Dear Mrs Adichi,
My name is Arta Popovic, a college student who goes to BMCC. I am a first generation Albanian American that was born and raised in New York City. Hearing your story on what a single story is was eye opening. Through your description of a single story, what I understood is a single story may be created through the perception of one’s view on a person. Through spreading their beliefs on said person, they may spread a single story image of that individual. This is something that I believe to be true and it’s something that we as a society should be more aware about. I found your speech through one of my assignments and I would like to express the gratitude of you bringing this to light as I believe this is the reality for some people which is being labeled with the image of a single story. The way that a single story may make things look as if they’re one dimensional can be damaging for an individual who has more to their life besides a single story. What this reminds me of is an assignment that was given to me which was the experiences that Middle-Eastern Americans have gone through. The reason why I chose this topic to speak on is due to the discrimination that they experienced after 9/11 and it’s something that I personally have witnessed happen throughout growing up in schools. I personally didn’t experience the racism that the Middle-Eastern population has gone through during this time, but I was born in an Islamic household. I remember telling my peers in middle school that I was a Muslim in which the immediate comment was usually regarding ‘terrorism’ or ‘terrorist.’ This is something that I believe may be due to the single story that the media projected for people who practice Islam. The unreasonable views and narratives that people would comment against Muslim were something that I would silently listen to and think to myself “how could they believe these things?” The way you describe how a single story can be dangerous is something that I agree with as a single story can push the wrong agenda to people which can cause a divide. The message that you send is something that I can relate to since if I were to travel to Montenegro where my family is from, my relatives already have a set image on how I may act due to the fact that I am Americanized. Sometimes their view may be negative assuming I may not be so culturally in-tune compared to them or it may be positive in which they may label me as hardworking or smart. I myself am a victim of giving people a single story image when it comes to this because I have preemptively judged them into thinking that they may act a certain way. Something that we can do to spread this lesson including myself is trying to approach people with an open-mind. I believe that every individual has their own unique story to tell in living their life all the way down to their own view on the world so they shouldn’t be given a one dimensional story. No two stories are the same when it comes to people, and I believe what we could do is support the idea of avoiding giving someone a single story by educating people to be more open-minded. Thank you for sharing your speech to the world and thank you for having such a beautiful image on the diversity of this world.
- Arta Popovic
