I'm not sure what to do about stereotypes. How can you diminish something that everyone knows about if you can't let them see another side? Chimamanda brings up an excellent point, the one sided story can create a lot of harm. It's hard to let others see another side if half of the world is so ignorant to others. That's what I saw when I told my best friend in Texas that I was moving to Colombia. To me it wasn't a big deal. I've live in Brasil, Argentina, and The United States, one more country couldn't harm my experience. However, my friend thought it was the strangest thing ever. She told me, "what's it going to be like to live in Africa?" That shocked me. I mean, I've heard jokes about people thinking that Colombia is in Africa, but to actually hear it shocked me. Then my Pre-AP English teacher told me, "You're not in the cocaine business are you?" A full grown man told me this! I couldn't handle this ignorance coming from people that I personally knew.
I decided to explore what it meant to hear only one side to every story. Stereotypes harm so many ideas, people, and cultures. For me, I never believe one thing until I either researched the topic or went to the place myself. Then again, I've had a lot more experience with other cultures; 14 other countries worth of cultures. Maybe it isn't a personal problem but more of a societal problem. It's going to be hard to get ride of one-sided stories, if it is even possible. People need to get out of their ignorance bubble and explore the world a little more in order to escape their single world.
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