Hi everyone, it's Brian again! With less than two weeks left until we depart for Durham, England, we've started to reflect on our experience as a whole here in North Carolina. Tonight in our group meeting, we watched a TED talk by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie entitled "The Danger of a Single Story". Through her personal experiences growing up as a child in Africa and coming to college in the U.S., Adichie had a unique opportunity to see firsthand how stereotypes and assumptions affect the way that people interact with those of different cultures and backgrounds. She warns against the dangers of allowing oneself to be sucked into the "single story" that society and the media portrays of any given situation. She argues that, in order to really understand a person or environment, many stories are necessary and we would be foolish to ever assume that we know everything from the single story that we are told.
I think this video and Adichie's underlying point lend themselves well to the nature of our Duke Engage program. The "single story" as it relates to Durham, NC is that of two Durhams; the prosperous, growing commercial hub that is home to Duke University and a downtown area full of exciting restaurants and shopping, and the less-developed Durham that still faces significant poverty, unemployment, and housing challenges. As Duke students, we are fortunate enough to spend most of our time in the former Durham, and thus are a little blind to the struggles that persist in many pockets of the city. But after spending a month in Durham without the fast-paced lifestyle of Duke, it has become clear that the "two Durham" analogy is very misguided. Is Durham a city with some areas that are better off and more affluent than others? Of course. But it is wrong to classify the city with such a black-and-white disparity; the Duke campus itself cannot even be restricted to such a simple, divisive explanation. Like any city, Durham has its marketable regions but also ones that are less apt to advertising, and every area—even the less prosperous ones—has something to offer the city as well as some aspects that could be improved upon.
Through my work with the Durham YouthWork Internship Program and the Career Center, I have seen how so many of our preconceived notions about certain groups are off the mark. Most of the young students in the internship program are of a racial minority and come from a very low-income household, yet they are ambitious, mature, and intelligent in a way that most Duke students may not have been at the same age. Likewise with the Career Center; the people who come in there to get help are motivated and genuinely excited about the prospects of getting back to work, a far cry from the going-through-the-motions attitude that some expect out of the unemployed. More than anything, this has reinforced the message of Adichie’s video for me; you can only gain understanding of a situation by letting go of your prior perceptions and opening your mind to new stories.
I think this video and Adichie's underlying point lend themselves well to the nature of our Duke Engage program. The "single story" as it relates to Durham, NC is that of two Durhams; the prosperous, growing commercial hub that is home to Duke University and a downtown area full of exciting restaurants and shopping, and the less-developed Durham that still faces significant poverty, unemployment, and housing challenges. As Duke students, we are fortunate enough to spend most of our time in the former Durham, and thus are a little blind to the struggles that persist in many pockets of the city. But after spending a month in Durham without the fast-paced lifestyle of Duke, it has become clear that the "two Durham" analogy is very misguided. Is Durham a city with some areas that are better off and more affluent than others? Of course. But it is wrong to classify the city with such a black-and-white disparity; the Duke campus itself cannot even be restricted to such a simple, divisive explanation. Like any city, Durham has its marketable regions but also ones that are less apt to advertising, and every area—even the less prosperous ones—has something to offer the city as well as some aspects that could be improved upon.
Through my work with the Durham YouthWork Internship Program and the Career Center, I have seen how so many of our preconceived notions about certain groups are off the mark. Most of the young students in the internship program are of a racial minority and come from a very low-income household, yet they are ambitious, mature, and intelligent in a way that most Duke students may not have been at the same age. Likewise with the Career Center; the people who come in there to get help are motivated and genuinely excited about the prospects of getting back to work, a far cry from the going-through-the-motions attitude that some expect out of the unemployed. More than anything, this has reinforced the message of Adichie’s video for me; you can only gain understanding of a situation by letting go of your prior perceptions and opening your mind to new stories.