One thing that I enjoyed about watching this TedTalk by Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie is how she starts off by saying, “I am a story teller” Luckily
for me I was already familiar with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. For one, Beyoncé
sampled a speech by her in her song “Flawless”. Her input in that song is
perfect. And secondly, in my Creative Writing class, we have actually read a
couple of stories written by her. They were all amazing because of the way she
conveys a story. In her writings, the same things she discusses in her TedTalk,
were revealed. Like she says, she wrote about what was familiar to her. And I
think because of her experiences and her ability to share stories, she freed
herself from that single story life style.
When I try to connect the idea of having a single story with
my life, I think about certain things growing, basically stereotypes that I
have learned about. I think the one thing I can think about is like, stereotypes
based on me. I think people have single story of not me, but African Americans
or black people in general. Just the same, how there are stereotypes about
White Americans., etc. I have mentioned before how for the most part I feel as though
I didn’t get the typical response of “all black people are loud, ghetto, etc.”
For me it was true that people had this mind framed, but they viewed me as the opposite
of that stereotype. These people still had that single story mind set.
Honestly growing up, I wasn’t instilled with different stereotypes
about people and races or different places that I can say I shaped into a
single story. And as I continued to grow, I took the time to understand more
about the differences in people so that I wouldn’t be prejudice or as I am
learning, a single story mind set. And just like Chimamanda Ngozi says, the
stories we hear aren’t necessarily false, they are just incomplete. There is
always more than one story to DEFINE someone. And I like how Chimamanda
explains this and reveals this with her own experiences. One thing that Chimamanda
Ngozi said that stuck out to me however was this:
“All I have heard about them was how poor they were, so that
it had come impossible for me see them as anything else but poor…so poverty was
my single story of them”
Below is the link to a prose poem by Chimamanda Ngozi if you want to read it! And it definitely goes along with the theme of "single stories".
My mother, the Crazy African
I like how you took the time growing up to understand the differences in people rather than listening to the stories you were told. One way to keep yourself from developing prejudices is to educate yourself. Great post!
ReplyDeleteLoved your post, and loved the poem you attached, it was a great read!!
ReplyDeleteYour post is certainly very organized. It was helpful to see that you are already familiar with Chimamanda and that you were able to relate her other work to the TED talk. Awesome post!
ReplyDeletenicely put Danai. i see your a fan of Chimamanda and you seem to share a love of writing with her. I like the way you organized and thought this blog out. qouting the video. I glad your able to see what seeing a single story of person is about which is prejudging.
ReplyDeleteI like how you referenced Chimamanda's other work within your blog. I never realized that was her in Flawless. I, too, like that part of the song and think that she makes valid points!
ReplyDelete