Conversation 2: The Danger of a Single Story

Summary:

The ted talk “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Adichie, takes place in Nigeria. Adichie grew up in the world of reading and writing, for most of the time she grew up reading American and British books which influenced her to try new things like ginger beer. Since she was small she had the concept that all the books she read had to have characters that were foreigners that were white and blue eyes , ate apples, and played in the snow. However, things changed when she discovered African books, and realized that people like her also exist in the world of literature. As she grew up certain events like when she went to visit Fide and his poor family, when she left Nigeria to go to University in the United states, and her roommate started to assume/criticize things about her and her origin which was only a part. Resulting in stereotypes being created, this made her realize  the problem of a single story. Adichie visits Mexico and she also had a very different point of view of the country until she got there and it was totally different. These are the consequences of a single story: it dispossesses people of their dignity and dehumanizes them instead of focusing on how we are all similar, they focus on how we are different. 

Response: 

I totally agree with Chimamanda Adichie because what people don’t realize is that words have power and it can either humanize or dehumanize people. In this case, the ignorance of people deprives others from their dignity by just telling the negative side of the story which people don’t realize that in this world there is both a good and bad side and both should be told not just one side because this leads to judgments and misunderstandings. We are all different but that is what makes each and everyone of us unique in a way and this is what makes our world diverse. Sadly, the lack of our knowledge can cause wars which is what we see in today’s world with countries, presidents, and groups of people being categorized just because of others actions causing a split between groups. We are all different in a way but we are all one. I strongly relate to this as a daughter of immigrant parents who view immigrants as dangers or people that come to invade the USA. But what they don’t realize is that people come to this country in search of a better life or even because of life threatening events. As you may know the safety here is not the same as the safety in other countries because of poverty, corruption , and or technology. Some countries don’t count with the tools that our police officers in the United States count with. In this case, my parents came in search of a better life, to work and provide a better lifestyle for my grandparents but some people don’t understand that and sometimes people look at my parents weirdly only because they are immigrants.