Single Story

This week in class my professor showed us a video from the TV show TED talks. The video is called "The Danger of a Single Story". The speaker in the video is a writer from Africa who grew up reading American literature. 

The speaker talks about her experience moving to America and how it was different than her expectations based on the novels that she was reading. She also compares an American's expectation of her country of origin. She told a story of a student who told her that it was a shame that "all men from Africa are abusive".

When I heard this story, my eyes were immediately opened. For someone to assume that a culture does not go past what they have already heard it really shocks me. The author was also shocked by this person's misunderstanding of the country that she was born in. 

It is dangerous when people only see their own culture, which is called the "single story". A "single story" means that you are only informed about your own culture and assume other things about new cultures. An example of this is saying that every person in Africa lives in poverty.

The speaker in the video talked about her own experience with a single story when she was living in Africa. She remembers meeting her cleaning boy's family and assumed that they were poor, and that is how she labelled them. She was surprised to see that the family was very artistic and had different talents. She had forgotten to look past the label and see the family for their strengths. As a Child and Youth Worker, looking past people's labels and focusing on strengths and resilience is part of every day practice.

  I am very excited for this week because I am interviewing someone from another cultural background for an assignment. I am looking forward to learning about their story, and I will keep this video in mind as I ask questions!

As a Child and Youth Worker, I will be working with families from many different cultural backgrounds. This course is introducing me to many different cultures, and although I will not be an expert in every culture, I am taking small steps towards learning about other people's stories!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg