In
her TED presentation, “The Danger of
the Single Story”, Ms. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, presents a powerful
speech on how society can be influenced by a single one sided story. Ms. Adichie followed the first step in
telling a successful springboard story by ensuring the story is one of truth; using
her own life as the main protagonist.
She emphasizes the power that a single story can have and how society
has manipulated this process to influence individual the thought process.
She
began her speech by identifying herself as a victim of misunderstandings because
of single stories provided to her by her parents and others close to her as she
grew up. Chimamanda explains how
preconceptions of adults like her parents, college roommates and friends and
even professors had influenced her world view of society as a whole. One powerful example she analyzes is the view
of the American society on the country of Mexico and its poverty. Now looking
back on my own upbringing and reflecting on her talk session, I can clearly see
how a single story can influence how we define a selected group of people, how
we stereotype a geographical location, how we dismiss a certain genre or style
of music, or even a type of food. To be
fair, stereotypes exist and will always exist in some aspect of our lives, thus
making it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction when we are exposed to
such thought process so early in our lives.
This is a perfect example of the power of the single story.
I
share in Chimamanda’s experience when it comes to the power of the single
story. Much of my adult life was spent
in the military where stories have a very powerful place in society. There is one story that seems to follow me
everywhere I go. Early in my military
life, I lived in and traveled around Europe.
This exposed me to cultures too numerous to list. However, I quickly realized that American
culture had a different view of other cultures especially the Arab/Muslim culture.
Too often, I would hear high ranking
officials speak in very negative ways of these cultures, especially when the
conversation of the Koran was included. My
first bachelor’s degree was from a Baptist University (name withheld), where it
was mandatory to study the bible so at that time it did have an influence on
how I viewed certain aspects of religion.
However I quickly realized that some cultures had the same type of
negative view of Christian religion and the Bible. There was one defining point that is imbedded
in my brain. One of my professor stated,
“If you are going to question a thought process (single story), learn the other
persons viewpoint…read both the Koran and the Bible and then we can have a
conversation on them. Ignorance will get
us nowhere.” It was then that I realized that I have the power to overcome the
power of a single story when told by a single protagonist. To this day, I have accepted a philosophy when
teaching at any level. I inform my
student if you leave my class and say Mr. or Professor Washington says this or
that is like this, then I have failed you.
My primary job as an educator is to teach students to think on their
own; so that they do not become a victim of the single story.
We
often receive information about people, cultures, locations and even events and
before you know it we are drawing conclusions based on what some else told
us. Based on Adichie’s story, maybe
society should slow down and learn about such information. At the same time, if we are not careful we will
pass this same thought process on to our children. From this TED session, I will draw the
conclusion that Chimamanda is truly a skilled story teller, using humor and
actual examples of her own experiences to deliver a powerful message. On the
other hand, if I do not learn more about Ms. Chimamanda through my own research,
I am being a hypocrite and again falling for the influence of the single story. It is important to understand that behind a
single story; facts are often manipulated or omitted, thus serving the single-mindedness
of the individual telling the story.
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