Representation and literature can alter a person's perspective of other people especially if you have not been in the presence of the people presented.

For example, Wainaina (2019) illustrated how Western writers tend to write about Africa as if they have travelled the entire Africa as well as the different cultures. The way in which they present African people, and the conditions is as though Africa is poverty stricken and in all a poor continent. I have also stereotyped the people of the West as though they all live luxurious lives, for instance the way the present the “New York” life as though everything is glamourous is how I viewed everyone in Western countries live on a daily. They did not show the subtle racism, the homeless people and people who live in debt.

Ngozi(2010) illustration through the Danger of Single Story is a presentation of how our minds are altered by what we read and what is put out there. The West presents beauty as having pale white skin, blonde hair and bright blue eyes and also through the cartoons I watched growing up, that was the definition of beauty. I saw myself as ugly because I have brown eyes and black skin with kinky hair, I was actively looking for ways to seem more beautiful such as straightening my hair however I was not white still. Presentation of all skin types is really important so that people can see that you are beautiful despite your outer features.

I grew up in a township with no other race except black people, but I went to a school with predominantly white people so to fit in I would try to act as posh as they make it seem in movies of how white people act. I sort of “lost” myself because I was told that I’m “different” or I am not as “ghetto” as the others. I realized that not all of what I thought about different races was true, my experience was the one the mattered as not let anything influence my perceptions.