Microaggressions and the Negotiation of Black Identity in Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah

Existing scholarship on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah has examined racism, racial identity, diaspora, gender, hair, language, and immigrant experiences. However, the specific ways racial microaggressions shape the negotiation and reconstruction of Black immigrant identity remain insufficiently foregrounded. This study addresses this gap by employing Critical Race Theory (CRT) to examine the relationship between racial microaggressions and identity formation in Americanah. Through a close reading of the experiences of Ifemelu, Obinze, Aunty Uju, and Dike, the study demonstrates how subtle verbal, behavioural, and institutional forms of racial discrimination influence their sense of self, belonging, and social position in the United States and the United Kingdom. The study finds that these experiences compel the characters to negotiate aspects of their identity, including accent, hair, language, appearance, and cultural belonging, resulting in conformity, internalised racism, resistance, and identity reconstruction. The paper contributes to existing scholarship by foregrounding racial microaggressions as a significant mechanism through which Black immigrant identities are negotiated within transnational spaces.