The other day in class, we watched Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk over the danger of a single story. In this video, Adichie gives her personal stories on the “single stories” that she heard and read growing up. This resulted in her having a generalized skewed view of children’s books based on her experiences. This made me think a lot about how much I didn’t know growing up and still don’t know about other people and other cultures.
The town I grew up in was not completely without diversity, but the cultural and racial diversities were lacking. This skewed my view of other cultures and other people in general. My experiences with other countries, big cities in the United States, and different cultures around the world were limited to the few places I had visited as a child, the books I read, and the movies and TV I watched growing up. Coming to college was a fantastic part of my education of the world, as it allowed me to venture from my limited, ignorant views of people. I have been able to meet all different people with all different backgrounds. My college experiences have allowed me to go beyond my “single story” about many different cultures and come to a better understanding about life.
Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
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