The Danger of the Single Story

This last Sunday, we reviewed our previous week's discussion and then talked about the dangers of the single story. If you weren't there, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY encourage you to check out the video we watched from the TED Talks series, featuring Chimamanda Adiche.

A smattering of what we discussed with the video:

• Literature as social justice- legitimizes individual experiences, which then empowers people

• “poor people” are not ONLY poor

• Problems with emphasizing differences, rather than similarities

• Search out multiple stories- one solution can’t fix everything

• Power influences which stories are told and how often

• Learning multiple stories help us recognize our prejudices

• Problem with stereotypes are not that they're untrue, but incomplete

• Have to engage all the facets, all of the stories

• Literature is just one life calling, but there are MANY paths to social justice; whatever you love to do, there's a way to make it reflect justice

• Our view of the world is not the only one, nor is it the most important.

• Social justice challenges those view points, and we have to be willing to accept that in order to be relevant

• Pity does not move mountains- relationships do

Finally, we made a list of areas in need of justice (a few of which we'll talk about this upcoming Sunday), and we discussed our upcoming, ongoing service project.

 

5 Minutes of God Time: Love Does by Brandon Heath