A521.2.3.RB - Danger of Stories
by
Terrance Le Shore
A ePortfolio Blogger Assignment
Submitted to the Worldwide Campus
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
of Course MSLD 521, Leadership Communication,
of Course MSLD 521, Leadership Communication,
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
October 2015
October 2015
A521.2.3.RB - Danger of Stories
The speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, begins by telling us
a story about what she would write about as a child. She would write stories
that were similar to the foreign stories she would read which contained white
skinned children with blue eyes, nothing like her. Until she found African
stories is when she realized that people like her could be in stories.
Chimamanda Adichie warns of
misconceptions from just one story about a people or nation. She says a single
story can deny some people their humanity, complexity. She cites how Africa,
America, the poor have been stereotyped this way. Mrs. Adichie found her own voice
when she stopped imitating books she read as a child.
She then goes to say, “Show people as one thing and one
thing only over and over again and that is what they become.” That is the
consequence of the single story about a person, place, or issue. I agree that
the single story makes the differences in people stand out and the single story
is an incomplete description.
The words you say are less than 10% of the message. (Whalen, 2007) Chimamanda
Adichie didn’t just give an oral presentation,
she showed the Power of speaking. Chimamanda
Adichie tells stories about white skinned
children with blue eyes that looked nothing like her to an auditorium full of
the same white skinned children with blue eyes she read about. And she was able
to give a look into a story that that they may not have heard.
She did it with an attitude and tone that was not looking
for pity for those that are seen in only one story, but to inform and educate
that are many complex stories in each character. Mrs. Adichie used her
narrative to challenge new ideas and ways of thinking of people and situations
out side of the stories we think we know. (Denning, 2011) There wasn’t always a common
link between her protagonist, but there was a common idea to her springboard:
learn more then a single story.
References
Adichie, C. (2009, July 01). The danger of a single story. Retrieved
October 29, 2015, from TEDTalks: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's guide to Storytelling. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
McKay, Ph.D., M., Davis, Ph.D., M., & Fanning, P. (2009). Messages
The Communication Skills Book. Oakland, California: New Harbinger
Publications.
Whalen, D. J. (2007). The Professional Communications Toolkit.
Thousands Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
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