believe we can easily get caught up in our own national ego, thinking that we are the best, most influential, most popular country in existence and that everyone reveres us in an admiring and sometimes envious manner.

Yet, as Adichie exposes in her enlightening book, this common opinion we share as the collective community of America is definitely not shared in the same manner by other nations around the globe, particularly those who immigrate to the U.S. in search of further education, job opportunities, improved safety, or cultural experience.

In Ifemelu’s situation, when she leaves her native Nigeria to attend school in America, she soon realizes that her expectations of this great, magnificent, opportunistic country were not true in reality. The education system was weaker, yet more unnecessarily cumbersome than the schools she attended back in Africa. The beautiful, upbeat, bustling environment she expected to experience was really an unyielding, stressful, eternally strung-out atmosphere that caused feelings of worry, hopelessness, and depression (the term/diagnosis of “depression” did not even exist in Nigeria). Despite never believing that depression was a legitimate illness, Ifemulu soon begins to wonder if she is experiencing the disease herself just from living the “desirable” American lifestyle.

Additionally, Ifemelu is both surprised and disgusted by the fact that all black people (or really anyone who did not have white skin) were placed under only one category: black. No separate terminology or ethnic acknowledgment existed, like Ethiopian, Algerian, Mongolian, Somalian, Ghanian, or Nigerian. Everyone was simply considered “black,” and was often discriminated for this mere aspect of differing skin pigmentation.

Ifmelu’s (and Chimamanda’s) perspective on black people born in America versus black people born in countries outside of America (Africa) was also interesting. She termed the former “American Africans” and the latter “non-American Africans.” Again, the United States has the horrible tendency to categorize all people of darker skin under one label: black, or in America, African American. The term “African American” really is not even true in its denotation. Just because there are black people living in America does not mean they are American African (or African American), despite the commonly widespread notion. The only “African Americans” in this country are those who were born from America’s slavery practices. Everyone else still possesses their ethnic identity of whatever native country they came from originally.

This novel was truly an awakening to our nation’s racial, ethnic, and cultural ignorance. Additionally,Americanah blatantly exposed the United States’ unfair and uninformed stereotyping and discrimination tendencies as well. Living in a country where we are obsessed with the individual and the menial makes us blind to the other issues we are surrounded by – and committing ourselves. We Americans are really not as cultured, knowledgeable, philanthropic, and amazing as we think we are. In fact, we are pretty unintelligent, unaware, and foolish about certain topics, particularly in regards to race.

Supplementing my increased appreciation for diverse cultures, reading this beautiful story made me want to shout, “Wake up to your obliviousness and change, America!” This impactful piece of literature also inspired me to want to spread awareness about this unexplored issue throughout my community, country, and world. Of course, doing either of these given options might not be sensible or feasible, so for now I will just promote everyone to read this book, to think about its content/meaning, and to suggest the novel to their friends, thereby creating a chain reaction of potential revelation and the opportunity for change.