Chimamande Ericson's The Danger Of A Single Story

As an individual of society, most of us were probably taught to “not judge a book by its cover” or “walk a mile in someone’s shoes before you judge them”. This relates to “The Danger of a Single Story” where instead of getting to know someone, we prejudge them off what others say or what we see. Without getting to know who an individual really is or where they are coming from, we misconstrue and prejudge unjustly. Within TED Talk featuring Chimamanda Adichie’s speech “The Danger of A Single Story”, “Just Walk on By” by Brent Staples and even in my personal life, the main protagonist was falsely accused of being someone they are not. Stephanie Ericsson’s “The Ways We Lie” shows how we can use lies to alter the viewpoints of others or even our …show more content…
She said herself she was impressionable and vulnerable to stories that she read as a young girl. Once she reached college her peers had obviously been vulnerable and impressionable like young Chimamanda, basing her capabilities off her appearance and the small details they knew about her. Fellow students pitied her because of the information they knew of her country through history books or media. They assumed she was unprivileged with little knowledge or education of the world outside of Africa. Little did they know that the Adichie family had servants and were privileged, and that Chimamanda read at each opportunity she could, making her well educated. Her peers created a “single story” of her. From the minute information they knew, they assumed all people of Africa were the same; that all the people were helpless or unknowing of the real world. Even after the students got to know her, Chimamanda was still judged for not having the “African authentic” story of her life. No matter what people know of you, they will always find some way to judge you. The danger of a single story with Chimamanda was that she prejudged without even knowing her true