Rhetorical Analysis and Classroom Application

For my rhetorical analysis, I wrote on a talk given by Chimamanda Adichie.  She is an African woman who wrote The Dangers of a Single Story.  Adichie is from Nigeria, so she has a lot of credibility when she pleads with her U.S. audience so beware of African stereotypes.  She knows from first-hand experience how detrimental it is for the receptor of the "single story" (the concept of hearing only part of a person/culture's story and accepting that as your sole source for information), and the person that the single story victimizes.  Adichie speaks about how a lot of people assume and think that all Africans are uneducated, unrefined people who live in mud huts.  The same day that I turned in my rhetorical analysis I got a dose of what the single story can really do to people.  We were instructed to write down the topic of our research paper so that it could be analyzed by classmates.  My question was, "How has televised futbol affected African people, economy, and politics?"  I passed my paper past my head so that the boy behind me could comment on my question.  To my dismay, this is what I received back, "Do people in Africa even have TV's?"   ...and THAT is the danger of a single story.