The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Adichie talks about the danger of the single story and how we portray what we are exposed to from a single perspective. She talks about how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, especially as children. Single stories can have unintended consequences, as they can suppress certain groups or cultures and form prejudices. Adichie emphasized how media and western books usually tell one story, which makes people make generalize information and make assumptions about certain people, cultures or places. She gave examples about the single story that people have about Africa, addressing it as a country and making assumptions that people there are not living a civilized life; she put herself in the shoes of a person living in America, never travelled to Africa nor met a person from there and only being exposed to what they are reading about Africa and she understood how they would form these assumptions from that single story. She gave another example ...