Every so often, we choose to use space on our blog to post issues, topics, etc. that are extremely noteworthy. The following video of Novelist Chimamanda Adichie, is an important piece where she talks about "The Danger of a Single Story." In this particular video, Adichie talks about how:"Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. [She] tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."
Adichie's talk was completely on point as she touched upon how we are in danger of creating one story to define who we are, as well as others. The talk was empowering and we especially appreciated these following quotes from her speech:
"All of these stories make me who I am, but to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that form me."
"The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but, that they are incomplete. They make one story become the whole story."
"Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people but stories can also repair that broken dignity."
Destroy Stereotypes!!
Are you a Cut It Out! Girl?!
xo
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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1 comment:
thank you so much for sharing! I am ever so grateful to my parents for seeking out childrens books that had brown girls in them like me. We forget how impressionable children are. We forget how impressionable we ADULTS are if we don't expand our horizons and seek out a fluid, multidimensional version of every story. Good post! Thanks for sharing :-)
aisha
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