Social media. This is often the only source people use to have an understanding of Africa. It, however, only reveal the negative side of Africa to grab the public’s attention. Social media illustrates Africa as a poor continent with savage, brutal, and uneducated Africans even though there are countries like Mauritius that are improving their economic level and actually have a developed school system. Knowing only one story or the negativities of Africans leads to stereotyping them with those characteristics. This stereotyping causes people to be afraid of them due to possible violent actions, and maybe attack them if people believe they are in a situation of being endangered even though some Africans are unlike that. The illustration of Africa being a poor continent with uneducated people
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People will refuse to interact with Africans because they fear that Africans will have violent actions toward them for reasons such as disagreements and misunderstandings. And if they interact, people might immediately respond with disrespectful actions such as verbal and physical assaults due to fear of getting outraged. A similar situation is displayed in the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah that explains and describes his experience of surviving and being a child soldier from the military during the Sierra Leone Civil War. During his survival, villagers stereotyped teenage boys as dangerous suspects and called them “devils” due to a rumor of “seven boys” being homicidal rebels. So when villagers interacted with Ishmael and his group, they often assumed that they are rebels and attacked them. Other times, “men...keep an eye on [them]...mothers would grab their children and run home” (Beah 57). The single story in this scene is the rumor of the “seven boys” being sadistic rebels. The villagers only know specifically that a group of seven teenage boys are the rebels. Since the
People will refuse to interact with Africans because they fear that Africans will have violent actions toward them for reasons such as disagreements and misunderstandings. And if they interact, people might immediately respond with disrespectful actions such as verbal and physical assaults due to fear of getting outraged. A similar situation is displayed in the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah that explains and describes his experience of surviving and being a child soldier from the military during the Sierra Leone Civil War. During his survival, villagers stereotyped teenage boys as dangerous suspects and called them “devils” due to a rumor of “seven boys” being homicidal rebels. So when villagers interacted with Ishmael and his group, they often assumed that they are rebels and attacked them. Other times, “men...keep an eye on [them]...mothers would grab their children and run home” (Beah 57). The single story in this scene is the rumor of the “seven boys” being sadistic rebels. The villagers only know specifically that a group of seven teenage boys are the rebels. Since the