The Coming of John

 

Part One:

Ø  When we often hear a single story, we perceive it as the truth, whereas there is more to the stories than we hear about. Adichie emphasizes the fact that having a single story, may be dangerous in more ways than none. She says that a single story brings changes to a person or a whole nation.

Ø  Nkali means "to be greater than another." The truth is that how stories are told, who tells them, how many stories are told, and when they are told all have an impact. The problem is that these are power-dependent. She also claims that power is about establishing the definitive ground of a person's story, not just the ability to tell a story to someone else.

Ø  Believing in a single story is not beneficial to anyone. Always broaden your horizon and look at both views before making a judgment of your own. There are three sides to a story, and one of them is the truth.

 

Part Two:

 

v Both boys left the town to further their education and to come back home with achievements. The contrast is that the white family thought that the black John being sent away will only “spoil him,” whereas, the white John went to get further education to make his whole community proud, especially the judge, his father. John Jones eventually felt guilty and went back home to his family, whereas, John Henderson couldn't wait to get out of this town permanently and live in New York. 

v I think DuBois wrote this story as fictional, in order to bring awareness to the discrimination white people had against black. He wanted to show how black people were not slaves and uneducated people. He wanted to show that black people are equal human beings to white, and they are not born to serve them. We also need to take into account that this book was published in 1903, and having a black slave was the norm.

v John Jones was a playful and bubbly person, to say the least. He caused a ruckus in school several times by not performing well, causing the Dean to suspend him. He then pleaded with the Dean to not tell his mom and sister what he had done and promised to turn a new leaf in his life. He then improved himself more and became more serious in education and even graduated college. Education helped him find meaning and respect in words like being called “Mister”, instead of a casual “Hey Negro,” or some other side comments like that, that seem to irritate him more as he became more literate. I think education helps a person gain more knowledge in more ways than none. The more books a person reads, the more knowledge that person obtains.

v I see what Chimamanda meant by Americans viewing Africans in a pitiful glance like how she viewed Fide’s family as poor, after all, that was what her mother always told her. Like Chimamanda’s Ted talk on a single story, DuBois highlights the fact that the white southern men, in this case, the Judge in the small town of Alhambra, were small-minded and fixated on the idea of black people are only servants and their only purpose to be alive is to serve the white community and them, thinking of equality is just insult to his face.

v Even though human rights are being fought about to this day, there’s still racism existing in America and not much is being talked about. As a person of color, we were always told to be careful, especially around cops, because it might be our last day on earth, especially for our brothers and fathers. As a black woman, we are mostly portrayed as loud, using grotesque caricatures to portray us as vicious, prostitutes compared to timid white women. An example of someone who was killed unjustly and with cruelty by a police officer would be George Floyd, which caused an uproar, not only nationally, but also internationally. This really proved that even though a hundred years have passed, racism is still evident in America. With research, I found out that this has ignited a historic protest among the African community nationwide. The police officer was recorded, kneeling on the victim’s neck for almost 10 minutes, resulting in a cruel death of an innocent civilian. Source: George Floyd is killed by a police officer, igniting historic protests - HISTORY