Page 27 - Reflections on the Danger of a Single Story

Alice Holland cont...
As far as single stories that I’ve had about others, one that jumps out at me is the sort of singular immigrant narrative that I grew up with. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and great-aunts, all of whom grew up in NYC around the 1920s-1940s and all of whom were the children of immigrants. They drew a lot of connections between their own/their parents’ experiences and those of immigrants today. In some ways, you could say this was a good thing -- if someone on TV made a negative comment about undocumented immigrants, for example, someone in my house would probably point out that my great-grandmother hadn’t had papers either, and had come super close to being deported as soon as she arrived. I think this kind of thing helped me to develop historical awareness and humility.
In other ways, the comparisons covered up some serious differences between the experiences of different immigrant groups. For instance, I heard a lot about how the Irish immigrants in my family could barely get jobs, but their children were able to move into at least the lower middle class with high school diplomas, and when I was younger, some people in my family sent me the message that the current generation of immigrant families should be able to do the same thing. Obviously, now I realize that economic evolution, changes in immigration policy, institutional racism, and other issues create barriers for contemporary newcomers that were not there for my ancestors. I think it’s important to recognize that even when intended to bring people together, single stories are dangerous because they erase the realities of people’s lives and make it harder to honor their actual lived experiences.
ALICIA HOLLAND