The single story

            Adichie’s message is a strong one, she talks about something that many of us do without even thinking about it. What many people do in life is that they create the single story, Adichie describes the single story as what people do when they stereotype and follow only what they have heard or seen on platforms such as the media. When you show or see people as only one thing; this one thing is what they become. She shows many good examples of this because this single story method is how people viewed her culture, but that the best example was when she herself had fallen victim to stereotyping a certain group of people via the single story method. When she went to Mexico she had already had a predetermined image of how this country is supposed to be according to what she had heard and seen on the television and what she had read in books.

            To Adichie’s surprise when she went to Mexico she witnessed people having fun, enjoying life and doing things which people from many other countries do. Adichie had felt a certain amount of guilt because the same treatment which her roommate had given her, Adichie had now behaved in the same ignorant manner. This is something which I feel that we do a lot of as Americans, I feel that as Americans we have a predetermined train of thought on many different cultures without knowing the big picture. We also tend to look down upon many other cultures and tend to portray that these other countries would not be able to strive if it were not for the help of our country.

            For this reason I tend to blame many of our listening skills which has caused us to view the world in this manner. In our text, I am drawn to the description of a certain type of listening which I would like to use more often; the text refers to it as “real listening”.” Real listening is based on the intention to understand someone, enjoy someone, learn something, and give help or solace” (messages pg., 6). I think that if we are to understand other cultures and nations in this world we need to understand and learn from the things that we hear about these places; we cannot just “listen for one specific piece of information and ignore everything else”. The media takes a big role in this type of learning because many times the media showcases the wrong with many places instead of the good in order to pursue certain political agendas. This type of listening behavior also falls into certain blocks which are also mentioned in our text; listening skills like “filtering and judging” can be at the root of the cause for what Adichie calls the single story.

            When you are judging someone, something or someplace you are “prejudging something as stupid or unqualified, you do not pay much attention to what this certain thing might be about” (messages pg.10). It is hard to see outside of what is in front of you when you have the single story mentality. I think that Adichie does a great example of showing us that this type of mentality will hold people back from truly seeing the world for what it is.

            I have to admit that many times I also think of the world in a single story way, I have many times thought of Mexico as a country where there is a lot of desperation and crime, I did not think about all of the people that are happy in this country and proud citizens. I also thought of Nigeria as country of extreme poverty and filled with disease, I did not think about all of the scholars which a country like Nigeria has produced.

 Reflecting on myself I do feel a bit ashamed because as a Hispanic American I know that some people might view me in the single story method, people do not know my accomplishments but they might view me in a certain way based on the way that I look. I can actually recall being quite frustrated because in the past many people in Texas think that because you speak Spanish that this must automatically mean that you are Mexican; not realizing that there is a vast amount of Spanish speaking countries. It is a stereotype which I am very much aware of yet I have fallen victim to the single story way of thinking myself. I think that Adichie has been able to open up my mind in her speech and made me more aware of the way that I listen and process information. Adichie’s message is important and should be heard by everyone.

 

Reference

Mckay, M., & Davis, M. (2009). Public Skills. In Messages, The Communication Skills Book (pp. 285-287). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.