READY part 2

We left off last week with a video that showed a white man asking some personal questions of a stranger, an Asian woman, and then attempting to "bond" with her through his impressive cultural knowledge (which, of course, consisted of having eaten at a Mongolian BBQ place and knowing a phrase in Korean). Her response was unexpectedly similar (though a bit exaggerated) to his line of questioning, and it brings us to a question:

What were his expectations for that interaction? I'm guessing he thought he was being worldly and open-minded, and he planned to impress her with his awareness of a culture different from his own. He thought he had her pegged. She, on the other hand, had MANY phrases about the English culture to throw back at him- and rather than be impressed that she knew so many cultural references, he was weirded out and kind of disgusted. A bit of a double-standard, don't you think?

As we ponder this, I'd like you to watch this clip of a TED Talks video featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, a Nigerian author. She tells the danger of a single story, but she's far from alone in recognizing the potential outcomes: John 8:1-11 also tells what can happen when we have only a single story (what did the Pharisees think defined the woman?). And even Hitler's propaganda about the Jews can show us what happens when we decide that a person or a group can only be defined by one narrative.

But belittling someone's story down to the point of denying their humanity and their right to live can be an extreme example (though certainly one that's relevant!). What about the other, less extreme but still very dangerous outcomes? They might include insensitivity to differences, denial of opportunities (they're all criminals; they don't deserve it), ignoring someone's voice (it couldn't really have happened that way; they just want to rewrite history), negative emotions and reactions without basis, unwillingness to help (they should just help themselves), and low expectations (Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson has a wonderful explanation of what the might look like).

So we know some of the dangers of the single story. We've started exploring how it might play out. Now let's look at groups for which we might have a lack of personal narratives: your lists may include African Americans, Native Americans, homosexuals, the 1%, transgenders, stay-at-home moms, businessmen, drug addicts, alcoholics, priests, welfare queens, soldiers, immigrants, the elderly, homeschoolers, public schoolers, etc. Single stories can be positive stories (ignoring any negatives) or derogatory, or even something you just haven't considered much (to help you clarify which is which, try to categorize Adiche's roommate's expectations of her). There is no one list for everyone. The only commonality is the low number of varying perspectives that you've been exposed to to help you understand the actions, motivations, and goals of the individuals within that group of people.

We ended with a question: What are you going to do about it?

5 Minutes of God Time: Multiplied by NeedToBreathe