I was in the midst of that ordeal when I stayed silent over Rowling's cancelation. But now, one year later, I have come to believe that the costs of staying silent are too high for me—and for all of us. The Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote about the price of our silence this summer in a searing essay about similar attempts to cancel her, and the impulse to remain silent as your name is dragged through the mud. "The people close to you advise you that silence is best," wrote Adichie. "And it often is. Sometimes, though, silence makes a lie begin to take on the shimmer of truth." She was speaking of individuals, but her caution applies to nations, too.

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