Video-Chimamanda Adichie explains why she’s angrier about sexism than she is about racism

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.

Watch the video below.