"We do not need first to be perfect before we can do what is right and just," she said. (Source: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Facebook) At the Harvard University in 2018, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke on her lineage, the way conditional racism surfaces in conversations, and how intent matters.
“It is hard to tell ourselves the truth about our failures, our fragilities, our uncertainties. It is hard to tell ourselves that maybe we haven’t done the best that we can. It is hard to tell ourselves the truth of our emotions that maybe what we feel is hurt rather than anger, that maybe it is time to close the chapter of a relationship and walk away. And yet when we do, we are the better off for it,” she said.
She also asked the gathered students to “make literature your religion”, meaning “read fiction and poetry and narrative non-fiction. Make the human story the center of your understanding of the world. Think of people as people, not as abstractions who have to conform to bloodless logic but as people: fragile, imperfect, with pride that can be wounded and hearts that can be touched.”
She concluded that is what she follows. “Literature is my religion. I have learned from literature that we humans are flawed, all of us are flawed. But even while flawed, we are capable of enduring goodness. We do not need first to be perfect before we can do what is right and just.”
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