In my ASTU 100A class, we are discussing an academic article called “The Role of Interpreting Communities in Remembering and Learning” by Farhat Shahzad. It focusses on how communities contribute to the process of remembering and learning, specifically targeting the importance of teachers’ awareness of their abilities to shape their students’ understandings and perceptions of various international communities. I was shocked when I realized that according to this article, my views on everything, from complex historical events to everyday interactions, are somewhat predetermined, having already been shaped by something, such as a textbook, or someone, such as my professor.
As I processed this new information, two questions came up: 1) is it possible to learn or remember something without attaching bias to it? and 2) what is the point of learning and remembering without allowing your own perceptions and ideas to persist and interpret meaning?
These questions reminded me of a TED talk that I watched a few years ago called “The Danger of a Single Story”, by a Nigerian novelist named Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She defines a “single story” as a one-sided view of something, such as a person or place. As an example, she spoke about her experiences reading American and British children’s books at the age of four. The authors described young caucasian boys and girls with blonde hair and blue eyes drinking ginger beer. Since these were the first and only books that Adichie had seen, she assumed that all pieces of literature involved people who looked like the children described above and that she should not be able to relate to the characters. Later on, she claimed that “the discovery of African writers saved me from having a single story of what books are”. Once she read novels about the people in her own country, she realized that her perception of literature, past and present, was ignorant, having only been viewed through the eyes of American and British authors.
This point reinforces the idea that communities shape the way in which things are presented, as Shahzad discusses in her article. The community that shaped Adichie’s understanding of literature took place in the form of British and American writers. According to Adichie, “like the political and economic worlds, stories are defined by the principle of power. How they are told, who tells them, when they are told, and how many stories are told are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person”. This is where members of society who are in positions of authority, such as teachers, have to be aware of their influence on others, such as students. Peoples’ actions and the way they approach certain topics has a persisting affect on those surrounding them and can change the ways in which those being influenced view themselves and their experiences.
Coming back to my questions, the answer I have come up with, which is supported by the work of both Shahzad and Adichie, is that everything has bias, whether people intend for it to or not; it is inevitable. This inevitability shows society that the importance regarding the way in which people remember the past and learn about the present and future is exposing oneself to different viewpoints. Instead of struggling to find sources of information that are unbiased, society must accept the fact that these do not exist. Adichie mentions that the “single story” promotes the creation of stereotypes and emphasizes the differences between people opposed to the ways in which they relate to one another. Therefore, the way to avoid becoming single-minded is by treating each piece of information with caution and recognizing the fact that there is more than one side to it. In other words, open your mind to new perspectives and allow your views of the past and discoveries of the future to expand. This change in mindset can result in only one thing: endless possibilities.