Danger of a Single Story
A novelist named Chimamanda Adichie wrote a short story called Danger of a Single Story. Adichie wrote this story in 2009. The point of the text is that one person can cause a stereotype which affects the people who hear this stereotype and believe it. Stereotypes take away humanity. One theme from this story is power. Power is represented in a negative way. An example of this is when Adichie visited Fide's village (Fide is her house boy). Adichie's mother always told her that Fide's family has nothing, they are poor and can't do anything. To Adichie's surprise, she saw a "beautifully patterned basket of dyed raffia" that Fide's brother made. She only knew them as poor, she didn't know they could really do anything. A single story is a stereotype, a point of view. She believed it because her mother was the one that told her this single story. Usually as a kid you believe anything you hear. Generally you believe what your parents tell you because they are your role models. To me, this story reminds me of that saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover", because people just assume the worst. People assume things about a person when they haven't even spoken a word to them. It's a negative aspect because it makes people very narrow-minded. Kids hear a number of opinions being thrown around by their parents but they cant make up their opinion on how they feel about something because they automatically believe their parents. These stereotypes, opinions and single stories affect the theme humanity. Adichie mentions the word "dispossess" which basically means "take away humanity" because you tell their story. Someone with power is easily manipulative. Every person is worthy of honor or respect. These stories can break the dignity of the people which also means it can break the respect of people. Since single stories are so powerful why can't we use these single stories to make this a better place? Why don't people spread positive single stories? We have to remember it's the person's story not the messenger's. People tell negative stories about an individual sometimes to make themselves feel better, or to make them feel like they are the best. They want to be the greatest so they label people to be below them so they have all the power. People immediately believe what they hear because it's the first thing they hear and they never experienced it first hand for themselves. People are surprised when their story doesn't match the reality. Single stories are false advertisements. Have you ever heard a single story and believed it? How can we as a country change the negative stories to make them positive?
I have heard single stories before and I'm sure there are some I believed at a time. For instance, Muslims are terrorists,but that's not true. Not everyone is like the other. However, we can change this singles stories into positive by judging a person off of their characteristics and not what they're known to be.
ReplyDeleteSingle stories are so dangerous. It gives people one outlook and nothing different. I think people only use negative single stories to make it interesting. But little do they know, they are disrespecting people. I agree with you that this connects to "don't judge a book by its cover". There is always more to the story then just the cover, and the cover is the single story.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question at the end, I believe as a country what we can do to change negative stories is to always look for more then one side, if we hear something negative about someone or something we should look for something positive about them first before just assuming that they are completely negative.
ReplyDeleteNow a days we cant put a single story on any race because unfortunately many may even be in the same situation. People judge off of race, and where you live or even the money you have. To change these negative stories we all need to come together and stop pin pointing stories on one another and assuming the worse of a person because of their surrounds.
ReplyDeleteI think people say single stories because they don't know any better. When people watch the news, they only see catastrophes that happen in other countries and have no other knowledge of how people in that country are. I don't think single stories happen intentionally. But they are very degrading at times and harsh.
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