Page 6 - Reflections on the Danger of a Single Story

Iremember watching this TED Talk a few years ago and I have to say that it still resonates with me. Growing up in a strict immigrant household, I often heard single stories about others. My dad worked as a taxi driver in NYC and he had so many negative experiences with passengers that would refuse to pay him, get drunk and throw up in his car or even attack him and so he often internalized these experiences and agreed with many of the single stories that were out there about different types of people. However, it wasn’t until high school that I met someone with a single story about me.
In high school, I met my current best friend, who is a European immigrant, and we clicked immediately because we had similar core values and familial structures. She came from Albania and my family was from Colombia, our backgrounds couldn’t be more different. As our friendship progressed she would share with me that her parents didn’t want her to get too close to me because I might influence her. This was so confusing to me because I was an honor student that didn’t do drugs or hang out, basically I was a “good girl.” We spoke further about this and she would reference my long painted fake nails and my big hoop earrings as things her parents wouldn’t approve of if they ever met me. Those things would only affirm the stereotype they had of Latinas. In addition, being Colombian also brought the added burden of a past and present tainted with drug trafficking.
Anytime I have been in a space that is predominately white and I mentioned I was Colombian, everyone would immediately refer to Pablo Escobar. Growing up it was funny, but as an adult I realize that this single story about Colombians is actually pretty dangerous because you don’t want to be associated with these types of things, especially if you are a law abiding citizen.
I’ve definitely had single stories about others, but I’ve been learning to see the person as an individual first. Where I grew up, there are a lot of Central Americans, mostly Mexicans that live and/or work in the area. On a daily basis, walking home I would see men that appeared to be Mexican passed out on the street from drinking or I would have to deal with them hitting on me or my sister. Over time I just began to believe that all Mexican men did the same thing because that was all I saw. It was also very easy to separate my culture from theirs and think, Colombians are not like that, but Mexicans are. Over time, I met amazing Mexican men and women in school, in activism events and in my school. I realized that I had put all Mexican men in this category, when really that was just a small subset. The majority of Mexican men are hardworking individuals with families that they are trying to support and children they are trying to raise; they are just like my dad.
HEILLY