Multiple Stories, One Humanity 

In her TED talk The danger of a single story, Chimamanda Adichie (2009) uses examples from her own experience growing up in Nigeria and moving to the United States for university to show that if a person hears only a single story about another person or place, it can cause this person to categorize or stereotype the subject of the story. 

As a result, they are given an unrealistic or incomplete image of who or what this person or place really is (Adichie, 2009). Adichie’s experiences illustrate the effects of this. Her American university roommate underestimates her and treats her as a charity case because she only knows a single story about Nigeria, one of poverty and suffering (Adichie, 2009). 

Adichie (2009) does the same with the “helper boy” who lived with her family growing up and his brother because all she knew about him was that he was poor. She assumes all Mexicans are needy, deceitful people when she visits Mexico because of the single story she’s heard from the American media (Adichie, 2009). Her view of books and literature were also skewed as a child because she’d only read stories from the European perspective (Adichie, 2009).  

The main point of Adichie’s talk is that if someone has an unrealistic or incomplete image of a person or place, it makes it harder to give the respect they would give them if they had heard many different perspectives or stories about them; it makes it harder for them to see the true humanity in this person or place (Adichie, 2009).

Not only can this point apply to people or places as described in the TED talk, this idea can also be used to show the importance of studying and trying to fully understand each of the different political ideologies, even ones that we may never agree with. 

Like the examples of people or places that Adichie (2009) gave, many of us likely have only known a single story about certain political ideologies which shapes the way we perceive and talk about these ideologies. 

For example, if someone says they are in support of communism, a lot of people would likely argue that communism is evil and oppressive because they know from history there have been attempts to create a communist society that were indeed executed in evil and oppressive ways (Romkey, 2018). 

Likewise, a lot of people would think of pacifists as cowardly or lazy, feminists as troublemakers or snobs, and conservatives as privileged businessmen who only care about their own profit, because the media sources they subscribe to portray these ideologies this way (Romkey, 2018). 

By learning in depth about a political ideology, by hearing the stories behind a way of thinking, although someone may not be convinced that this ideology makes the most sense in their opinion, they can at least see where this way of thinking is coming from, and given other people’s experience and place in the world, why it may make the most sense for these people.

So by learning about communism, someone may realize that the true goal of communism is working together for peace and prosperity for all, not evilness and oppression (Romkey, 2018). 

By hearing more of a pacifist’s story, one may find they are actually a hard-working person going against societal norms to do what they think is right for themselves and for humanity. 

Putting oneself in a feminist’s point of view can show someone that a feminist is just trying to use their voice to show the unfairness that exists and the struggle that a woman has to go through just because, by fifty-fifty chance, she happened to be born female instead of male. 

Listening to a conservative’s perspective may show that conservatives want there to be more state control over people’s lives, not necessarily because it will help their own self-interest, but because they care about people and they think state control will help everyone (Romkey, 2018).

In the same way that hearing multiple stories about a person or place makes it easier to see the humanity in that person or place, hearing multiple stories or learning more in depth about a political ideology makes it easier to see the humanity in that ideology. It allows someone to see that the person who believes in this ideology is a human being just like them but may just experiencing life in a different way than them causing them to think differently. 

So by learning about as many political ideologies and ways of thinking we can, by hearing as many stories as we can, it makes it easier for us to live together, learn from each other, and help each other despite our differences.

References

Adichie, C. (2009, July). Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story [Video file].

Retrieved from

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Romkey, T. (2018, January 8). Introduction Part B. Lecture presented at SDS 131: Social Ideas,

Policy, and Political Practice in Renison University College, Waterloo, Ontario.