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51f6d7c
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We condition girls to aspire to marriage and we do not condition boys to aspire to marriage, and so there is already a terrible imbalance at the start. The girls will grow up to be women preoccupied with marriage. The boys will grow up to be men who are not preoccupied with marriage. The women marry those men. The relationship is automatically uneven because the institution matters more to one than the other. Is it any wonder that, in so ma..
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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e807597
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racism is about the power of a group and in America it's white folks who have that power. How? Well, white folks don't get treated like shit in upper-class African-American communities and white folks don't get denied bank loans or mortgages precisely because they are white and black juries don't give white criminals worse sentences than black criminals for the same crime and black police officers don't stop white folk for driving while whi..
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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77d1239
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Some people ask: "Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?" Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general--but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying..
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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b031bca
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She was too afraid to hope, now that it seemed possible.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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20e5056
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Her feet had turned into snails.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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69d8bc1
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You see, in American pop culture, beautiful dark women are invisible. (The other group just as invisible is Asian men. But at least they get to be super smart.) In movies, dark black women get to be the fat nice mommy or the strong, sassy, sometimes scary sidekick standing by supportively.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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25e654a
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He was left-leaning and well-meaning, crippled by his acknowledgment of his own many privileges. He never allowed himself to have an opinion. "Yes, I see what you mean," he said often."
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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ace786a
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We have evolved. But our ideas of gender have not evolved very much.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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d164d1c
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shouldn't keep you,' Olanna repeated, and placed the phone down. She picked it up again, and was about to give the operator her mother's number before she dropped it back. She wished there was somebody she could lean against; then she wished she was different, the sort of person who did not need to lean on others, like
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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ff1930e
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She had, finally, spun herself fully into being.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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fda2b8d
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A sated belly gave Americans the luxury of praising themselves for being good parents, as if caring for one's child was the exception rather than the rule.
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african-women-writers
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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594a4a8
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Defiance is like marijuana--it is not a bad thing when it is used right." The"
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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53dc066
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Her first love, her first love, the only person with whom she had never felt the need to explain herself.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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e2fe942
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You make me shy," he said. "Are you serious? Because you make me shy." "I don't believe anything makes you shy," he said."
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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878aed9
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this is war, no longer a police action." He shook his head. "We were sabotaged." "Would you"
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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9e5e4f4
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She was standing at the periphery of her own life, sharing a fridge and a toilet, a shallow intimacy, with people she did not know at all. People who lived in exclamation points.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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49bc9a5
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Ifemelu liked the name of the town, Willow; it sounded to her like freshly squeezed beginnings.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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df63db5
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She was the sort of person whose love would suffocate.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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99b58d1
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he smiled at her self-mockery, a smile that seemed to her like a prize that she wanted to win over and over again.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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7c7a344
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Too much schooling ruins a woman; everyone knows that. It gives a woman a big head and she will start to insult her husband. What kind of wife will that be?
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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0577666
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Her entire body was invaded by millions of uncertainties.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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5c7406d
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And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of males.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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6d25e08
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Both religion and science have spaces for the things we do not know, and it is enough to make peace with that.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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a21405d
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an endless sheet of heads and placards held high.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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89a327f
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What does it mean to know? Really? Is it knowing-her refusal to think concretely about other women? Her refusal to ever consider the possibility?
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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6c918db
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His optimism blinded her. He was full of plans. "I have an idea!" he said often. She imagined him as a child surrounded by too many brightly colored toys, always being encouraged to carry out "projects", always being told that his mundane ideas were wonderful."
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optimist
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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419e393
|
He told me that people were saying my novel was feminist, and his advice to me - he was shaking his head sadly as he spoke - was that I should never call myself a feminist, since feminists are woman wo are unhappy because they cannot find husbands. So I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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c8b16d6
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If we do something over and over, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over, it becomes normal. If only boys are made class monitor, then at some point we will all think, even if unconsciously, that the class monitor has to be a boy. If we keep seeing only men as heads of corporations, it starts to seem "natural" that only men should be heads of corporations. I"
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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1c797bf
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A questao de genero, como esta estabelecida hoje em dia, e uma grande injustica. Estou com raiva. Devemos ter raiva. Ao longo da historia, muitas mudancas positivas so aconteceram por causa da raiva. Alem da raiva, tambem tenho esperanca, porque acredito profundamente na capacidade de os seres humanos evoluirem.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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f22e1e2
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We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way boys are. If we have sons, we don't mind knowing about their girlfriends. But our daughters' boyfriends? God forbid. (But we of course expect them to bring home the perfect man for marriage when the time is right.) We
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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3a3a8f4
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He pulled her to him, and for a while Olanna did nothing, her body limp against his. She was used to this, being grabbed by men who walked around in a cloud of cologne-drenched entitlement, with the presumption that, because they were powerful and found her beautiful, they belonged together.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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d6d35b2
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She recognized in Kelsey the nationalism of liberal Americans who copiously criticized America but did not like you to do so; they
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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a38e1d4
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Even though you would like to be able to decide for yourself how offended to be, or whether to be offended at all, you must nevertheless be very offended.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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64a23d2
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What she must feel for him was an awed fear. Whether or not Mama had told her to go to his room, she had not said no to Odenigbo because she had not even considered that she could say no. Odenigbo made a drunken pass and she submitted willingly and promptly. He was the master, he spoke English, he had a car. It was the way it should be.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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82e723a
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New Haven smelled of neglect. Baltimore smelled of brine, and Brooklyn of sun-warmed garbage.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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e46089d
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loping, comfortable gait pulled my eyes and held them. I turned and dashed into the flat. I could see the front yard
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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e51c6fe
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When you want to join a prestigious social club, do you wonder if your race will make it difficult to join? If you do well in a situation, do you expect to be called a credit to your race? Or to be described as different from the majority of your race? If you need legal or medical help, do you worry that your race might work against you? If you take a job with an affirmative action employer, do you worry that your co-workers will think that..
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social-strata
truth-of-life
racism-in-america
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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96e7dc9
|
You know it was love at first sight for both of us," he said."
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romance
love-at-first-sight
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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5b55c5f
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We have confidence but no dignity.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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575604f
|
Some people ask: "Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?" Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general--but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender."
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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1bc2776
|
Anyway, since feminism was un-African, I decided I would now call myself a Happy African Feminist. Then a dear friend told me that calling myself a feminist meant that I hated men. So I decided I would now be a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men. At some point I was a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men and Who Likes to Wear Lip Gloss and High Heels for Herself and Not For Men. Of
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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925c8e9
|
He had proved himself to the other men by how well he did at training, how he scaled the obstacles and shimmied up the rough rope, but he had made no friend. He said very little. He did not want to know their stories. It was better to leave each man's load unopened, undisturbed, in his own mind.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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54412c9
|
And, by the way, you and the guy
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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7f2df5a
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brought with it amorphous longings, shapeless desires, brief imaginary glints of other lives she could be living,
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |