As discussed in Chimamanda Adichie’s Ted-Talk titled the ‘Danger of a Single Story,’ the idea of continually promoting a singular story or narrative about a group of people is damaging to society as a whole because it perpetrates unjust stereotypes and warps peoples’ ideas of reality. During Adichie’s presentation, she explained that the single story of Africa as it was known by her European roommate during university caused her to unfairly associate Adichie with ideas of cultural inferiority; for example, she believed Adichie was unable to use modern technology, listened to tribal music almost exclusively, and wouldn’t be able to speak English properly (Adichie 2009). The “single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe” (Adichie 2009) that was presented to her roommate caused her to create an unfair idea of who Adichie was before even getting to know her personally. This is the danger of a single story: they cause individuals to judge other cultures based on one singular idea, which in turn reduces the individuals of that culture down an idea that has been stripped of its humanity — in simpler terms, they become a character. In class, we discussed many ideas of this single story and the damage they have left behind.
One single story that we thoroughly discussed in class was the single story of Muslims. We especially talked about how that particular story shifted in the wake of 9/11 and how a stereotype of Muslims as they are tied to themes of terrorism and danger became even more popular. An article by Pew Research Center reaffirms this: post 9/11, this new single story heightened the fear in the eyes of many Americans which caused the assaults of Muslims to skyrocket to an all-time high, which was only surpassed during the years of 2015 and 2016 when the number of assaults rose to 127 (versus the 91 which was recorded in 2001 (Kishi 2017)). The article also notes that other forms of hate crimes, main intimidation, peaked soon after 9/11. (Kishi 2017). This theme of a single story of Muslims is continually represented by Netflix’s film (T)error, a documentary in which an FBI counterterrorism informant seeks out a radicalized Muslim who has been targeted by the government. In this documentary, the victim of the single story of Islam is a white Muslim man by the name of Khalifah Ali Al-Akili, who is targeted by informants who try to coerce him into admitting to crimes he has not been proven to have committed. For almost the entirety of this documentary, the viewer is encouraged to believe that Al-Akili is a terrorist and a dangerous man worthy of being punished. It isn’t till the end of the documentary, when a case for the innocence of Al-Akili is presented, that the viewer becomes aware of a completely different side to the story that was earlier presented: that Al-Akili is innocent and was targeted simply because of the single story of Muslims that the documentary encouraged the viewer to believe. The documentary ends with data regarding Muslims that were charged with terrorism-related crimes, and how oftentimes, these individuals were convicted with the help of FBI informants that coerced and set them up. As aforementioned, this documentary plays into the idea of the single story because it perpetuates the idea of Muslim criminality. Again, the importance of rejecting single stories is restated: a single story had the power to influence viewers to deny Al-Akili of his humanity and rather as a figure of danger. Without the second story of Al-Akili, the viewer would have held onto this unjust, undeserving, and stereotypical image of him in their minds ((T)error).
Overall, the idea of the single story is incredibly damaging to the cultures and groups of people it is ascribed to because it promotes untrue stereotypes, often influences negative perceptions, and denies those labeled under a single story of their humanity because they become reduced to a character. This was the case with Ted-Talk presenter Chimamanda Adichie in her experiences at university, and it is also the case with Khalifah Ali Al-Akili in the Netflix documentary, (T)error. Rejecting the idea of the single story is vital to pushing away from unjust stereotypes and damaging perceptions that warp peoples’ ideas of reality. As journalists, one way that single stories can be eradicated is by reporting unique stories and fresh perspectives on existing ideas — mainly, it is vital to write in a way that does not reaffirm pre-existing single stories. In doing so, society as a whole can become more accepting. As Adichie said in her Ted-Talk, “when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise” (Adichie 2009).