The TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie is about her opinion on what the danger of a single story is.  Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie explains that ‘The danger of a single story’ is the effect of stereotypes on people and groups of people just because someone doesn’t know enough about them and creates generalizations.  

When Adichie started reading, she read only British and American books so she thought in literature, the characters are always white, blue-eyed and they lived in the same environments, played in snow… they were very different from her and the people she knew and she also wrote similar stories without actually being familiar with things like ginger beer. When she discovered African literature she was happy to read and write about things she recognized and people like her.

Adichie explains that it is impossible to talk about single stories without talking about power, stories are defined by how they are told, who tells them, when they’re told… If, for example, stories are told only by women, people can have a single story and think stories can be told only by women.

In my personal experience, most books I read in school were written by white men from the upper classes. When I read books for homework I usually feel disconnected from the characters and situation because the story is from a long time ago and the characters are adults, many times, in important positions. I feel connected to the characters when they are my age and live in a similar environment to mine and in my generation. 

I prefer reading books by authors with a similar background to mine because it makes it easier to understand the book and connect to the characters but I think it’s also important to read books from diverse authors even though it might be harder to understand.

I think it matters who writes the stories we read because the author’s background influences the stories they write, usually they write stories that take place in their environment, with types of characters they are familiar with… 

Schools should make an effort to include books by authors from diverse backgrounds so that the students can understand that there are many different kinds of stories and authors and by reading those different books they will be able to learn more and understand more about different societies, countries, cultures, religions or people  and that way they will have fewer single stories. 

Although it’s important to read books with a large author diversity, there are some challenges and drawbacks because it could be difficult to understand the cultures or characters if the book is written by an author from a place the reader doesn’t know and it might be hard to relate to the characters.

I think it’s more important to focus on the content and themes of books than the authors who wrote them because you want to read books about subjects that interest you. However, I also think?  think it is important to give books to read at school from diverse authors because it could make the student’s knowledge of different cultures in the world more diverse and give the students many different points of view so they will have fewer single stories. Additionally it could avoid students feeling excluded because of their culture or religion and help reduce racism. If, for example, Adichie’s roommate would have read books by African authors, she would have known more about Africa and would have had less stereotypes like: everyone who lives there is poor, and that many people, like Adichie, live in modern houses in Africa and know how to use ovens.

In my personal experience, I once read a book by an Indian author where the main character and her family were Indian and I learned a lot about Indian culture which I barely knew about before.

If you don’t want to read books by diverse authors because you prefer reading books by authors with a similar background to yours, you’re right that it’s simpler but you should still try sometimes,  reading books by diverse authors, you’ll learn new things and you can find books that interest you, that you’ll enjoy.

Reading books by diverse authors can benefit your education because you’ll know more about different cultures, countries and different people which will help you understand the world better because you’ll have different visions of it and more knowledge.  

I would recommend giving books to read  in schools by diverse authors about subjects that interest the students so they will want to read the books and where the main character is the same age as the students who have to read the book because it helps them connect to the story and understand it better.