The Danger of a Single Story of Hearing a Single Story about Terrorism

THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY
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The Danger of a Single Story
While today’s world is characterised by numerous media with the ability to promote diverse stories within national cultures, it is surprising that there are many stories still untold. In her TED Talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers a powerful message about the dangers of hearing only a single story about a country or a person (Adichie, 2009). According to the speaker, there is a risk of a critical misunderstanding if people hear only a single story about a country or a person. An example of a story that is currently being challenged in the U.S. national culture is the association of Muslim and Arab Americans with terrorism. In this case, hearing only a single story of terrorism about Muslim and Arab Americans means that the U.S. and the world are at large risk of a critical misunderstanding of a people.
The media is perhaps the biggest perpetrator of a single story, that of terrorism, about Muslim and Arab Americans. According to Lajevardi (2020), Muslim Americans are not only being stigmatized but also face backlash in the media and the public. Ever since the 9-11 attacks, Muslims and Arab Americans have been on the receiving end of discrimination and negative perception, which peaked in 2016 during the U.S. presidential campaign (Lajevardi, 2020). During this period, presidential candidate Donald Trump called for the establishment of a database for all Muslims, a ban from entering the country, as well surveillance on their places of worship. The negative attitudes towards Muslim and Arab Americans that are largely perpetrated by U.S. media meant an increase in hostility as well as stringent measures directed at them. In an article by Kearns et al. (2019), terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims receive on average 357% more coverage compared to other attacks. With this disproportionate coverage of terrorist attacks, it is evident that the U.S. media has played a major role in shaping the story of Muslim and Arab Americans. Kearns et al. (2019) noted that media shapes how people form ideas about others and lend legitimacy to some frames and voices. Unfortunately, in the case of Arab and Muslim Americans, the media has promoted only a single story. This means that the public in America has to a great extent misunderstood Muslim and Arab Americans, and this has had a devastating impact on their lives in the country.
The story of Arab and Muslims has affected their lives in the country in many ways. As a result of being associated with terrorism, the negative views targeted at them often result in discrimination in many contexts, one of them being employment. According to Bartkoski et al. (2018), both Arabs and Muslims are perceived lowly when it comes to competence and warmth, and implicitly, they are thought of as evil, greedy, immoral, and irrational. These perceptions affect how they are treated at the workplace. As a result of the discrimination they face, their employment options and job opportunities are limited. In this sense, when a single story about a group is perpetuated, the misunderstanding of the group has some unwelcome impact.
The discrimination ag...