Seeing Beyond Black Male Steretypes

Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, who some of you will remember from her novel, Americana, which was the first year orientation book for 2015, is famous for her powerful TED talk on “The Danger of a Single Story.” Adichie discusses the power of storytelling—and the necessity of multiple stories—in order to dispel stereotypes:

We’ve been reading some discouraging stories and articles about the dangerous stereotypes that afflict people of color and often target African American men. Here’s an editorial by two college professors, Anthony S. Brown and Louis Harrison, talking about the danger of “a single story about black men” and offering some statistics that may surprise you into realizing that how easy it is to confuse stereotypes with reality.