Chimamanda Adichie

In Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie strives to bring to light race issues that plague the United States. One of the key topics she mentions is the concept of Barack Obama as “the magic negro”. According to Adichie his magical qualities come from certain attributes. She states “He never reacts under great suffering, never gets angry and is never threatening.” (Adichie 14). Although Adichie directly relates these qualities to Obama I believe this idea can translate to all minorities.
The “magic minority” is what I believe all minorities are urged to become. Due to the fact that many people are uncomfortable speaking about race, minorities are expected to act as though they are not experiencing racism or as Adichie had stated “great suffering”. When we look back at American history the idea of urging others to become the “magic minority” is very noticeable. American settlers forced the Native people to become less “threatening” by adapting to “American” culture and assimilating. The Irish were pressured to start discriminating
Since Obama was deemed a “magic minority” many people feel the need to say that his manner of acting is the way other minorities should act as well. Adichie even goes as far as saying, “He always lets racist shit happen.” (Adichie 14) Due to this, others feel as though minorities should follow his example. Him being viewed this way also causes people to believe racism is over since he never becomes frustrated toward those who act in a racist manner. This belief can be seen when we analyse how people view the protests that are taking place today. Those who are not in the majority see protesting as complaining and stereotypical of the those who are protesting when instead they are challenging the idea of the “magic minority”. They opening choose to act in an antitrust fashion since they do not allow for racist actions to take