Chimamanda Adichie Explains Why She is More Upset about Sexism and Not Racism

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Author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was a guest at Esquire Townhouse with Breitling where she sat for a wide-ranging interview. She also used the opportunity to explain why she focuses more on sexism instead of racism.

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.

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“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”.