Post by Mr. O'Toole on Oct 14, 2015 13:20:43 GMT
8:20: But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty in the question of the single story. A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S. The political climate in the U.S. at the time was tense, and there were debates going on about immigration. And, as often happens in America, immigration became synonymous with Mexicans. There were endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.
8:53: I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara, watching the people going to work, rolling up tortillas in the marketplace, smoking, laughing. I remember first feeling slight surprise. And then, I was overwhelmed with shame. I realized that I had been so immersed in the media coverage of Mexicans that they had become one thing in my mind, the abject immigrant. I had bought into the single story of Mexicans and I could not have been more ashamed of myself.
9:25:So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.
Adichie points out that she was also “guilty in the question of the single story,” in her stereotypes about Mexicans (page 2). What is a way in which you have made assumptions or stereotypes based on a single story about a person or a group?