My Neutral Terms

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Single Stories Reflection-
In my mind I always have had many single stories of Africa and Latin America, as do most people. Most people do not like admitting the fact that they have certain thoughts and ideas about many different countries or continents, especially the countries in Africa and Latin America. I have always thought of Africa as a very poor continent that was dirty, and one thing that comes to mind is I think of the starvation issues going on in Africa. I always think of these ramshackle huts for homes, and when thinking about Africa I used to also think about the people that live there, African Americans. When I used to think of Latin America one of the first things that immediately comes to mind is Mexico and the crime and drug related issues in that country. I have a list with some major things that used to always pop out when someone brought up the topic of Latin America. When thinking of Latin America I tend to think of Mexicans, dirty water, poor areas, illegal immigrants and also, dark skin. My thoughts on each country have changed a ton since learning more about these countries that I am actually very interested in and one day hope to visit!
As we talked about in class these terms or single stories can also be known as “neutral terms” which mean that these perspectives that I have on these two countries are not good or bad. Even though I have learned many things about both of these continents, my views and perspectives have definitely changed but I still will continue to think of my single stories even though they have changed a lot since. When learning about these two continents I realized that there were so many things I had not ever thought of and many other people too because we have always been so focuse...

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...really know about Mexico. I assume you would only really know about Mexico/ Latin America if you have lived there for years, because vacationing for a week to the nice areas of Latin America/ Mexico does not show you the true Latin America. Most people also think about illegal immigrants when it comes to certain parts of Latin America. but I think that if people were more in position or in the shoes if the immigrants they would more likely understand.
People single stories of Africa and Latin America are stopping people from amazing friendships, bonds. and even some trips. People from Africa and Latin America could be some of the nicest people someone could ever meet, but because of these single stories people are afraid to go out and do things. These single stories are leading to racism and these single stories are also creating tensions between certain countries.

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