Speciety – Perspectives on Science, Politics, Education, and Society

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Stereotypes and Prejudices

Free write on the topic of stereotypes (definition, examples, anecdotes, feelings towards the
topic, etc…):

Free write on the topic of prejudices (definition, examples, anecdotes, feelings towards the
topic, etc…):

For definitions and examples, see: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/secondary-

education-resources/lesson-plan-ideas/lesson-5-prejudice-and-stereotypes
Speciety – Perspectives on Science, Politics, Education, and Society
https://speciety.wixsite.com/speciety

Ted Talk - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

Resource:
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en

1. What was surprising about the stories that Adichie wrote as a child? Why did she write them
this way?

2. What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and ___________________________

we are in the face of a story, particularly as _____________________.

3. Why was Adichie surprised that Fide’s family could create art?

4. Why does Adichie blame Western literature for the single story of Africa?

5. So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over
and over again, and ________________________________.

6. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the
__________________________________________.

7. Why didn’t Adichie have a single story of America?

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8. All of these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only these negative stories is to
_______________________ my experience and to overlook the many other stories that formed
me. The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are
untrue, but that they are _______________________. They make one story become the only
story.

9. Adichie talks about the idea of having a balance of stories. What are some example she gives
of stories that would have created this balance?

10. Write about a situation in which you fell victim to a single story. This could either be a
situation when you had a single story of another person, group of people, or place or someone
had such a single story about you. How could having a balance of stories have changed the
situation?