Single Stories

Week 3: Cultural Humility & Diversity
Student’s Name
College/University
Course
Professor’s Name
Due Date
I made several assumptions earlier in the course about my classmates concerning their families’ socioeconomic status. I was naïve to let the concept of perceived status control most of my interactions with classmates. I assumed some of my classmates came from poor social backgrounds because of their seemingly “low-status” behaviors, including submissive posture and verbal messages of compliance, acceptance, and agreement. In this vein, my classmates demonstrated many negative activities like taking a passive role in group work, avoiding offering insights during classroom engagements and portraying less confrontational mannerisms. In this vein, I was trapped in the negative influences of a “single story” that led to the misunderstanding or lack of sound information concerning my classmates’ status in the community (Nieto & Boyer, 2006). In this vein, my assumptions were subconsciously based on malicious intent to suppress other groups of people because of prejudice.
The “single stories” have changed with new information because I have learned to avoid making assumptions and generalizations about groups of individuals. After listening to Adichie’s story, I understood why people make generalizations. Reflecting on her childhood, she recollects how her college roommate held a misleading position of “well-meaning pity” towards her because of the prejudice that people from Africa are from poor and struggling backgrounds. Adichie also faulted herself for being influenced by the “single story” trap made wrong assumptions about others. In this vein, I have learned not to operate from the single-story perspective unconsciously solely. The risk of one perspective, or the single story, is t...