Summary Of The Danger Of A Single Story By Adichie

As human beings, we tend to not understand that what we see or hear about social media, television, books, etc. can guide us towards this one piece of the puzzle. Not knowing the rest of the puzzle creates the assumption of a single story. In her TED talk, Chimamanda Adichie has spoken about the dangers of only knowing a story which leads to stereotyping. By this being said, to what extent do we as a society form a single story about others? To answer this question, there is a great extent when people create their single stories about others because we make these single stories without even realizing it. Chimamanda is a mere example, a representative of how our society thinks and is treated  when making a single

The speech “The Danger of a Single Story” narrated and written by Chimamanda Adichie is a series of overlapping stories and thoughts predominately discussing prejudice around the world. Though it is not our fault that we are only shown a single side of a topic, what we are exposed to is usually biased or lacking in full detail. Many people use what media may say or what they hear around them about a subject to make up their resolved opinion on the matter. Adichie's argument is effective because she overturns all that established knowledge and presents unique views on old ones to create an open minded take on the issue; moreover, Adichie uses humor, significant life experiences, and typical day-to-day discrimination to support her argument.

Novelist Chimamanda Adichie brings into consideration to Keim discussion, by emphasizing the connection between a “single story” and “stereotypes” regarding the subject of Africa. One of the dangers Adichie includes in her discussion are individuals being denied the opportunity to tell their story. Adichie draws similarities to Keim when discussing her own personal journey to find her authentic cultural voice, and she emphasizes the many misunderstanding that society, including herself, have made. Adichie admits to not only facing stereotypes, but addresses her own opinion regarding the topic. Adichie admits that as a child, she had initial biases regarding a servant that was employed by her family. According her explanation, she believed that the capability of someone “the servants family” coming from a certain background, made them incapable of such artistry. The same misconceptions can be seen in present day society, we often are prejudiced on who or what can be cultured.

Adichie’s characters are subject to cultural suppression in several of the short stories. This is most pronounced in ‘The Arrangers of Marriage’ where Chinaza is forced by her husband to assimilate to her new surroundings by ridding herself of all signs of being Nigerian,

Chimamanda Adichie is a novelist and a narrator who delivered a persuasive speech on what she calls; "The Danger of a Single Story" but in reality what it means is the danger of stereotyping. Dictionary.com defines Stereotype as “A generalization usually exaggerated or oversimplified and often offensive, that is used to describe or distinguish a group.” Adichie delivered her presentation on a very well-known website called Ted.com, with one objective in mind, to prevail upon everyone to share their personal stories with the world so that there no longer is a “single story” defining any one person or group. Although, Adichie is aware that the damage that has been already created may take some time to undo, she felt that

In July 2009, at a TED conference, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian author, gave a stunning speech about “the Danger of a Single Story”. In her speech, she mentioned about negative consequences happening when people tend to form stereotypes based on a single story, the one-sided argument. The single story blindfolds our eyes and prevents us from seeing the complexity, diversity, and similarities that construct our world, just as Adichie says “these negative stories is to flatten my experience and overlook the many other stories that formed me” (12:56). Listening to all her own personal experience and argument, I have become fully convinced and also see myself reflected in her stories. The single story can cause underlying and harmful impacts not only on personal issues but also on the global scale.

Stereotypes of people, places, or things leave a large gap between the truth and what is known as the truth. In the speech "The Danger of a Single Story" by Chimamanda Adichie, Adichie explains the dangers and importance of single stories. The use of her past experiences as evidence to explain the damage these stories can cause, both to the listener and the person, place, and/or topic of the stories gives power to her speech. The author’s

My room-mate had a single story of Africa; a single story of catastrophe”. Adichie also tells how growing up in Nigeria reading only American and English children’s books made her deaf to her authentic voice. As a child, she wrote about such things as blue-eyed white children easting apples, thinking brown skin and mangos had no place in Literature. That changed as she discovered African writers.

In Adichie’s remarks, she explains the effects of single stories through forms of racism. While racism is a huge issue, I wanted to bring in a different example of when single stories were used in my life. These were connected with my religion and the religion of others.

The lecture, “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, demonstrates how stereotypes create a single story in people’s minds. She says these stereotypes are half truths because they are incomplete, therefore it keeps people away from the reality. She claims this is “the danger of a single story”, because it stops people to think of others are capable of contributing positively to society. Adichie’s lecture helps one to understand how these stereotypes impact people by creating a single story which changes people’s perception of others. The article, “Michael Brown and Black Men” by Charles M. Blow critiques the “single story” the media tell about young black men. Blow argues how these black mens are shown as “bad people” compared to white people, however, it may not be true because somewhat the media has affected many people in the society to have a single story about others. Blow writes how students of color are suspended more than white students and how Latino and black people are more likely to be searched than white people even though chances are higher for white people to be involved in crimes. Adichie also shares her personal experiences with people through ted talk, how she had “single story” in her mind from what the media had viewed, or from what she had heard from people, but she realized that the whole truth was not there, which results in division.

In her 2009 TED talks presentation,” The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains how a single story presented by the media and books can affect the way a person may perceive others, places, and cultures (Adichie). She goes into details explaining her point through personal experiences where she falsely misunderstood someone based on a single word she heard numerously, and how she was a victim of a common stereotype. According to Adichie, there is never a single story and that people can go through a mental shift of their perspective if they considered various alternatives that differ from the same story that is commonly told.

Adichie brings to light a very important problem in our society. In her speech she talks about the dangers of having a single story for a person or group of people. She told a story of her houseboy who did the chores around the house for them. All she knew about the boy was that he was poor. Later when she visited his family’s house she was shocked to find out that his family could actually make things like artwork or crafts. She had a single story of the boy that he was poor and knew nothing else. Because of this she assumed that he and his family were not capable of making anything beautiful or creative. She learned that there was so much more to that family than what her single story led her to believe.

For example, Chimamanda talks about how even though Africa is a continent full of catastrophes and tragic stories that are important and should be talked about, that these are not the only stories that should be talked about and how both the good and the bad should be mentioned. Chimamanda addresses how an example of this is if for her Mexico trip, she would have followed the immigration debate from both the U.S. and the Mexican side, or if when she was young if her mother had told her that Fide’s family was poor and hardworking, or if her roommate had known the stories of the Nigerian publisher, Muhtar Bakare, the fearless Lagos TV host, Fumi Onda, or of how even though Nigeria possess a failed government people continue to thrive despite the government rather than because of

However, after going through the seminal readings, I have realized that there was more to what I perceived as normal than I thought. Recalling from Chimamanda’s book, she talked about how reading foreign books shaped her perception about books – she believed that only white people can be characters of books. Also, when she started writing, she also started using white characters in her writings. Her perception took a twist when she

From the TED Talk video “The Danger of a Single Story,” I think that the speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wanted to tell us that we need to read more and know different stories about one place because there are more than one story exist. We should not judge other without knowing themselves. Furthermore, she said that we should not easily believe everything we heard from media because they only give us one impression. I especially felt close to her when she described how she felt after she realized her American roommate teetered her as African not Nigerian. (4:13) Moreover, she had only a single story about Africa. (4:49) Those paragraph remind me when I was in college in New York, my American classmates did not know the differences between Japanese and Chinese or