Blog 5: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "The Danger of a Single Story" TED Talk

In “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie argues the need to look beyond a single story describing a person or place because in doing so society will start to see people and places in a more complete manner. From when Adichi was a little girl in Nigeria, to a college student in the United States, to a tourist in Mexico, Adichie has learned the value of a single story. However, from what Adichie has learned, she has been able to determine that a single story distorts the reality of a person or place. To avoid stereotyping a person, Adichie emphasizes that society needs to see the completed series of someone’s stories. If society is able to reject a single story and “realize there is never a single story about any place,” (Adichie) society will be able to “regain a kind of paradise” (Adichie).

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie effectively utilized personal stories, pacing, and pausing to create an inspiring TED Talk. Adichie’s speech was primarily based on stories throughout her life that helped her to realize the danger of a single story. Her stories made the talk easier to understand and relate to, while also making it more authentic and personal. During her talk, Adichie was well paced, never stumbling over her own words yet never speaking so slowly that she lost the audience’s attention. The pace at which Adichie spoke also helped to craft her stories and demonstrate their importance. Finally, Adichie was able to sufficiently integrate pauses into her talk. Her effective use of pauses was an element to her speech that added an exceptional amount of importance to the lessons she learned through her anecdotes. Through personal stories, pacing, and pausing effectively, Adichie was able to create an inspiring and informative TED Talk.

In “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie correctly emphasizes why society needs to look past stereotypes and single stories because failure to do so will lead to a judgmental and divided world. Adichie believes, “...that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become” (Adichie). As the repetition of one story becomes more prominent in daily life, largely due to the role of media, places, people, and groups become increasingly and erroneously stereotyped. According to Adichie, “...the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Adichie). During World War II, many stereotypes were applied to the Germans; while many were true for some Germans, most were not true for the German people. Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German and a Catholic, would have been dubbed an Aryan who hated Jews because of the stories that had been broadcasted showing the hatred Germans felt towards Jews. However, by the end of the war, “Schindler had saved one thousand Jews from deportation to Auschwitz,” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) the infamous concentration camp in Poland. Schindler’s wife, Emilia, helped to employ another one thousand Jewish forced laborers, who had been relocated from the Krakow ghetto in Poland.

(Yad Vashem)

If someone were to meet Schindler during the time, he or she would have been likely to stereotype him as a typical Aryan German who disliked Jews. While this would have been one story that made up Schindler’s image, it was an incomplete image that could not have been further from the truth. Those who chose to listen and accept the other stories told about Schindler, truly witnessed his complete image. The stigma that had been appointed to Germans spawned division and judgment not only through your Europe, but around the world. Unfortunately, during World War II, not enough helpful Germans were able to make their story known to the public, thus leading to their fragmented image. Just as Germans were stereotyped during the war, Arapahoe High School easily could have been stereotyped as a school with various flaws and issues after the event that occurred on December 13. The students did not want Karl’s story to be the only one publicized and made negative by the media. Rather, many students shared their stories of forgiveness of Karl and concern for his family and how, through this tough time, they would be ‘Warrior Strong’ and treat others with love and kindness. The students refused to be seen as poor, helpless victims in the eyes of their close friends outside of school.

(Pray 4 Claire Fence)

Adichie explains, “Stories have been used to dispossess and malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize” (Adichie) and through this paradox of tragedy, the students of Arapahoe utilized the power of story to change the stereotype that loomed over them. Rejection of a single story allowed the Arapahoe community to regain paradise and strength and diminish judgment and division. As technology advances, it is becoming easier for people to share their perspectives and stories on an issue. In “How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World” Clay Shirky described how people in communities and even around the world are collaborating ideas and stories to create something bigger than themselves. When Ory Okolloh and two other programmers created Ushahidi they revolutionized the way Kenyans shared their stories about the violence that occurred after disputed elections. Ushahidi has since been used to track snow in Washington, D.C. and, most famously, used in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. But the rise of Ushahidi and other forms of cognitive surplus have enabled people all over the world to share numerous different stories about one subject, area, or event.

(Knight Foundation)

As more and more people are utilizing free time, they are crafting stories to help bring unity among others. Just as the world is made up of trillions of atoms, the world is also made of a multitude of stories. And just as all these atoms are important to our existence, so are the stories that are created to make the world more understanding and complete. Without the rejection of a single story, society will never regain paradise but instead will be judgmental and divided.

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. "The Danger of a Single Story." TED.com. TED Conferences, July 2009. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story>.

Knight Foundation. N.d. Knight Blog. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2011/8/9/ushahidi-helps-bring-crowdsourcing-technology-to-132-countries/>.

Pray 4 Claire Fence, Arapahoe High School. Personal photograph by author. 2013.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Oskar Schindler." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005787>.

Ushahidi. "About Us - Ushahidi." Ushahidi. Ushahidi, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. <http://ushahidi.com/about-us/>.

Wikipedia. "Ushahidi." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushahidi>.

Yad Vashem. N.d. Yad Vashem. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://collections.yadvashem.org/photosarchive/en-us/11826.html>.