“I learned a lot about systems of oppression and how they can be blind to one another by talking to black men. I was once talking about gender and a man said to me, "Why does it have to be you as a woman? Why not you as a human being?" This type of question is a way of silencing a person's specific experiences. Of course I am a human being, but there are particular things that happen to me in the world because I am a woman. This same man, by the way, would often talk about his experience as a black man. (To which I should probably have responded, "Why not your experiences as a man or as a human being? Why a black man?")”

Share & Save

Meaning

Not documented yet.

When It Was Said

Not documented yet.

Who It Was Said To

Not documented yet.

Historical Context

Not documented yet.

Source

Not documented yet.

Original Language & Translation

Originally said in English.

Did They Really Say It?

Not documented yet.

Did You Know?

Not documented yet.

About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nigerian writer

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer known for fiction, nonfiction, and lectures. She is a leading voice in postcolonial feminist literature. Her work crosses genres, but remains closely associated with questions of gender, power, identity, and the legacies of colonial history. She has become widely recognised for writing that speaks to those themes with clarity and force.

More from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (150 quotes) →

READ THE SOURCE

Books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah

2017

VIEW ON AMAZON

Half of a Yellow Sun

2006

VIEW ON AMAZON

The Thing Around Your Neck

2009

VIEW ON AMAZON

We Should All Be Feminists

2015

VIEW ON AMAZON

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

2018

VIEW ON AMAZON