In my Communication Among Cultures class this semester, we have been discussing the stereotypes that are relied on because we expect and assume particular things from a group or individual. We learn these stereotypes through the media, our family, peers, teachers, past experiences, and systematic historical, political, and social constructs.
As a society, we establish a social identity that contributes to this sense of a single story. As we socialize, we begin to group ourselves as we compare and contrast ourselves to others. Social identities mean we are not just someone, but we are something or someone in relation to others within our same grouping. This grouping provides for a dominant and non-dominant group. Those who are dominant are the privileged. This can be based on color, class, gender, education, etc. Those who have privilege are often contributing to the single story of the non-dominant group.
Another topic to bring up when discussing and thinking about the single story that gets created when stereotypes are spread and enforced is diversity. At what point do we become diverse enough to eliminate a single story? Or is diversity overused and sought after in the wrong way? A good article to take a look at is “Has ‘Diversity’ Lost Its Meaning?” https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/magazine/has-diversity-lost-its-meaning.html
This article discusses how the term diversity has a disconnect to the inclusion that it should stand for. To avoid the single story that has been made to represent a group, but the term diversity has lost its power in the current political/social stance of our society, how can these stereotypes be avoided?
This video was my favorite out of the three pieces we discussed in class that day. To answer your question about how stereotypes can be avoided is to have an open mind, research, and try to meet people in different groups. Some stereotypes are made in order for political gain. For example, Trump calling all Latino immigrants criminals. Another example is when politicians call Syrian refugees terrorists. Simple Google searches and conversations combat these stereotypes. The difficult part is trying trying to make people have an open enough mind to actually try and fix their problematic beliefs. We have not talked about this explicitly yet, but inclusion follows a lot of the same principles: being open-minded and letting marginalized identities have a voice in the conversation.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj3VDvbmMJs
Going off of the conversation point earlier, this video illustrates what happens when people who view others with fear and/or single stories can open themselves up and just treat each other like actual fellow human beings. This is the power of meeting someone that is considered to be from a diverse population and just being open and listening. A beautiful friendship can be formed. The real question is not how to get rid of these stereotypes or single stories, but how can we get people to open up their minds enough to let them combat it on their own.
I really enjoyed Adiche's TED talk. It's one that I had watched prior in a world literature class prior to reading Things Fall Apart, written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Her ideas and words about making sure that we do not look at things from one sole perspective helped remind me just how importance telling stories in the first place is. Her early exposure to stories about white men eating apples created that story in her mind and for a time erased the ones she would have created if only she had focused on the things around her.
ReplyDeleteThis is why it's so important to tell stories, many stories, not only so that we can finally speak but so that those who don't know can finally listen. It's equally if not more important to listen. Listen to the stories that others have to tell us and let them erase the single stories in our mind. Doing so would help us broaden our understanding of the world that is not directly in front of us and help bring back some of the culture that our single stories erase.
I agree with your point that as a society Americans contribute to "single stories," especially when it comes to the immigration debate. I think it's important to note, though, that a lot of other Americans are working very hard to dispel the Trumpian story that all immigrants are drug addicts, rapists and murderers. For example, the Mollie Tibbetts case about a month ago.
ReplyDeleteWhen information was released that an undocumented immigrant abducted and killed Mollie Tibbets in July, opponents of the current immigration policy, including major politicians such as Pres. Trump and Vice Pres. Pence, used her death to push their anti-immigration agenda forward at full speed. They, and many other likely-conservative Americans, claimed her murder would have never happened if a "broken system" didn't allow immigrants into the country. The White House went even further, putting a video on Twitter that showed families whose loved ones were killed by undocumented immigrants with the caption "The Tibbetts family has been permanently separated. They are not alone." Trump also used the murder to justify building the wall, of course.
In response to their daughter’s murder, the Tibbetts family could have poured massive amounts of fuel on the flame against immigration. However, they instead chose to speak out against America’s single story on immigrants. In a column written for the Des Moines Registrar, Rob Tibbetts, Mollie's father, said the following:
"The person who is accused of taking Mollie’s life is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people. To suggest otherwise is a lie."
By rejecting the American single story of immigrants, Rob Tibbetts used the principles Adichie outlined in her TED talk. Instead of robbing immigrants of dignity, or emphasizing differences, which Adichie said that single stories do, Rob Tibbetts pushed past stereotypes. Adichie said that one is able to “regain paradise” when single stories are rejected. By speaking out, Rob returned paradise to the immigrant community in the United States and silenced the single story immigration debate … at least for now.
I really enjoyed Adiche's TED talk as well. This wasn't the first time i had come across the speech but it one i definitely it remember fondly. I know the impact of perceiving others through the lens of a single story because it is how i was preceived to others around myself and how some precieved me through preconceived ideas and notions whether it came out of a book, television show or movie. We had existing stories that told us what to expect from an individual and potentially shapes how we interact with that individual and this is problematic because when we do this we assume things about the other person such as who they are or what they are like and its wrong to this based on one persons story or encounter. As im sure we are all well aware of people all interact with each other differently do to a variety of reasons such as the environment they are in, or the relationship they have with that person However whatever the reason those variables can change how a person may interact so to do Adiche's TED talk justice i think we should keep this in mind when meeting with others for the first time and hearing their stories.
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