Renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was a
guest at Esquire Townhouse with Breitling where she sat for a wide-ranging
interview.
On Saturday, October 13, Adichie spoke to Esquire
editor-in-chief Alex Bilmes. She touched on Melania Trump‘s visit to Africa and
why she believes the US first lady is a racist, on Identity, and on the US
President Donald Trump. She also spoke about Britain's obsession with class,
her unwavering support for the Obamas and why she thinks masculinity is a
"hard, small cage".
On racism and sexism, Bilmes asked Adichie:
You say that you are angrier about sexism than you are about
racism.
To which the author of Americanah replied:
I said that because in my own very personal space, the
people I love, the people I'm close to, my family, my freinds all get race. So,
I've never with them had to make a case for why something was racist.
So, I'm in my circle of friends - White people, Black
people, Asian people, Hispanic people - and something happens to do with
blackness and immediately we all get it.
But with gender, I find, that with the people I love, I'm
constantly being expected to make the case - the ways in which women are
reduced, the ways in which authority in a woman is judged much more differently
than authority in a man. And I find I'm constantly being asked by the people
that I love - so I'm not talking about sort of, you know, anonymous people - to
make that case. And it gets emotionally exhausting because I dont feel that I
have the kind of effortless support that I have when I talk about race.
