Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie has revealed what it was like discovering all about racism, blackness and political correctness in America for the first time.
In an interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker magazine, Adichie opened up on the strong criticisms she received from the LGBT community and other liberals when she said “transwomen are not women”.
Adichie told the interviewer, “You don’t put up with liberal can’t and jargon whether it’s on subjects of feminism of race at all, despite politics.
“I don’t. I almost think that the left is creating its own decline. I think the left doesn’t know how to be a tribe, in a way the right does. The left is cannibalistic, it eats its own. You know, this isn’t going to sound very kind.
“People on the left, so there’s something to be said of course for ideals and I believe very much in that, but I think when one speaks about politics, sometimes there can be a kind of an extremist idea of purity and it’s so easy to follow foul of the ridiculously high standards set there and there’s often also a kind of self-righteousness. I mean you follow the rules and if you don’t, you’re cut down very quickly.”
Adichie said she had been a victim of the antics of liberals in this regard when asked by the interviewer.
“I think it was my comments about transgender women. So I had done an interview in London and this woman had said to me, I don’t remember the question, but what I did say was that I think trans women are trans women and that I think there is a difference between trans women and women who are born female. And apparently in liberal orthodoxy, you’re not supposed to say that. Because in the quest for inclusiveness, the left is willing to discard a certain kind of complex truth. And I think there’s a quickness to assign ill intent.
Adichie spoke on her experiences with racism, which she said American society is “steeped in”.
And even though it was a very small moment, that’s when I knew what being black meant.
It meant that you’re not supposed to write the best essay in class if you’re black.
and there’s a part of me that wanted to say this man, really I was saying it in my head,
you’re stupid. But then it became other things.
“It became, I remember once a black guy referred to me as sister. And my first reaction was no, no, no, I’m not your sister.”