Essay About Single Story

Have you ever been slated unjustly into a group that you don’t represent? Have you ever been stereotyped due to this? Well this is all due to the dangers of looking at a single story, judging someone by their appearance and background rather than getting multiple perspectives of a person’s life and judging them that way. Sadly, in today’s world the single story is an ever-prevalent trap that is so easy to become caught in. Though in life there is an unending supply of examples to contradict the single-story trap. For example, my high school was a big patron of having foreign exchange students, and I have firsthand experiences with students from Japan, Nigeria, Belgium, and the Philippines. And with that experience I can tell you that most of the “single stories” that defined these students did not apply. The most powerful example of this was the Nigerian student named Joy, who not only spoke perfect English (and read it perfectly too) but her Parents worked for the UN (Which surprised a lot of people at my school). She was very helpful with partnering with the school’s Special Olympics team and

For example, many of the special needs students there is a stigma that unjustly groups them as useless and unintelligent, but after partnering with special Olympics for 3+ years I can tell you this is not the case. Many of the students are just functional as everyone else, it’s just whether or not people give them a chance to prove themselves before judging them due to their disabilities. One of the special needs students was a girl named Hailey, now Hailey had spina bifida and had a deformed back as a result. Now although Hailey had these issues, she didn’t let it affect her ambition to succeed and as a result she was one of the best players on our team (She helped us win district titles every year