The Danger of a Single Story
I recently came across the TED Talk: “The Danger of a Single Story”. If you haven’t listened to it before, you absolutely should. (It’s not even long). The main message I took away from this is that we should beware of accepting single-story narratives of our world. Logical advice right? I think so too.
A lot of the things from this talk hit home for me. Much like her, I’ve had to endure the constant misconceptions about my home country and keep reminding people that what they see on TV about Africa is not, by any means, the full story. Much like her, I grew up only hearing about stories from the Western world. The TV shows, the music, and the pop culture with which I grew up were all mostly from either Great Britain or the United States.
It didn’t help that at a relatively young age, we immigrated to the United States. So my likelihood of learning about Ghanaian stories or broader African stories grew even smaller. To this day, I do feel like I have to go out of my way to find these stories, and I don’t think that is by mistake
I remember the first time I read the Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah. It was the first time I got a deep dive into the history of what became the independent nation of Ghana. I felt so proud to be a Ghanaian after reading that book. I got to explore the mind of an incredibly forward-thinking man (even for his time) and learn about the shortcomings of his complex relationship with the leadership of the country which he helped free from colonial rule. It was so much more nuanced than I ever expected and it gave me a sense of freedom to nurture my philosophy of life, and to follow whatever path in life felt right for me.
In the TED Talk, the speaker discusses how she went to Mexico with these preconceived notions about the Mexican people because of the single-story narrative that she had been fed in the United States. When she realized what she had done, she felt embarrassed to have fallen for the same trick. The trick that brought many Americans to the conclusion that Africa is only filled with savages and extreme poverty.
I thought it was important that she told that part of the story because I’ve always felt that when we discuss bias in our lives, we rarely leave room to discuss the process and work that it takes to unlearn the misconceptions with which we grew up.
Whether we like it or even recognize it, our world and our media shape us. And in a world that is for the most part orchestrated by capitalist, and colonialist ideas, we are going to have some F***** up views or perceptions without even recognizing it. We need to be able to recognize when we’ve failed to recognize those shortcomings and make conscious efforts to improve them.
Part of the way we do this is to allow people to fail, and not immediately treat them like criminals, or assume they are evil because they had a screwed-up view or perception of something. It can be a very difficult thing to do. Particularly when people have views or perceptions against you that feel hostile.
But think for a second about your friends. When I do that, I can pick out some moments where someone has expressed an opinion or made an off statement. A statement that may stem from a “single-story” point of view. If you respond with aggression toward them, or try to address it in a public setting, that person may feel nervous to ever express more of their opinions in the future. They may also be less likely to internalize any correction you may provide to them.
But, say you reached out to that person in a personal text later that day. Explaining that you didn’t think a certain statement they made was great. And say you also educated them on why you feel that way and offered them an alternative opinion.
It’s a private conversation, so now they feel safe. Which makes people more open to listening to what you have to say. I always find that approaching things with love tends to yield better results.
Anyway, that’s probably enough for today’s rant. Thanks for reading :)
