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676cb6b
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They themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they felt safe to mock, because it was a mockery born of longing, and of the heartbroken desire to see a place made whole again.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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8144c2d
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To have money, it seemed, was to be consumed by money.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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61951d0
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The sad truth of the matter is that when it comes to appearance, we start off with men as the standard, as the norm. Many of us think that the less feminine a woman appears, the more likely she is to be taken seriously. A man going to a business meeting doesn't wonder about being taken seriously based on what he is wearing--but a woman does.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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b66c753
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Why do I love him?...I don't think love has a reason...I think love comes first and then the reasons follow.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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5a8ba91
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The first time I taught a writing class in graduate school, I was worried. Not about the teaching material, because I was well prepared and I was teaching what I enjoyed. Instead I was worried about what to wear. I wanted to be taken seriously. I knew that because I was female, I would automatically have to prove my worth. And I was worried that if I looked too feminine, I would not be taken seriously. I really wanted to wear my shiny lip g..
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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0cbacf1
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So teach Chizalum that biology is an interesting and fascinating subject, but she should never accept it as justification for any social norm. Because social norms are created by human beings, and there is no social norm that cannot be changed.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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0e39e73
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We teach girls to be likeable, to be nice, to be false. And we do not teach boys the same. This is dangerous. Many sexual predators have capitalized on this. Many girls remain silent when abused because they want to be nice. Many girls spend too much time trying to be "nice" to people who do them harm. Many girls think of the "feelings" of those who are hurting them. This is the catastrophic consequence of likeability. We have a world full ..
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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324d7d3
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I like politics and history and am happiest when having a good argument about ideas.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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50df403
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There's something very lazy about the way you have loved him blindly for so long without ever criticizing him. You've never even accepted that the man is ugly,' Kainene said. There was a small smile on her face and then she was laughing, and Olanna could not help but laugh too, because it was not what she had wanted to hear and because hearing it had made her feel better.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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935d158
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Death would be a complete knowingness, but what frightened him was this: not knowing beforehand what it was he would know.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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5e27bbe
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There was something wrong with her. She did not know what it was but there was something wrong with her. A hunger, a restlessness. An incomplete knowledge of herself. The sense of something farther away, beyond her reach.
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life
love
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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1b9f3d4
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How can we resist exploitation if we don't have the tools to understand exploitation?
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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1047661
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he did not want me to seek the whys, because there are some things that happen for which we can formulate no whys, for which whys simply do not exist and, perhaps, are not necessary.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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9104efd
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Grief was the celebration of love, those who could feel real grief were lucky to have loved.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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3240fd0
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People have crushes on priests all the time, you know. It's exciting to have to deal with God as a rival.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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c7cdb83
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Teach her to reject likeability. Her job is not to make herself likeable, her job is to be her full self, a self that is honest and aware of the equal humanity of other people.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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3bc671d
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You could have just said Ngozi is your tribal name and Ifemelu is your jungle name and throw in one more as your spiritual name. They'll believe all kinds of shit about Africa.
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immigrant
name
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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9512ae7
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The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it's a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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da0d939
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I'm worried I will leave grad school and no longer be able to speak English. I know this woman in grad school, a friend of a friend, and just listening to her talk is scary. The semiotic dialetics of intertextual modernity. Which makes no sense at all. Sometimes I feel that they live in a parallel universe of academia speaking acadamese instead of English and they don't really know what's happening in the real world.
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funny
elitism
english
graduate-school
intellects
long-words
pomposity
language
university
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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683136a
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And her joy would become a restless thing, flapping its wings inside her, as though looking for an opening to fly away.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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d2b1cd9
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We have a world full of women who are unable to exhale fully because they have for so long been conditioned to fold themselves into shapes to make themselves likeable.
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women
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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85bd190
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Feminism and femininity are not mutually exclusive. It is misogynistic to suggest that they are. Sadly, women have learned to be ashamed and apologetic about pursuits that are seen as traditionally female, such as fashion and makeup. But our society does not expect men to feel ashamed of pursuits considered generally male - sports cars, certain professional sports. In the same way, men's grooming is never suspect in the way women's grooming..
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feminism
women
makeup
misogyny
femininity
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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559b050
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If the justification for controlling women's bodies were about women themselves, then it would be understandable. If, for example, the reason was 'women should not wear short skirts because they can get cancer if they do.' Instead the reason is not about women, but about men. Women must be 'covered up' to protect men. I find this deeply dehumanizing because it reduces women to mere props used to manage the appetites of men.
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motherhood
parenting
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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9554f3e
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I was stained by failure.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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2381dfd
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How was it possible to miss something you no longer wanted?
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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cf1b925
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We raise girls to see each other as competitors--not for jobs or accomplishments, which in my opinion can be a good thing--but for the attention of men.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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81975cc
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But she was uncomfortable with what the professors called 'participation,' and did not see why it should be part of the final grade; it merely made students talk and talk, class time wasted on obvious words, hollow words, sometimes meaningless words.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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24dc64c
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There was something immodest about her modesty: it announced itself.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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3db0218
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Each time he suggested they get married, she said no. They were too happy, precariously so, and she wanted to guard that bond; she feared that marriage would flatten it into a prosaic partnership.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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d684d6d
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As they walked out of the store, Ifemelu said, "I was waiting for her to ask 'Was it the one with two eyes or the one with two legs?' Why didn't she just ask 'Was it the black girl or the white girl?'" Ginika laughed. "Because this is America. You're supposed to pretend that you don't notice certain things."
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pretense
race
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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b6449f0
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There are two answers to the things they will teach you about our land: the real answer and the answer you give in school to pass. You must read books and learn both answers.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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b67deb9
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Red was the blood of the siblings massacred in the North, black was for mourning them, green was for the prosperity Biafra would have, and, finally, the half of a yellow sun stood for the glorious future.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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181fa56
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If the sun refuses to rise we will make it rise
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inspirational-life
inspirational-quotes
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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0f429d0
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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.
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humour
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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b87f280
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These are little things but sometimes it's the little things that sting the most.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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f50460e
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In America, you don't get to decide what race you are. It is decided for you.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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ad0e49d
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Teach her never to universalize her own standards or experiences. Teach her that her standards are for her alone, and not for other people. This is the only necessary form of humility: the realization that difference is normal. Tell
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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71467be
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What a beautiful name," Kimberly said. "Does it mean anything? I love multicultural names because they have such wonderful meanings, from wonderful rich cultures." Kimberly was smiling the kindly smile of people who thought "culture" the unfamiliar colorful reserve of colorful people, a word that always had to be qualified with "rich." She would not think Norway had a "rich culture." --
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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6be1a8c
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Her blog was doing well, with thousands of unique visitors each month, and she was earning good speaking fees, and she had a fellowship at Princeton and a relationship with Blaine - "You are the absolute love of my life," he'd written in her last birthday card - and yet there was cement in her soul. It had been there for a while, an early morning disease of fatigue, shapeless desires, brief imaginary glints of other lives she could be livin..
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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bba8fe0
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I knew what I wanted to run to. But it didn't exist, so I didn't leave.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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c4cae0b
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There was a certain luxury to charity that she could not identify with and did not have. To take "charity" for granted, to revel in this charity towards people whom one did not know--perhaps it came from having had a yesterday and having today and expecting to have tomorrow. She envied them this. ...Ifemelu wanted, suddenly and desperately, to be from the country of people who gave and not those who received, to be one of those who had and ..
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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ddbe2be
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We teach females that in relationships, compromise is what a woman is more likely to do.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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519096d
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feminist is so heavy with baggage, negative baggage: You hate men, you hate bras, you hate African culture, you think women should always be in charge, you don't wear makeup, you don't shave, you're always angry, you don't have a sense of humor, you don't use deodorant.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
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130bd59
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We never actively remember death,' Odenigbo said. The reason we live as we do is because we do not remember that we will die. We will all die.
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death-and-dying
mortality
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |