The Coming of John

 Part One:

 A single story leads one to believe that there is a right way to be. Similar to what Chimamande Adichie believed about the British books she read when she was young. Telling a one-dimensional story about a person makes it “impossible for [one] to see [people] as anything but” whatever your preconceived belief about them was, as Chimamande Adichie explained about the house boy who she only saw as poor because that is all she was told about him. A single story leads to great misunderstandings about others and our world as a whole. 

Nkali means “to be greater than another” as Chimamande Adichie said. This belief leads people to view all situations as hierarchical and singular. When one views a citation in this way they miss the depth that other people have in their identities and actions. Chimamande Adichie mentioned that stories are defined by how they are told and who tells them, meaning that only listening to a single story does not allow one to understand another person. She also spoke about the danger of assigning a story to another through power dynamics, when this happens the person being assigned a story then becomes only that story. We often see this in politics today. This method is also intertwined with stereotyping. Chimamande said, “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” She says this causes a stereotype to become the primary story of a group, making it impossible to understand the people who are stereotyped.

I have watched this Ted Talk a few times, but it has been a while since the last time. Rewatching it helped me to apply some of Chimamande Adichie’s ideas to current issues in our country. I did not remember the things she said about stereotyping and they resonated with me. I will remember the quote I just mentioned above, where Chimamande explains the danger of stereotyping. Many issues in our world are caused by people in power neglecting to understand or acknowledge the other parts of a story. Viewing these issues through the lens that Chimamande Adichie introduces in this Ted Talk allows me to see why our leaders do what they do(whether it is good or bad) and what single stories they may be consuming or creating

Part Two:

W.E.B. Du Bois may have given both young men in this story the name John, but their similarities almost end right there. John Jones gained an education from a small college(I don’t think the name was mentioned) because he and his family pursued it in hopes that he would live a more fulfilling life, while John Henderson went to Princeton as a legacy student who was being educated just for being white. John Jones appears to be a slightly awkward, kindhearted man who is hardworking and passionate about civil rights. John Henderson seems to be bull-headed and pretentious. Henderson sexually assaults John Jones’ sister and is extremely racist and classist as well.

I think DuBois chose to write this fictional story to provide the perfect two-sided coin which is the two Johns. This story compares and contrasts the two men while primarily highlighting the horrifying truth of Jim Crow. If this story had been true, Du Bois wouldn’t have been able to tailor the story to illustrate his points about racism as well and some of the impact might have been lost. I do not doubt that he drew upon many real-life examples to create this fictional story, but I suppose he wanted to tell the story of Jim Crow differently. 

From the beginning of John Jones’ education, he was looked down upon by white people who believed he was out of place. In this story, Jones does not take his education as seriously at first and is expelled for a semester. When he returns to college he changes his attitude toward education and becomes extremely dedicated to his studies. Education opens John’s eyes further to more subtle aspects of prejudice that he has been experiencing his whole life. He attempts to address racism in his community when he returns home, but it only met with disappointment and confusion. Johns's education brings him closer to white society, due to higher education being a white privilege at the time, and causes him to realize the “veil”  that has existed between himself and his white peers for his whole life. White people view his education as “dangerous” in this story and many of the black people are horrified to see their John return to speak about great change in an “unfamiliar” language.

I think any form of education changes a person in one way or another. Gaining new knowledge impacts what a person thinks and therefore it changes the way a person acts and who they are. I think higher education especially changes people, colleges and universities expose students to a wide variety of peers and information, creating the perfect conditions for some form of growth.

Right away I could see the parallels. In paragraph one of “Of the Coming of John” by W.E.B. DuBoisthe the phrase “Single Storied Homes” jumped out at me. Both stories highlight the importance of telling the full story. Towards the end, John Henderson tells his father about John Jones supposedly attending a performance just to sit near a woman he was escorting, when in reality Jones appeared to be driven by curiosity and was thrown out of the establishment for simply being black. This single story paints Jones as a dangerous man without decency. This is an example of what Chimamande Adichie said in her Ted Talk about single stories “robbing people of dignity.” Both Chimamanda Achidie’s Ted Talk and this story demonstrate the stereotyping and prejudice that marginalized groups have been subjected to for far too long and the fact that racism is still ingrained in our society.

During the time of Jim Crow, there was a lot of propaganda that focused on what the Jim Crow Museum calls “the Black Brute.” Black Brutes were a portrayal of black men as extremely violent, inhuman, rapists who targeted white women. This disgusting stereotype was used to justify the lynching of black men for just existing near a white woman and was used to rationalize the murder of a terrifying amount of black people during Jim Crow.