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Essay / Speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers an astonishing speech on the “dangers of a single speech”. She opens her speech by saying that she read Anglo-American children's books that always contained a narrative about blue-eyed children who grew up with a white picket fence and relatively "beautiful" lives. Over the years, Adichie began to read texts by African writers, less accessible, that she noticed that girls who look like her still have a place in literature. This revelation shook the opinions she had developed from simply understanding a simple narrative. Society may rely on misconceptions about a group of people based on what they are exposed to. Society understands these misconceptions from a perspective that has always been given to them, without considering the larger story. “A single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are false, but that they are incomplete. They make one story the only one. » Today, there are still “unique stories” when it comes to groups of people such as African Americans, Mexicans, Muslims, the poor and many more. Society does not recognize its ignorance towards these groups of people and denies the fact that they have more than one story. Chimamanda's aim is not to reprimand his listeners for lack of conscience; she wants to make it clear that these erroneous interpretations are still widespread in society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayA misconception that is still prevalent in today's society is about the African American woman in America. The media mostly portrays black women with this one “single story.” Black women have this strong perception that they are loud, too assertive, sexual, too independent, bad attitudes, angry and bossy. Therefore, this makes African American women uncomfortable when having to meet their counterparts of other races because other races rely on these stereotypes that all black women are the same. Although this may be the case for some black women, as it is for all races of women. An article titled "Black Womanhood: 'Essence' and Its Treatment of Stereotypical Images of Black Women" talks about Essence magazine providing images that contribute to stereotypes of black women. Jennifer Woodward says: “The next image is of the matriarch. She represents the image of the black woman as a mother in the black household. The Moynihan Report of the 1960s solidified this image in the minds of many Americans with the image of a controlling, emasculating black woman who dictated to her children and her man their place in her home. Woodward explains in the article that portraying African American women as matriarchs encourages the elite to blame black women for the performance or loss of black children. The elite view of white men indicates a lack of love and treatment for black children. Black women are also enigmatic and complex, and have another side that most writers don't talk about. Issa Rae wrote a book called The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl in 2015. This book is about a black woman who did not fit the common false stereotypes of a black woman. Issa was the opposite of all stereotypes and sometimes felt like she wasn't "black" enough. The character in this book was shy, timid, artistic, clumsy, mild-mannered, lacking in rhythm, and extremely clumsy. Issa Rae wrote about the struggles.