Chrsetina Shammo
Professor Kristin McGregor
English 120/020
05 October 2017
True or Not
“Every single person on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them? The truth might surprise you” (The Coach). Engaging TedTalk of “The Danger of a Single Story” was given in England by the Nigerian writer and novelist Chimamanda Adiche’s. In her speech, she describes how a single story is dangerous throughout her life and how her life changed throughout telling a story. Her message was to college student which was her audience. There are stories that can be changed by telling the true story. She claims that reality is not a single story told by others. She supports her claim by mentioning a lot of stories throughout her novel. She uses her personal example to tell us, that we judge people through what we heard about them before we know them closely. Similarly to Adichie's stories, there is another story called “Just Walk on by” by Brent Staples. Who was having a problem because of his skin color
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There is always something that we can change the way you think or make you think about. Always people treat you different when they know that you not from that country. For this reason, “my first away from my hometown, I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear” (Staples). In other words, only because he was black and there are always white people around him. He became more familiar with them because he knows what they are going to do when they see him. Racism can start everywhere like what happens to him when he went to the store. Staples said, “I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent Near Northside.” When he was in the store, there was a woman that she was afraid of him and she sends her dog to him because she was scared. Racism can be dangerous everywhere because of the way people think about each other’s and heard about that
Both authors have some of the same experience when it comes to racism and they don`t understand. Staples says “I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear. At dark. Shadowy intersections. “I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver— black, white, male, or female — hammering down the door locks.” Laymon has a similar experience when “we got close to Shonda`s Saturn and one of the men says. “Kiese write about this!” Then another voice calls me a “Nigger” and Shonda a “nigger bitch” I think and feel a lot but mostly I feel that I can’t do anything to make the boys feel like they`ve made us feel like right there.” After reading these experiences both authors have a sense of fear from the side effects of racisms.
Racism causes Walter’s to think different about the world. As a teen Walter started to realize racism would always be apart of his life. At school Walter only found white authors and white people that made history. Cabs didn’t stop for “colored” people so the had to take the train. “We did not get many yellow cabs coming to the street, because downtown cabs did not stop for black people” (Page 59).
Racism is not only a crime against humanity, but a daily burden that weighs down many shoulders. Racism has haunted America ever since the founding of the United States, and has eerily followed us to this very day. As an intimidating looking black man living in a country composed of mostly white people, Brent Staples is a classic victim of prejudice. The typical effect of racism on an African American man such as Staples, is a growing feeling of alienation and inferiority; the typical effect of racism on a white person is fear and a feeling of superiority. While Brent Staples could be seen as a victim of prejudice because of the discrimination he suffers, he claims that the victim and the perpetrator are both harmed in the vicious cycle that is racism. Staples employs his reader to recognize the value of his thesis through his stylistic use of anecdotes, repetition and the contrast of his characterization.
Chimamanda Adichie, in one of her eye-opening speeches, The Danger of a Single Story, provides the audience with a new insight into the negative impacts that can occur as a result of viewing a story from a single perspective and not putting in an effort to know it from all available viewpoints. Adichie in her simple, yet well-grounded speech, filled with anecdotes of her personal experiences effectively puts across her argument against believing in stereotypes and limiting oneself to just a single story using a remarkable opening, the elements of logos, pathos and ethos, repetitions, as well as maintaining a good flow of thoughts throughout the speech.
Even so, his persona shines through with his point of view and recollection of past events of racial profiling he experienced. For example, he mentions that he was suffering from insomnia and, thus, would walk the streets at night, and when he faces the contempt of fellow pedestrians, he points out that he “was stalking sleep, not defenseless wayfarers” (Staples 542). With this in mind, it shows the reader that he is trying to defend himself against all the derision that society throws his way. Likewise, Staples’ persona can be seen as desperate, yet it can also be seen as angry and frustrated. As seen from his point of view, Staples indicates his helplessness and frustration in the way that he has no control over how the people of society view him; all he can do is try to act and coax people into believing he means no harm- the truth. Unfortunately, society still had a strong grip on stereotypes and judged and presumed the worst of him. In this case, by using his point of view, he gives the audience his insight of the cruel position he is in which gives him the credibility to show how racial profiling dominates in society against African Americans like himself. In the same fashion, Staples also uses anecdotes to show his difference between him and the stereotypical portrayal of an African American that society gives. One
In Brent Staples’ opinion, causes of racism are derived from fear and the insufficient knowledge that a person might have about another that may cause them to be racist. In his piece, he writes, “Another time I was on assignment for a local paper and killing time before an interview. I entered a jewellery store on the city’s affluent Near North Side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of the leash. She stood, the dog extended toward me, silent to my questions, her eyes bulging nearly out of her head. I took a cursory look around, nodded, and bade her good night.” (Staples 227) This quote shows that the woman that owned the jewellery store was afraid that she might get robbed by Staples and therefore acted by protecting herself with her vicious dog, with the intention to scare away the “robber”, whom she believed to be Brent Staples. She assumed that because she was in an affluent neighbourhood and because Brent Staples was black, he was there with the intention to rob her rather than the true reason, which was to kill some time prior to his next interview. She showed prejudice and racism towards Staples because of she was afraid of his skin colour and did not have true information about him.
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
In 2009 Chimamanda Adichie gave a TED talk about the ‘danger of a single story’. A single story meaning, one thought or one example of a person becoming what we think about all people that fit that description, a stereotype if you will. In today’s America, I believe that we have all felt the wave of stereotypical views at some point or another. Adichie gives many relatable examples throughout her life of how she has been affected by the single story. Her story brings about an issue that all humans, from every inch of the earth, have come to understand on some level. A young child reading only foreign books, a domestic helper that she only perceived as poor. Her college roommates single story about Africans and her own formation of a single
Racism affects everyone on Earth since people are all different. Leslie Marmon Silko wrote an essay called Fences Against Freedom. She was a person of mixed-ancestry who has faced racism very closely from childhood to adulthood. Early on She recalls being rejected from some school pictures, later as an adult, she was pulled over by Border Patrol officers all because of her ancestry. Leslie Marmon Silko points out that there is no race, but human race and; hence, racism should not exist. Silko was raised in her hometown where racism did not exist at all; people judged others by behavior and not by skin color, religion or origin. Nevertheless, coming out of her hometown environment racism was evident. People’s interactions were driven by attending to skin color, creed, ancestry and other biases. Racism affects everyone in the United States from foreigners to natives, as presented by Leslie Marmon Silko’s feelings of pride, disappointment, sympathy and anger as she confronts racism in the United States.
In the short story Walk Well, My Brother the author, Farley Mowat, develops the idea that a significant experience can lead to a change in how one individual views another individual. The story shows us how a person can learn from another person that is very different from them and be moved by their selflessness into becoming a better person. It also shows us how important it is for people not to judge others for superficial reasons.
America has been thought of as a place represented by fairness, mixed culture, power and the dream of having a better life for everyone, whether a person is white, black, brown, and yellow. However, the truth is that racial groups have been segregated by the white-centric media or government of the American society, and that has widened the psychological and geographical distances between the two groups, Asian and black, and has encouraged ignorance and hatred. On the other hand, there are many conflicts between Asian and Black, due to their different cultures, experiences, and educational backgrounds. From the book Native Speaker, we can see how these different cultures, powers and identities deepen Asian-black mistrust, misunderstanding and ignorance, and sometimes these irreconcilable conflicts develop into hate-crimes.
The danger of a single story is that you miss out on the full picture. When a single story is told, there are many more stories, beauties, and knowledge that is left out. A single story will put individuals in an ignorant mindset, where they only know what they have been fed. This relevant to my study abroad because there is more to Cape Town, South Africa than one story. The one story mindset eliminates curiosity and the yearn to learn. It is a diminishing and dismissive mindset. We should not have
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
Watch this Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en (Links to an external site.)
Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or to intimidate. For Staples fear is the constant emotion rattling in his head every time he simply passes by someone. “Just Walk on By” — by Brent Staples, discusses the on going problem of being considered a possible threat to those around him. Although Staples arouses fear everywhere he steps foot, Mr. Staples also is fearful himself because of the reaction he causes due to his ethnic inheritance. He lives in a world where any black man or person of color is perceived as a imitate danger. Staples has a reason to be fearful as he is in a never ending nightmare filled with hate. The sense of fear he experiences