When I watched this video I, like many others most likely, instantly related to what Adichie was talking about. I was really interested in what she was saying about American's perspective of Africans. It is true that so many are suffering and many wars are continuously happening, but they are people. And American people seem to instantly feel bad for those living in Africa. And I admit that I also sometimes only see one veiw of Africa and many other places, people and things, but after seeing this I can now really start trying to realize that there is just more than one story. It occured to me that Americans seem to have an instant bias towards foreigners. Like Adichie said even she veiwed Mexicans as only being suffering immigrants, but when you truly look at their country they are people just like the people in America. In my opinion these thoughts of foriegners has a lot to do with medias output on the subject. For alot of us, media is our only source to see our outside world. And unfortunatley it truly only gives us one story.
I believe that the danger of only hearing one single story is everywhere. It is important to hear more than just one story on a subject. This relates back to our discussion we had in class about Texas textbooks. I kept referring back to this in my mind while watching this video clip because like Adichie said it is so important for us to hear more than just one story, and that is what we did in class. I really enjoy discussions like that and I think that it is not only beinifiting us as students but also as humans. At some point we have all fallen short to the danger of only hearing one story, but if we all attempt to broaden our horizens and read more litterature and listen to more than one news channel, hopefully I along with others can start to escape from the danger of only hearing one story.
Great ideas Sloth :D
ReplyDeleteI definitely can relate to what you were talking about with the people in Africa. Whenever someone mentions Africa, I automatically revert back to those sad ads that you see on TV about the starving, HIV infected, kids there. The fact is, the people of Africa are not all poverty-stricken and helpless. They are people too, and we need to look past the single story that we see and look at them as human beings, just like us. I also agree with your idea about how much media influences our perspective of foreigners. What we see and what we hear, often become what we believe, because we have nothing to compare it to.
You made a great response to that video, and I enjoyed reading it. The way you presented your information made sense, which mad it easier to for me to understand as a reader.
Love ya.
-Chunk
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ReplyDeletelisa dude,
ReplyDeleteyour right. people are not just poor, or lame, or whatever we think, they are also people with a personality and thougths and we should not just write them off. they deserve the same respect we want. i can tell from your blog that you deeply understood the video you watched and put alot of thought into it.and i can also see how this video related to the inclass debate we had. both the articals and the video see to deal with important things that you put alot of thought into LISA KEEP ON ROCKING
Ya i also have fallen for the one story of Africa. The media portrays Africa as a violent poverty stricken continent(almost typed country) all the time and it makes it difficult to see past all those negative focuses and see what the continent is truly like. It is not just a continent full of civil war and death; it is full of wonderful people. They are not a barbaric or primitive people; they have a rich culture and are very similar to us. In short, just like you said, they are people and I completely agree with what you said in your post. I just needed to draw it out to make 150 words. Good job.
ReplyDeleteGood job hamelcamel your post made me watch the video and i think you hit the main points very well. When you talk about Americans only hearing one story about a certain tragic event that happened you tend to focus on the negatives of it. I admit that my image of the majority of Africa has been heavily influenced by the stories and images of one newspaper who is probably more interested on profit more than the truth. Its really sad when you think about such a culturally rich and a truly beautiful continent is being over shadowed by the gross corruption and civil war when there is really so much more that Africa can offer. So kinda sad : ( but you did a good job : ).
ReplyDeleteKeep it gangster thug :o
i really enjoyed reading what u wrote. i do agree with you a lot about the dangers of one story. we all do judge people already when we hear one story about them and we may feel sorrow for them. and i have to admit i do feel bad too about the people in africa sometimes but now i can see that there are so much more out there that they do and have. Africa is such a beautiful continent that most of us dont see. because we are so focused on the bad things that are going on we forget about how beautiful it can really be also. so i believe u are completely right! :)
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