I think this particular talk is something that almost anyone can relate to because of the core message in the talk – a single perspective can never conjure an unbiased, coherent narrative. She says, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” But, sometimes, racial stereotypes are almost unavoidable because of mainstream media portrayal of different people, and the same holds true for anyone.
For example, as a South Asian, the question, “Are you Indian?” is not uncommon to me. While I am Sri Lankan in reality, I do not blame people for asking so since I myself make the same mistakes when it came to identifying where a lot of my Latino and Slavic friends came from.
I can also relate to Chimimanda to a decent extent for the sole reason that I also grew up reading really popular English Kids’ books such as The Hardy Boys, The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, and since I went to a school that followed the UK System, my math problems would involve pounds and pence, and English lessons would narrate experiences utterly foreign to me.
In this day and age, there is no excuse for being culturally unaware. We have the fastest information superhighway at our fingertips. And, as artists and storytellers, it is paramount that we take the factor of cultural inclusion and sensitivity into account in our work.