THE DANGER OF SINGLE STORY

Before Video Discussion Questions

How is your perception influenced by the world around you?

My perception is strongly influenced by the world around me especially my
family, teacher and friend group
As we think about what influences us in daily life what stories are you told in
books, movies, pictures, in the news, or by friends and family that change our
perceptions?
All mention above can change my perception really easily especially friends.
Because of friend it change my perception easily because I’m directly with them
which made me easily understand.

After video Discussion

What stories did you grow up reading or listening to?

I listen that Africa is a poor and darker skin color is scary and not a successful
person. White people is a successful person ,a kind hearted people and charming.
Could you identify with the characters in these stories? Why? Why not?
I couldn’t identify with the characters in the stories. The characters from the stories
feel so different. They have different outer appearance than the people I have
interacted with and different thought about what I know.
Did these stories influence your perception of the world?
Yes of course, it really changes my side of perspective and I always tried to be
open minded about this world. From these stories I know that single story is
dangerous because it led some people to misunderstanding. I feel relieved that I
saw from Chimamanda perspective that its just a single story, its true but its
uncomplete.
When she said “our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping
stories”. means?
It means that we have so much story in our lives. Some story may true but there is
more story about that, it just an incomplete story. Some people did listen the story
but they just wanted to listen what they want. And just because what story we hear
it doesn’t define us at all.
How do our emotions shift when we realize there is more than a single story?
My emotion shift from “yes that is true” into shock cause I do realize that I just
know a single story which made me really mad and disappointed at myself .
How can we transcend our perceptions on other peoples’ single stories?
We can transcend our perception on other people’s single stories by make more
friend in different races and try to communicate more about their culture or travel
their country like what Chimamanda do.
How is Chimamanda Adichie able to recognize her own view of people and
move past the single story?
She was able to recognize her own view people by visiting them directly. She
started recognize when her family were told that fidd family was poor and all she
knew about fidd family is poor but when she went to the family they are a bunch of
hard worker. She also thought that most Mexico is an abject immigrant, in fact
when she visit the country it doesn’t feel like that at all. All people there are happy
and satisfied with their own culture. She realized that she’s also one of people who
believed one single story and ashamed of herself.
Write a short review on your perception of a single story
I listen the same as Chimamanda Adichie that Africa is a poor country and I just
knew that Africa is a continent not a country. I also listen that people in Africa is
starving and thirsty to death and they don’t even have enough material to get what
they need. Peoples even joke about it, but luckily nowadays people more open
minded about that issue. And I also thought that skin color is very important
because most successful person I saw is in fair skin and I never saw that darker
skin color is a successful person. Now that because I listen to her stories, I realize
we should be more open minded about other culture and other people stories.
Listen to all of the stories, not what we just wanted to hear. Because when we are
too deep into our perception it made us how small we know about this world.