I’ve been forced to look at my own stigmatizations and prejudices after thinking back on the humorous literary examples and the thought-provoking TEDTalks by Ngozi Adichie and Chimamanda Bart-Williams. Both Wainana’s “How to Write About Africa” and Miner’s “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” eloquently illustrate the destructive preconceptions that may be perpetuated and identities constructed through words.

I’ve discovered that, when analyzing my own presumptions, I occasionally depended on oversimplified explanations and generalizations to comprehend other people. For example, I’ve found myself blaming someone for particular traits or actions based only on their cultural background, without taking into account the nuanced nature of their unique experiences. Stereotypes are reinforced and “otherness” is created as a result of this propensity to oversimplify and pigeonhole people.

Positive stereotypes are just as harmful since they still confine people to limited representations and ignore their varied personalities and distinctive features. Positive group labels run the risk of depriving such groups of agency and sustaining a homogenous narrative that ignores their variety.

My reaction to Ngozi Adichie’s TEDTalk on the peril of a single story was strong because it demonstrated how one story can distort perceptions and reinforce negative preconceptions. It is imperative to acknowledge the significance of varied viewpoints and to eschew the tendency to essentialize individuals on the basis of incomplete knowledge.

In his TEDTalk, Bart Williams stressed the importance of refuting the stories that uphold stigma and prejudices. This served as a helpful reminder of how crucial it is to aggressively challenge our own presumptions and look out opposing views.

To sum up, this self-reflection trip has shown the role language plays in forming opinions and maintaining prejudices. We might endeavour to remove the obstacles that produce “otherness” and promote sincere understanding and empathy by being aware of and critical of our own presumptions.