It is now possible to agree with Wainana and Miner, as well as Ngozi and Bart-Williams the extent to which I am stigmatized and pre-judge the otherème. Ivan Wainana, in his satirical piece on Writing about Africa, comes out strongly against the reductive stereotype with which western media portrays Africa and its diverse peoples. Likewise, Miner, in “Body Rituals Among the Nacirema,” demonstrates how absurd it is to judge another culture as inferior and unknown. These works, in addition to Ngozi’s TED Talk where she speaks on the harm a single story can cause, as well as Bart-Williams’ negative portrayal of media’s representation of Africa, personally challenged me to question my prejudices. This has, therefore, helped me open my eyes; understand that my knowledge of certain cultures is limited by the news, hearsay and the internet. For example, before coming to this class, my perception of Africa was primarily of a continent that is poor, which is at war, and so failing, and this eclipsed the other realities of its peoples, their cultures, technological and social innovations and development. This single-story view gives me a feeling of separateness, of not being close enough; the opposite has also worked in my favor where I have incessantly held elevated views of cultures I the inclined towards such as holding the general belief that all Japanese people are disciplined or all Italians are lovers. But already these stereotypes are no less infantile, reducing persons to mere simple definitions and getting rid of individuality. The gaps in my knowledge addressed in this self-reflection allowed me to recognize an unfortunate tendency, where the creation of identities based on restricted stories leads to animosity and confusion. To address this, I have to achieve a richness of information and experience interacting with cultures. Breaking beyond the contextual layer and paying close attention to the fact that [people] cultures are not mere stories that can be learned in school [. These kind of approaches foster empathy and erode the structures that make othering possible.