ISP Joaquín V.

Gonzalez - Language IV 4th D - 2019

Bruno Virginia

Assignment #2: Essay Writing - Cultural Diversity

Title chosen:
Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk is called “The Danger of the Single Story”. What is
the implication of conceptualizing stereotypes as “stories” told by someone? What is
the danger of having a single story of certain people, groups or cultures?

It can be said that our minds are easily influenced by everything we are told.
Consequently, if we are exposed to only one interpretation of reality about a certain
topic, we might often acknowledge it as the only truth. As members of the Western
society, for instance, we tend to believe what we are told about certain topics or
realities we are not acquainted with. An example of this may be the way in which
people from the Middle East live or how women are – according to our mindset-
oppressed in Eastern societies. However, there is more to these realities than what we
are told. In her famous TED talk “The Danger of the Single Story” (2009), Chimamanda
Adichie illustrated how complex human beings and realities are often reduced to single
narratives or stereotypes and how these shape our opinion about certain people,
groups or cultures. She conceptualizes these stereotypes as “single stories”. Referring
to them as a fictionalized description of events pursues a specific aim and has certain
implications as well as proposing a hierarchy in terms of roles: narrators and narratees.
This is to say that, whenever there is a story being told, someone is in charge of
deciding on what story to tell, how and when to tell it and, by doing this, also
exercising a certain power. Therefore, the powers-that-be are intertwined with single
stories and the way in which they impact on our society. The purpose of this essay is to
explore how power is related to the concept of the single story coined by Chimamanda
Adichie. This will be done by analysing the implications of conceptualizing stereotypes
as “stories” told by someone have, the dangers of having a single story of certain
people, groups or cultures pose and the role education plays in the debunking of
stereotypes.
As above mentioned, Chimamanda’s word choice to describe peoples’ realities
is heavily loaded as it is endowed with power. This is to say that, if we describe
realities as stories, it is implied that what is being said has been decided by someone,

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 ISP Joaquín V. Gonzalez - Language IV 4th D - 2019
Bruno Virginia

that the story has a narrator. This not only entails sharing a specific point of view but
also being oblivious to other views. As Chimamanda clearly states, western society is
only told certain features about Nigerians and we tend to believe it is the only reality
available. Even though we unconsciously adopt this one-dimensional perspective, the
fact that this single story shares a certain point of view implies an exercise of power by
those in charge of sharing these views. We are given constructs rather than realities
since the events we are shown are merely subjective interpretations of reality or even
imaginary. Kknowledge is power and these narrators wield this enormous clout by
deliberately creating stereotypes; pursuing specific objectives we are unaware of and,
as a consequence, we are led to misinterpret the world we live in since we base our
opinion on what we are told rather on what we know about certain issues.

Single stories, then, pose a great danger on society and, again, power is not to
be disregarded in this whole discussion. To begin with, reducing a whole culture,
country or even continent to a single story deprives it of one its most important
features: identity. In this regard, Chimamanda argues that “the consequence of the
single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal
humanity difficult.” Robbing people of their dignity is a way of downgrading them and,
by doing so, we dehumanize them. Depriving people of their human factor results in
the objectification of these subjects by treating them as mere objects. In her talk,
Chimamanda assures that differences are highlighted by this dehumanization. “It
(single story) emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.” These
differences reinforce the idea of there being a certain hierarchy and, for there to be a
position of privilege, there must be a subordinate group. As Bill Ashcroft states in
Postcolonial Studies. The Key Concepts, we need an “other” to define ourselves and
stereotyping a certain culture is functional to the powers-that-be in this sense. They
need this other in order to gain supremacy. Stereotypes, then, help strengthening
these differences and they only benefit those in charge of creating them. As a
consequence, domination is justified. Those who are not in power are thought to need
a leader and, privileged human beings consider themselves duty-bound to govern and
lead them. As a result of the sharp differences portrayed, there is a feeling of

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 ISP Joaquín V. Gonzalez - Language IV 4th D - 2019
Bruno Virginia

superiority which “legitimizes” the powers-that-be being in charge. This is a crucial

issue since it allows those in power to exercise authority over them.

Finally, education plays a key role if we want this paradigm to change.

Chimamanda states that in her childhood, she read stories written by western people
and, as a consequence, she could not identify with them. It was only when she started
reading African writers that she was saved from the single story. She realized people
like her could write and be a protagonist in literature. The role education plays is
crucial. Ashcoft states: “domination is thus exerted no by force, not even necessarily
by active persuasion, but by a more subtle and inclusive power over the economy, and
over state apparatuses such as education and the media, by which the ruling class´s
interest is presented as the common interest and thus comes to be taken for granted.”
Education is one of the means by which single stories penetrate our minds and, more
often than not, we are not conscious of this happening. Therefore, making people
aware of these single stories is necessary to avoid being deceived into believing them
as universal truths. We should be prepared to be critical of what we read or to what
we are told. We must be on the alert of the dangers and consequences it implies in
order to form an unbiased opinion.

To conclude, although it is true that we are easily influenced, we should be

highly critical of everything we are exposed to. Those who enjoy privileged positions
have plenty of motives to perpetuate stereotypes and it is our responsibility to be
critical enough not to be deceived. Apart from this, it is of great importance to share
our own stories. The lack of representability of realities is often due to the fact that
there are not enough exponents of those realities and it is our duty to share them. In
Chimamanda’s words: “(…) stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize.
Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken
dignity.” In order to restore that dignity, we should give space to multiple voices and
stories.