“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 only story“.
This quote is from a TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is a Nigerian, highly talented and popular writer, and Purple Hibiscus and Half of A Yellow Sun rank amongst my top novels of all time.
The TED Talk is titled “The Danger of a Single Story“, and it has amassed over thirty-nine million views on YouTube.
In times when it’s all too easy to make judgements which rely on stereotypes presented to us by social media or mainstream media about others; about people of other countries, ethnicities, religions, genders or even political opinions, it’s vital for societal cohesion that we don’t rationalise away the complexity of our thoughts, the depth and richness of our experiences, or the values we uphold, to a single story.
