Last night in my Education class we discussed the implementation of critical literacy into the English Language Arts program. We watched a TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie on the dangers of telling a single story. She explains, as a citizen of Nigeria, how she was heavily influenced by the children's books authored by British and American writers. She then began to produce what she read, and, coincidentally, as a child, wrote stories about British or American children (white, blue eyed, wanting a ginger-beer) instead of her own culture. Getting her hands on some Nigerian children's stories was possible, but not as easy to get a hold of, nor as vast. She talks about the "single stories" that are told about Africa (which is referred to as "a country" by the some), of poor people (of being poor, that's it, with no talents or abilities), and the single stories we hear from the news (Iraq? Libya?).

We engaged in class discussion after the video. Two girls vocalized how Adichie was, in essence, doing to us (the "whites") what "the whites" do to the rest of the world. They asked, just because white people have done awful things, does that make them deserving of being called out? What does it mean to be a "white person"? Why isn't it offensive to be called "white"? Many people responded with the fact that white people hold the dominant views and ideologies and need to be made aware of their privilege.

I think the point is that, in particular, American culture has the means to produce a vast amount of texts (media, literature, film ...) that it is impossible for the world to ignore. Adichie had access to American and British books because of colonization, because of the wealthy people who can write and distribute worldview. I mean, we live right beside them, but why do we know who the top actors are? Why do we watch their television? Why do we listen to their music? Why don't we do this to the same extent to other cultures? Do the majority of Americans know anything about Canada (and yet they are right beside us, as well?) Are other countries not as important to us? Valid? How many Canadian films make the theatre? Where do the actors and singers go to make the money? Money: of course that's the answer. Other countries don't have the money to spend on producing such high quality films, etc, to distribute. The CFL doesn't have as many camera angles as the NFL. Canadians watch American Idol more than they watch Canadian Idol. The worldview of America is so known, so dominant, that anything but the "American way" is seen as backwards, wrong, illegitimate, missing something. Anything but the colonizers way of government and religion doesn't match up to the "straight" and "correct" line that has been drawn. Aidichie talks about how, when she moved to the States and was in University, her roommate asked to listen to her "tribal music". She pulled out Mariah Carey. We do the same thing here (I mean, ok, we have Bieber, etc, but I'm talking majority. And how many shows does Bieber play in the States? Does playing in America then make him 'legitimate'?). Everyone knows American culture, everyone has access to Mariah Carey CDs. What I'm trying to say is, the reason multiple stories of people from Iran, or Nigeria, or Thailand, or Brazil, aren't told is because no one else has the ridiculous amount of money to spend on producing and distributing these stories through the many genres of music, film, and literature. Whose worldview matters? Whose story gets to be shared?

Those two girls did have a point. I do find that I want to apologize for my skin colour. My skin colour brings history of assimilation, dominance, and ignorance. As a member at my group table said: "I am a white, middle class male. What else could I ask for?" What won't be handed to you? Even though we (as a global population, though unequally distributed) have the means to produce stories from everywhere in the world, we don't. I mean, there are popular stories out there (Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, for one), but how do these worldviews tip the scale when all the American and British literature is stacked so high on the other end? This is why I wish nationalities didn't exist. What good is national pride, when there could be global pride? Does globalization equate to McDonaldization? Does the entire world have to conform to "the American way"? Who gives a [explicit] about lines drawn on the map -- are we not all humans? Does that not give us a right to be able to share our stories? Can we not have different worldviews and not get along? Are we past trying to colonize and assimilate the whole world to a bunch of man-over-woman-jean-wearing-consuming-entertainment-driven zombies?

I guess not.