Did I read this before?
YES! I remember this from the beginning of my first semester orientation week. In Chimamanda Adichie’s Ted talk, she discusses her own personal struggle regarding her own cultural background and her identity as a black woman from Africa. The main problem that she conveys is the problem with the perspective of people on someone else. This perspective can be limited as she described as a single story. The problem of having a limited perspective is its cause in the ignorance of other cultures and people. This lack of perspective came with historical foundation dated back during the colonial age where European powers colonized the African continent. The effects of colonization had a negative impact on African cultures. Not only it imposed western ideology but also ignorance such as African aren’t civilized through misinformation to their own culture. It had a long-standing influence till today where we still have such negative and single viewpoint on a certain culture.
The reason why I asked myself if I read this piece before is I want to emphasizes that this is related to all of us. As a part of the NYU Shanghai community, I have the opportunity to explore other cultures and we should take this opportunity for granted and appreciated it. Since we had this opportunity, we should take on a role to solve the problem that Chimamanda Adichie is addressing during her speech.