One Sided Stories

The common experience lecture that I attended on Tuesday was both fascinating and informing. I have always known that people have preconceived notions of other countries and people, but I’ve never heard it be called a ‘One sided story.’ I really enjoyed the way in which the author in the video explained other’s one-sided stories about her and the ones that she had about others.

I myself have had a one sided story used against me. Two years ago I spent two weeks in Germany. The village that I stayed in was located close to an American airbase. Because the airbase was so close many of the Germans thought that all Americans were like the rowdy young airmen that they saw in the bars. They also thought that Americans were all heavy set and loud. When my sister and I would tell people that we were from America the villagers seemed shocked, because we were not like those that they had previously seen.

Through proving the German’s story wrong, I felt almost empowered in a way. I felt this because through the simple act of my presence, their stories were diminished. I’m not sure how these stories begin in the first place, but as demonstrated by my experience, people seem to generalize groups of people based on only seeing a few. The same thought was shown in Persepolis 2 when Marjane’s friends told her that there was no way that anyone would think she was a European because she looked like a ‘nun.’ The fact that they thought that all Europeans had a certain ‘look’ was misguided. In Europe I traveled to Germany, France, and Luxembourg and I saw no particular ‘style.’

I think one way we can make these stories disappear is by simply stating that they’re untrue. Literature is a great resource to get the truth out, because the fakeness behind these one-sided stories can be published. As the author in the video mentioned, once she read books by actual African writers she was able to see the beauty in her heritage. One-sided stories will probably never fully disappear, but I hope that through literature and through news reports that travel to lands where the most generalization is happening, the falsehood behind these stories will be exposed.