My views on people in other countries mirror the views that Adichie described in the TED Talk we viewed in class. I remember watching those T.V. commercials depicting little black kids wasting away in their mothers’ arms with captions asking for money to sponsor these poor starving children. When I was ungrateful, my mom or dad would remind me of those commercials by saying you should be very happy to have this because there are many kids in the world who have nothing. Every Christmas my mom would by three Samaritans Purse shoe boxes (one for me, my sister and brother) and fill the boxes with some of our old toys, the ones we no longer played with. When I told my Grandma about this, she would always say things like “those kids don’t need toys! Your mom should be sending them facecloths and soap and clothes.” From that I must wonder where she got the idea that every child that would be receiving a shoe box didn’t have access to clean clothes or items for personal hygiene.
I think travel and education is an effective way to work against these biases. Since there is so many misinformed people right now, people need to be educated. Publishing stories and pictures that show the real cultures of our world will help to educate the ignorant. This is already taking place in the form of art and social media. I have seen many beautiful photos from around the world that show the beauty of other cultures (dance, celebrations, fashion, food, etc.). Art is a fantastic way to open the eyes of those who are blinded by the misconceptions that have been depicted on other cultures. People have only seen what others want them to see and they don’t mind because they enjoy reading about things that are interesting or exotic to them. Seeing others suffer and viewing them as less, gives the viewers a reason to feel better about their own lives. But with the help of modern art, we can see beyond the veil of our own ignorance and glimpse the real beauty of culture and celebrate it.
On the topic of education, this need for unveiling the misconceptions of “poor countries” goes beyond media and home life. When I was in school, we participated in WE Day every year which is a large organization designed to help our youth work to save kids in third world countries. We would have school fundraisers to buy water, goats, and building materials for these kids and their families. We bought those bracelets that were advertised to fund these kids. We considered the conference an eye opener to what was going on outside our countries, but I consider it now to be more of a wasted opportunity to educate and more of a time for promotion. We didn’t know who we were funding, or where they were. We just were told something and believed it. It was so easy for use to believe everything and get onboard because of our upbringing that taught us that entire countries are living in poverty and everyone who wasn’t living in America or Europe was somehow less fortunate than ourselves.
Kumashiro, K. K. (2015). Against Common Sense. doi:10.4324/9781315765525
The danger of a single story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg