Adichie's TED Talk Response

In Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk, she talks about the power and danger of a single story. She starts of by explaining how, when we are children, we are vulnerable to stories and what we hear become our reality. So, what happens when we only hear one side of the story? Single stories have many unintended consequences and cause a disconnection from reality. For most of us, due to many factors, this happens with Africa. These factors include popular images depicted of Africa, western literature and other forms of media. Because of these, how we view Africa is biased and inaccurate. This is similar to the idea that Peruvians ride llamas and don’t have electricity. Again, this is a single story. These are stereotypes and stereotypes are incomplete. For this, it is very important that we break these labels and have a balanced story. In her TED talk, Adichie said, “single stories rob people of dignity and emphasize our differences”. For these reasons, I believe that it is so important that we are reading Chinua Achebe.