A521.2.3.RB - The Danger of a Single Story


McKay, Davis, and Fanning (2009) stated that human communication can be broken down into four categories of expression: observations, thoughts, feelings, and needs.  Observations are reports about what our senses tell us without any explanation, inference, or conclusion.  They include things that we see, hear, read, or personally experience. Thoughts occur when our minds attempt to synthesize our observations and draw conclusions from what we have observed.  Value judgements, beliefs, opinions, and theories are examples of thoughts. Feelings are experiences of emotion.  They are not observations, value judgements, or opinions (McKay, Davis, & Fanning, 2009).  Needs are statements about what helps or pleases us.  

When all four categories of expression are combined into single messages they are known as whole messages (McKay, Davis, & Fanning, 2009).  Whole messages are what we observe, think, feel, and need.  When one of those four types of expression is left out of a message it is called a partial message.  Partial messages can be confusing to the people with whom we are attempting to communicate because it may not be clear why we are expressing our needs or what we are feeling.

Adichie (2009) suggested that we are incredibly vulnerable and impressionable in the face of a story.  In a 2009 TED Talk she presented a compelling message in which she suggested that single stories can produce stereotypes.  In a personal example she said that when she was a young girl in Nigeria her parents followed the common local practice of hiring a young boy as a live in domestic helper.  The only thing Chimamanda knew about Fidi was that he came from a very poor family. If she struggled to finish the food on her plate her mother would say something like “finish your food!  Don’t you know that people like Fidi’s family have nothing!” She said that one Saturday they went out to visit Fidi’s family in their village. His mother showed them a beautiful basket that his brother had made.  “I was startled” she said, “It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they were. So it became impossible for me to see them as anything but poor” (Adichie, 2009).  She had developed a stereotype because of the single story her mother had told her about Fidi and his family. “The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. . . . It emphasizes how we are different, not how we are similar” (Adichie, 2009).

I have experienced this same phenomenon of the single story.  When I was about twenty years old I was living in Phoenix, Arizona.  I became close friends with an individual who had recently moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  I had never met anyone from Louisiana, and I had really only heard “a single story” about the people.  This was shortly after the movie “The Waterboy” came out and I believe that my preconceived notion about people from Louisiana was pretty consistent with Adam Sandler’s character in that movie.  I remember asking my new friend if he had travelled to school in a swamp boat. I was amazed to discover that he did not live in an old run down house on a bayou, he had all of his teeth, and his english was about as intelligible as mine.  (Ironically, I moved with my wife and children to Louisiana in 2007 and have been here since!). The single story that I had heard all my life about Louisiana influenced my thinking and understanding.

Adichie (2009) employs the four categories of expression in her presentation: observation, thought, feeling, and need. She mentioned that the only thing she had heard about Fidi was that his family was very poor. She indicated that in her mind she concluded that people as poor as Fidi’s family must not be able to make or produce anything of quality.  She describes feeling startled that his brother was able to make such a beautiful basket. The implied need from her message is the importance of discovering more than just one single story. If she had heard more than just the fact that Fidi’s family was poor, the stereotype that she had experienced may have been avoided.  Adichie’s (2009) presentation is a whole message; it includes expressions of observation, thought, feeling, and need.

Adichie (2009) summed up her presentation by suggesting “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.  They make one story become the only story.” Just as one incomplete story can lead to confusion and stereotypes, incomplete messages that do not include the four categories of expression lead to confusion and incomplete communication.


References

Adichie, C.N. (2009). The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

McKay, M., Davis, M, & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: The Communication Skills Book. Oakland, California. New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

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