Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: White men don’t get to define racism

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

Some people can shut things down with the wisdom of their words, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of those people.

The author and self-proclaimed feminist got into it with editor-in-chief of the American Spectator R Emmett Tyrrell on BBC News Tonight.

The two were discussing Trump’s election when Tyrrell stated that Trump “hasn’t been a racist.”

Adichie answered, smiling, “I’m sorry, but as a white man, you don’t get to define what racism is, you really don’t.”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘Beyoncé’s type of feminism is not mine’ — 

“It’s not about your opinion. Racism is an objective reality and Donald Trump is an inhabitant of that objective reality,” she went on.

Tyrrell stated that he felt he was being shut down for no other reason than because he was white before going on about the theory of false consciousness. He then asked Adichie to give him an example of Donald Trump being racist.

She brought up how Trump claimed that a U.S. judge could not be impartial in the Trump University case because his parents are Mexican. “That is racist,” Adichie said. “That is objectively racist.”

When Tyrrell mentioned the fact that the judge in question “looks white,” Adichie responded, “Well that’s not the point. It’s about what your candidate said.”