A Single Story
A One-Sided Story
Many of us in our life will only see one side of any given story. Whether it be due to geographical differences or differences in culture, people tend to not look beyond their own personal experiences, cultures, or religions. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story,” Adichie explains her experience with only having one side of the story and the negatives that went with having only one side of the story. Adichie expertly explains the danger of having only one side of any story of a people or place. Adichie talks about how as a child she could only read books that came from places like the United States and Britain. Places with the power and money to spread their own literature. Adichie describes how this …show more content…
Adichie argues that “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Ted). Americans for example, may only see the starving, poverty side of Africa, because that is what is seen in the media. This one-sided view is to the extreme that when Americans tell their children to finish their food, they do so with the reason being that there are starving children in Africa. Now while that may be true, it is only one side of the truth. People may not see the beautiful cities and rich culture of those whom live there and few will ever even go about finding that out for themselves. This way of thinking has a negative effect on how one may view his fellow …show more content…
“The consequence of a single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar” (Ted). Our perception on one another drastically changes how one may feel about another. People no longer are just people, but a version of a person someone has created in their own head. People become the very thing they are stereotyped as. There is a way to fix this however. One just needs to see the other side of the story. If everyone were to see the other side of the story they have been told, one could change the way they feel. One would be able to see the way another sees. “Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
Many of us in our life will only see one side of any given story. Whether it be due to geographical differences or differences in culture, people tend to not look beyond their own personal experiences, cultures, or religions. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story,” Adichie explains her experience with only having one side of the story and the negatives that went with having only one side of the story. Adichie expertly explains the danger of having only one side of any story of a people or place. Adichie talks about how as a child she could only read books that came from places like the United States and Britain. Places with the power and money to spread their own literature. Adichie describes how this …show more content…
Adichie argues that “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Ted). Americans for example, may only see the starving, poverty side of Africa, because that is what is seen in the media. This one-sided view is to the extreme that when Americans tell their children to finish their food, they do so with the reason being that there are starving children in Africa. Now while that may be true, it is only one side of the truth. People may not see the beautiful cities and rich culture of those whom live there and few will ever even go about finding that out for themselves. This way of thinking has a negative effect on how one may view his fellow …show more content…
“The consequence of a single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar” (Ted). Our perception on one another drastically changes how one may feel about another. People no longer are just people, but a version of a person someone has created in their own head. People become the very thing they are stereotyped as. There is a way to fix this however. One just needs to see the other side of the story. If everyone were to see the other side of the story they have been told, one could change the way they feel. One would be able to see the way another sees. “Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.