Stories that have not been told (image source from Wikipedia)
In TEDTalks, The Danger of a Single Story by novelist
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is by far my favorite speaker. I have seen a couple
of videos of her speaking and she is very empowering. She spoke out on how we only hear single stories
which marks a huge misunderstanding. The part where she spoke out and said, “The
single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that
they are untrue, but they are incomplete”. That line really hit me. She said it
so eloquently that it touched my soul. Growing up and now, there is still single
stories people believe to know about me. I believe that everyone experienced
some type of single story and it sucks to still say, but it is incomplete.
Growing up with my parents and being able to speak both languages,
it is sad that they still get mock or bullied by the people around us because
their English was not up to par. Now, they are able to speak and understand,
but there is still some type of language barrier because of their accents. I
remember as a child; my dad was a co-owner of his family gas station and people
would try to beat him or rob the place just because he spoke little English during that time. Being a minority with lack of English understanding, means it was an easy
target. It is hurtful that people who steal and hurt others because they decided
to pick on someone they thought was insufficient. I feel like people who do such a thing, do not
realize there is more to a person. That person has a story of a family, a
person who migrated in a boat to start a better life in America, that person sacrificed
everything for us to be happy. If everyone knew each other’s story, we would
not be in such a mess.
TEDtalks Video Link
