"Stories and how they are told, who tells them, and how many stories are told are directly related to power" was a key aspect in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Ted Talk, "The Danger of A Single Story." As she continues to explain, power is also responsible for the creation of one definitive story about a person or culture and how inaccurate that is. A person's experiences cannot be wrapped up into a neat package and no one is exactly "one story." When she continued in her speech to talk about perspectives and how they too will depict very different stories, it really hit home. As an avid reader, it will now help to shape the stories that I read and to question whether I am learning the "single story" and if so, which perspective is that story being shared from. As I teach my students in research, is the source credible? This too should reflect in the stories that we hear in the mainstream media and in publications. Is the author credible and qualified to be teaching me about this story? Furthermore, this talk will help me to pursue multiple sides to that single story to broaden my perspectives and to fully understand that person or culture and see the depth that he or she truly has before making a simple one sentence definition.
