Observing the single story
Reflections on a Chimamanda Adichie Ted Talk
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a remarkable storyteller. The ted talk where she speaks on the dangers of a single-story narrative left me in awe and so many of her words resonated with me so much so that I immediately began thinking about all the times I witnessed the dangers of a single story.
Let me tell you about just one example of the dangers of the “single story” narrative that I witness way too often.
I work part-time as a cashier at a retail store and part of my job is to answer incoming calls, and this essentially makes me a receptionist as well. I am stationed at the entrance of the store, so this also means that I am the eyes of the store and I see everyone that enters.
On days where the store is not that busy, I would just sit and observe the environment. I would observe customers, the products and anything just to watch the time pass or as a break between peak periods. I watch different people from different backgrounds and cultures enter the store, some who come to buy, window shop or even just to enquire about a certain product.
On most days where I don’t have any issues or problems I sit, and I do my job and serve our customers but then there are also days where I would receive a frantic call from a line within the store. I know you’re probably already wondering what “call” I’m referring to.
My managers sits at the back in the office and they watch the floor via the security cameras and often they would call to the front whenever they saw a black or coloured person wearing a hood or cap and baggy pants entering the store they call me and I am then told to be “alert” or to follow them around the store or press the panic button and when it is more than one person I am told to call mall security and all because they looked like they might steal something or how they would say “try their luck”.
I can guarantee that this has never happened when a white customer entered our store wearing the exact same attire.
Now imagine entering a store and you immediately become a suspect. Imagine going about doing your shopping and suddenly 2 or 3 staff members are following you around watching your every move and with this making you feel all kinds of uncomfortable. All because you “look” like you’re going to steal something.
I just keep asking myself how associating crime with how a person looks can ever be justified and I often wonder if my managers are just blatantly racist. Then I think about all the stories I read when I was younger and even the books we read at school. Whenever there was an illustration of someone doing wrong or in other words “the bad guys” it was an image of a black or person of colour and they would wear certain attire. They would usually be wearing a hood or a disguising cap or baggy pants and a dark jacket.
I imagine it being like this for many children living in South Africa and even the world and because of this misrepresentation at a young age we already taught to associate crime with certain clothing and a colour of skin.
We need to continuously push the boundaries to shift this narrative so that the younger generation does not have to experience a single story of any place or culture and like Adichie says, we will regain a kind of paradise.
