The problem of the single story

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Such a great talk from TED about the problems of single stories. How they breed stereotypes and although stereotypes are not always bad, they are usually incomplete. I remember in Freedom writers, a good speech about how the Nazi's started printing cartoons of Jews in newspapers as a way to point out the differences between people. Its the undermining of people in stories which is the thing which holds us back.

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Author: Ianforrester

Founder and firestarter of cubicgarden ltd. Emergent technology expert, public service supporter, defender of human scale flourishing, city dweller, European at heart  and social geek event organiser. Captivated by the digital legacy, future of dating, human data interaction, self-hosing, personal data, open-source, house music, neurodiversity thinking, kindness and  collaborative futures for all. Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io