Questions
- Do you hold a ‘single story’ on Africa? Currently no. Previously yes. Until I saw the TED Talk on ‘single stories’ I always saw Africa as a place of people in poverty, of people who needed to be saved. I now realize Africa is similar to the U.S. and other places in the way that just because you often hear about the poor people in Africa doesn’t mean Africa only has poor people. Just because hear a story about an American murderer doesn’t mean everyone in America is a murderer.
- What stories might you be missing? I was missing a lot of stories about people who are rich and have a lot, and people whose lives are very similar to my own. I never used to think an African person could be wealthy, but after hearing more from school as well as doing a little research of my own I now realize there are people like myself in Africa.
- What is the ‘danger of a single story’? The danger of a ‘single story’ is stereotyping people on what little we know to be true. It is dangerous when we hear one thing about someone, someplace, something, over and over and over again because then it puts that idea in our mind that everywhere in that place is like that, that person is only that, that thing is only that.