Directions: Read the Webster definitions of pride and prejudice below. View the TED Talk, "The Danger of the Single Story." In a blog response, share instances in your life where you exhibited positive and negative aspects of pride and prejudice. Also, how do you see this playing out in the novel? Use direct examples from the definitions and the TED Talk in your responses. Engage with each other. Use the text. Be genuine and authentic. Think about the value of words by being concise. Think about your audience. Next, peruse my global blog. Please comment on something you found interesting and would like to ask me for more information. Also, revisit the blog. Read and respond to your fellow classmates. Get a dialogue going. Challenge each other. Be bold. Be brilliant.
Defining Pride and Prejudice
a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. synonyms: pleasure, joy, delight, gratification, fulfillment, satisfaction, a sense of achievement...
It also defines it as follows:
the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance. "the sin of pride" synonyms: arrogance, vanity, self-importance, hubris, conceit, conceitedness, self-love, self-adulation, self-admiration, narcissism, egotism, superciliousness, haughtiness, snobbery, snobbishness...
Webster defines "prejudice" as:
preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual
experience. synonyms: preconceived
idea, preconception, prejudgment...
It is also defined as follows:
dislike, hostility, or unjust behavior deriving from
unfounded opinions...
Add another layer, and it is defined as:
accusations of racial prejudice. synonyms: bigotry,
bias, partisanship, partiality, intolerance, discrimination, unfairness,
inequality...
"The Danger of a Single Story"
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares her experiences with the notion of culture in "The Danger of a Single Story" in an important TED Talk that will explain the importance of global intelligence.
"Mr. P. Goes Global"
by Eric Pellerin
I think living in the United States makes all of us prejudiced a little bit and at our age we really haven’t been able to get out and see the world much. I think what we see in school and in news is filtered at least a little bit and that we are most likely living through the lense of a single story. In the ted talk she talked about her roommate in college and how her roommate viewed africa as oppressed and not having a lot of opportunity, and dangerous. What her roommate missed was that she had a very happy childhood full of love and learning. By living where we do we are shielded from a lot that goes on in this world and I think we should wait on saying our opinions until we know all sides like she had said. For me I think I have been prejudiced when looking at people across the world because I don’t know a lot about them and in my head I already have a view of them.
ReplyDeleteI think pride can be a dangerous thing and could play out very poorly for a character in a novel. Pride is defined as, “a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements”; and I think is very closely to being cocky when you have too much of it. Many characters who have this quality have a big downfall in the book and learn a lesson about having too much pride. Pride is like a filter that can make you view yourself through rose colored glasses and can make you feel like your above other people and I think we should try to recognize it in ourselves to prevent future problems.
I guess the first time I experienced prejudice was my first day of school in Andover. I was in seventh grade, and the teacher had asked where I had moved from. I shared that I had moved from Iowa and the kids seemed to be pretty astonished. I had a little bit of a midwestern accent at the time. The kids asked me strange questions like, “ Did you have clean drinking water and electricity?” It was just an unfair assumption. I guess I can relate a bit to the TedTalk speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. “ She asked if she could listen to my “Tribal music, and was very disappointed when I pulled out my tape of Mariah Carey.” Chimamanda went to college in the United States and received a perceived Idea of what it was like to grow up in Nigeria from her roommate. Chimamanda’s roommate was being racist. I have never been treated differently because of my race so I guess our examples are a bit different; but in both scenarios, we were being prejudiced against.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of that moment in the classroom I remember speaking with pride. I loved Iowa and I still do. People’s perspective in that instance could never change my own. I’ve never really had extreme pride in myself to the point of narcissism. But I’ve definitely experienced others acting in that sort of manner. I’ve met plenty of people in Andover who are wealthy and snobby and think they are better than everyone else. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie definitely experienced the same thing when she was sharing her own experience. “ The professor told me that my characters where too much like him, an educated and a middle-class man. My characters drove cars. They were not starving. Therefor they were not “ authentically African”. I think this example shows the professor has pride in believing that he must live a better life then African’s living in African countries. Because they can’t possibly have all the great things that he has. This snobby professor reminds me of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. The word Pride and the word prejudice can be used for good and can be used for bad, it always matters what the context is.
David Callaghan
ReplyDeleteThe first time I experienced prejudice was when I moved from Lawrence to Falmouth in 6th grade. One thing about living on the cape is it is very isolated especially during the summer. They would ask me if I even had school or if my neighbors were drug dealers. They had just heard the bad news that the news stations portray about Lawrence. When going to college the TED talk speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie had a roommate that didn’t know about Nigeria and used media information and said if she could listen to my tribal music. Chimamanda told her she listened to Mariah Carey and her roommate was disappointed and confused because she didn’t know about Chimamanda’s culture and based her ideas of her on prejudice. She didn’t know that Nigeria is a modern country and it’s not filled with poverty and disease. Everyone will experience prejudice sometime in their life because they don’t know how or what is going on with other people around them or in different countries.
Pride can be a good and bad thing when it comes to people. On one hand, it is when someone is proud of what they’ve accomplished, on the other hand, it’s when someone has a very inflated ego about themselves. When you read Pride and Prejudice, you think of pride with Mr. Darcy. He’s arrogant and think’s he’s better than everyone because of his pride for himself. The use of pride and prejudice in a novel is good or bad it depends on the way the author uses it.
Drew Welch
ReplyDeleteI have witnessed many prejudice behaviors throughout our country. People often create their own opinions based on how a person looks rather than getting to personally know them. Being prejudice has caused many problems in our country especially including racism . In the Ted Talk the speaker mentioned how her roommate assumed that she didn’t know how to use a stove since she was from Nigeria. While this is a very prejudice thing to say I don't believe her roommate meant to be rude. That is just what she assumed since no one has ever exposed her to what it is like out of our country. We can change this by educating people beyond their basic knowledge and teach them the similarities others living around the world have to us in the United States. Having pride is a good quality to have. However, if you have too much of it then it can turn into a bad thing. For instance, I believe that having pride is something every person should have. But if a person has too much pride they can become snobby, egotistical, and ignorant. We see this in the novel Pride and Prejudice in the Mr. Darcy character. You can see he has an overflow of pride and finds himself superior to others. This creates a bad image for his character and makes him not very well liked by others.
Usually when I think of pride, I usually think of hubris and an “I can do this better than you” attitude but with specific scenarios like someone took pride in their artwork makes it a little more innocent. Sometimes with characters in novels, especially ones with wealthy characters in the early nineteenth century, their pride is usually in their wealth and how big their house is. So I think when a character goes down that road, it’s when their ego swells and the meaning of pride takes a dangerous turn. When I think of prejudice, I don’t of any positive aspects of prejudice, I think there is only negative aspects. I can’t think of a specific scenario where prejudice is used as a good thing. I think sometimes when pride is mixed with prejudice it can lead to hate and separations of different groups of people like different social classes.
ReplyDeleteLike Michelle said, just because we do live in America and we are young, we don’t know everything in the world and sometimes we can be prejudiced to other people. Usually our notions about other parts of the world, if we don’t know anything about it, come from what is taught to us in school or if we read it somewhere else. When Adichie was telling the story of her roommate, her notions about where she came from probably whatever she had read when she was younger. I think a lot of prejudice comes from ignorance so maybe that will be explored in the novel.
~Haley Brenner
When I see the word pride, I always think positively, and what it means is to have a feeling of satisfaction. Meanwhile, when I see the word prejudice, there is a negative connotation, that there is some sort of hostility or hate. I have personally experienced a lot of pride in my life, such as when I was able to ride a bike. I felt so satisfied because it took a lot of effort and time to be able to ride a bike. In the novel, I think there is going to be a wide range of characters that exhibit both pride and prejudice. For example, Mr. Bingley’s friend, Mr. Darcy, is exhibiting prejudice in just the first few chapters that we have read towards the women as in his mind they aren't beautiful enough and aren’t as wealthy as him. In the TED talk, the speaker talked about how her roommate assumed that she didn’t know how to do a lot of things as she was from Nigeria. I agree with Drew, as he said “While this is a very prejudice thing to say I don't believe her roommate meant to be rude. That is just what she assumed since no one has ever exposed her to what it is like out of our country. We can change this by educating people…”, we can change people’s thoughts about others by educating them as well as exposing them to different kinds of cultures and environments than their own.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteLiving in the U.S and watching the news can give us a lot of false information about other countries. In the Ted Talk, Chimamanda talks about how going to college here in the U.S, her roommate was asking her if she had clean water and how she could speak such good english. She assumed these things because of our society and how we portray other countries. When in reality, not every country is as poor as we may think. I experienced prejudice all through my childhood because me and my family went on many cruises. On the cruises we would visit different countries and we assumed they were not going to be very nice or there was going to be a lot of poverty, but the areas we visited were very nice. Having pride shows you are proud of your accomplishments and you believe in yourself. Like many other students have said, having too much pride is not always a good thing.
Maddy Francis
After I watched a lot of English movies, I had some questions: Why do people think that China is like the Chinatown in movies? Why do people think that Asians are all small eyes and single eyelids? Let me tell you the truth: Chinese people is not the same as in the movies, not everyone knows KungFu and walks on the wall. At least, as far as I know, no one in my life knows how to walk on the wall. Not all Asians are small eyes and single eyelids. Once someone asked me: I don't think you look like Chinese, Chinese people are single eyelids, but your eyes are big with double eyelids. I didn't say anything back to him. After that, I began to think about when did all the prejudice about China formed? Over the past years, all the deeply imprinted impressions of China came from the spread of films and television. So those who have never been to China will naturally think that China is like what it is in the movies. I totally understand this, because this prejudice also exists within China. There is a minority in China called the Inner Mongolian, who live in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China. I have never been to Inner Mongolia. All my knowledge of Inner Mongolia is what it is in the movie – they travel by horseback, live on the prairie and live in yurts. Everyone rides a horse and archeries and grazes. I believe that many people living in Eastern China have the same impressions about Mongolia. But is this really the life of the Inner Mongolians today? Until I watched a video taken by an Inner Mongolian man, he lived in a luxury apartment in Inner Mongolia instead of a yurt on the prairie; the faucet was filled with tap water, not milk; they travel by car instead of riding a horse. This video has completely changed my understanding of Inner Mongolian and Inner Mongolian people. Things are not what I imagined. The narrow vision limits my understanding of things. There is never a single story, when you only look at one side, you have no idea that the other side may be a completely different story. So when I watched Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED TALK, I understood her roommate very well. Her roommate told her about her stereotypes of Africa because she didn't know what it really is like in Africa. I feel that we need to change the stereotype of one thing and learn more about the multifaceted nature of things.
ReplyDeleteUsually, you have pride in something when you’re proud of what you have achieved. Prejudice is having an opinion of something you weren’t there for or hasn't taken place yet, and sometimes is associated with one's ego. Even with only reading the first couple chapters of Pride and Prejudice, there have been many instances where characters express pride, as well as prejudice. Mrs. Bennet flaunts her pride when talking about the beauty of her daughters, excited for them to meet Mr. Bingley. Mr. Darcy is prejudice towards Elizabeth when not wanting to have a dance, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour to present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men” (7). John Lok shows prejudice when writing African stories. Chimamanda talks about her childhood and mostly reading American and British literature, which influenced her writing and foreign culture as a whole, her roommate initially feeling bad for her due by the origin of where she was raised.
ReplyDeleteWhether it’s passing judgement or fitting a stereotype which may have a negative connotation, there’s been a handful of times where I’ve experienced or seen people be judged for not fitting the social norm, mostly because that’s just human nature. Not necessarily does it mean that person passing judgement was trying to be mean-spirited, but their pride blurs their sense to sympathize. As of right now, there’s no doubt that Mr. Darcy holds prejudice towards most people in the ballroom, since his pride is so great because of his massive fortune. But could the attitude of characters change depending on what happens with their pride? That is to be determined, but I’m pretty sure that we’ll see characters with more prejudice as they become more wealthy, and vice versa.
-Jack Sipley
Throughout my life, I have witnessed great feelings of pride. Whether it comes from getting good grades in school or from doing well in sporting events I have played in, the strong feeling of pride has always been the outcome. Doing things like being successful in school or in sports creates a feeling of pride for me because I feel satisfied with the way I performed in school or in the game. However, there are other types of pride that I have witnessed before in my life. There have been moments where I have had feelings of pride that blur my vision and cause me to not realize that the thing I am proud about may have been hurtful to others. A big example that I can think of when I exhibited the negative aspect of pride is during sports. If my team were to win a game, I may have exhibited so much pride for myself and my team that I may have said things to the other team that could come off as bragging. This may be hurtful to the other team as they have just lost the game and may already be in a bad mood before having to deal with my bragging. When it comes to prejudice, my life has encountered many stories of prejudice. Sometimes, it is prejudice as simple as assuming how long a class might run for, but other times I have seen the more negative versions of prejudice. I have seen people make comments that seem to be hostile towards other people or other groups of people, mainly groups created by the color of ones’ skin. Whether it is in literature or it is in real life, when I have encountered racist prejudice it has made me and the rest of the people witnessing it feel awkward and out of place. I could see the definitions of pride and prejudice being used in the novel to describe how Mr. Bingley and his other rich friends from out of town may look down upon the people of the town like the Bennets. I believe this because during the dancing scene in the novel, the rich people from out of town seem to only dance with each other and try to stay away from the people of the town because of their financial status not being up to standards for the other rich people. Also, I think that the reader will be misled about some of the characters in the novel due to the fact that we have only been told of the snobbish rich side of the people from out of town. By being given only one story, as the TED talk spoke of, the reader is only able to see these characters as the rich snobby people they were introduced to be. Instead, these characters may be able to develop into something else by the end of the novel.
ReplyDeleteThroughout news and social media, all we see is prejudiced views against people and we have no way of knowing if any of that is true. Sometimes the only way to get a view or what a place or group of people is really like, is by going and visiting with the people and understanding how they live their life. Even then, we still don’t see a completely accurate representation of all the people because if you go to a foreign country on a service project, you’re gonna see the worst parts of the country and still not see the more advanced or better parts of the country like you would going on vacation. This is similar to the woman in the TED Talk because when she had gone on vacation she had seen different things than what the media had been telling her about immigrants and how horrible all of them were. She realized that a lot of them were just like her and they were having fun, but still she may have been seeing the best of things where she was staying. I think because of this we may never not have prejudice views on things because we will never truly see all the sides of something until we really live there and view the life of those people from the inside.
ReplyDeleteI think pride can be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes you can have pride in what you do and others can appreciate it but sometimes pride can show arrogance and it makes people think of you as a bad, selfish person. I had a lot of pride in myself when I was able to buy my own car with all the money I earned working at my two jobs. To me that was a huge achievement and it made me feel good that I was able to do that when so many people my age are unable to save up money for something they truly want. People tend to look up to those who have pride in what they have done for others or to better themselves, but people look down on those who take pride in what they’ve done to get ahead of others and beat the competition.
Well to start, I wouldn’t really say I have a personal definition of either word. I take all words by their literal meanings, as interpreting them to mean something else would be to use the word wrongly, and thus because confusion. I think the simplest way to put it is that pride and prejudice have both positive and negative meanings. Pride can be about ego, or about self accomplishment. Prejudice can be about negative opinions on a group, or positive stereotypes. These two words are very powerful in society, and hold a very negative meaning. In regards to prejudice, we often hear it used in situations of particularly racial prejudice or some other form of it. When we speak of pride, we often say someone has too much pride in themselves and believe they are superior. Both of these words can continuously change our individual psyche if we are not careful, and more importantly shape all of our beliefs. Prejudice and pride in the end play into how we treat each other as humans, as we often always think that our assumption about someone is correct. This isn’t only just applied in regards to our individual personalities, but also how we are as a collective group. Anything nowadays can be prejudiced against, romantic orientation, skin color, and political opinions to name a few, and as a result it causes the degradation of society because eventually we no longer can see past our own pride and see past the prejudice we put on the other side.
ReplyDeleteI think this kind of ideology has had a very negative affect on our society though, as now it’s turning into brother vs brother and sister vs sister all for disagreements and our own personal stereotypes. It's come down to being in one camp or the other, and for few there’s an in between. I do believe though that we can rectify this, our own assumptions and stereotypes about others, and it’s all played out in a short clip from the T.V. show A Different World in “The Cats in the Cradle”. This episode actually reminded me of the same message presented in the TED talk, which the episode itself is also a great real life representation of. The boys of the story are in jail, and they’re arguing with each other over race, the officer then steps in and say “Oh so you’re comfortable with the stereotype that all black people do is run?”. In response one boy says “Eh eh look we don’t expect the fair share from you officer.” The officer replies with “That’s right I’m a white man, I could be a card carrying member of the clan.” “Never know.” The boy replies. “Well I could’ve marched with Dr. King. You don’t know. Maybe you should look at me as an individual, and not as a color.” Overall, I would say that once we start really applying the words “pride” and “prejudice” in our own lives we start to see that we all do it in both positive and negative respects. We don’t treat people as people as a society, we treat them as a group. The second that we start to see someone as an individual over some sort of group, is the second that we get society back on track.
- Paul Yannalfo
One of the times I have experienced positive and negative pride was sophomore year of high school when I volunteered to help kids with disabilities play basketball in an organization called Unified Basketball. On the first day of practice I showed up to volunteer and I quickly realized I was the only one who signed up to help. Practice took place in the field house at the high school and when we gathered on that first day I noticed kids in the field house start to watch and laugh. When I saw this, I realized the people were more concerned with themselves than helping others. This reminds me of when Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice” was at the ball and he thought that he was too good to dance with anyone else. Prejudice comes into this story because people think others with disabilities are incapable of doing a lot of things when in reality they are capable but just need a little help. This is why Ngozi Adichie talks about starting a story with “secondly” because you need to know both sides of the story and what people are capable of until you can make a truthful opinion.
ReplyDeleteNick Criniti
ReplyDeleteI've showed pride and prejudice this year while i've been working at the youth center in Andover. Throughout these past two years i've worked at the youth center in Andover and have seen a lot of kids come in who are the quite type and have trouble making new friends. My job and goal is to get to know all the kids that come in and to help them make new friends and be open to try new things. These two words pride and prejudice shape our world today because achieving a goal or making someone happy shows pride and makes the world a better place. An example of prejudice in our world today ties into my work again because some kids misbehave and my jobs is to make sure they are doing the right thing. We see pride and prejudice every day in todays world and everyone's life shows it in some way.
Matt Gaetano
ReplyDelete9/4/19
Brit. Lit.
The Meanings of Pride and Prejudice
There have been many times in my life when I have exhibited or witnessed aspects of pride and prejudice. Some of those times, I don’t have any evidence or anecdotes to base it off of. I know that as humans, we will naturally exhibit these traits; however, if we can learn to notice when we do this, we will become more trustworthy and respected as people. When we exhibit pride, it can be positive (such as towards one’s country, community, or self), but when it manifests as arrogance, then it can cause problems. There is a reason that pride is one of the seven deadly sins; some even say that it is the foundation of all of the other sins. At the ball in “Pride and Prejudice”, Mr. Darcey didn’t believe that Lizzy was beautiful, thus, in his eyes, would not be a suitable wife, or even dancing partner. However, he didn’t take into account what Lizzy’s personality was like. (Granted, from my understanding, this is what life was like back then in higher classes.) He judged her without giving her a chance, an example of prejudice. When we exhibit prejudice, we base our feelings on negative stereotypes. These stereotypes were formed in our past from previous negative experiences. This is the problem with a single story. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said in a TED Talk, “The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity.” A single story can form a false narrative of a person, place, or group of people. Social media can be a major culprit of this. Someone can post something and it can be reposted by so many other accounts and can blow up in minutes. If that information is false, then it will be almost impossible to remove the false idea from a social media platform or from a population's perspective. A great example of this is in politics: I’ve witnessed members of both political parties blame members of the opposite party on something based on false claims. People will start to lose respect for those who start to spread false claims which is why we should be careful of prejudice based on the view of a single story.
David Blanco
ReplyDeleteI've showed pride and Prejudice, in my life when practicing soccer everyday. I played everyday with pride, before stepping on the field. My daily retinue would consist of going to school, coming home changing and going to the soccer field. I would play with my heart out everyday, coming home exhausted.I played against prejudice, some other people I knew told me that I wasn't good enough, or too small. I took those word wisely, I remembered those words everyday before practicing everyday in soccer. I believe pride and Prejudice will play out in this novel by maybe one of the sisters taking a man she wants, and not following the norm, and them facing a bad reaction or Prejudice from the rest of the people.
In my life I have witnessed acts of both pride and prejustice. The first time I saw real pride was when I was watching a baseball game when I was 8 years old, The batter got hit by a pitch and and charged the mound. The amazing thing about it was that his whole team followed him and so did the other team for the pitcher. They were ready to fight for their players no matter the cost. I first witnessed prejudice when going to a restaurant with my friend who was of color. When trying to order the cashier tried speaking spanish to him and was surprised to hear that he knew nothing about spanish. Like in the Ted Talk, It tells a story, that isn’t true, that all people of color know how to speak spanish.
ReplyDeleteBen Weeden
Pride and prejudice can be both positive or negative. Pride is having a high satisfaction in one’s self, whether it’s the things they do, or certain qualities they have. While as prejudice is one’s perception towards others based on one’s own beliefs, it can be based on race, gender, wealth ,and so on.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I hate to be judgemental, I’ve had a few prejudices towards White Americans. Before coming to America, I always thought they were arrogant, snobby, yet they had every right to do so because they are the strongest nation in the world. However after living in America for two years, I realized that my perception isn’t entirely true. So I started mulling over what made me think this way, and it is the cultural differences and lack of understanding between the two. History of slavery, movies filled with builles, a racist society had long been my only knowledge about America.
Having this prejudice in my case wasn’t a good thing, because it stopped me from knowing and getting along with more people that might have been a potential friend of mine. I was scared to be judged, but in reality I was the one to judge.
-Grace Shih