The Narrative Paradigm in Nicki's Story of Racial Profiling

Racial profiling is a very serious issue in today’s society. Day in and day out, stories are told of how certain people in certain situations were discriminated against, or treated differently because of their race. As seen here, Nicki Sok tells a story of how he and his brother were enjoying a great day while traveling to a movie, and came across an act of racial profiling. Throughout this narrative, various examples and assumptions of the Narrative Paradigm are present.

The first of the Narrative Paradigm’s assumptions, humans are naturally storytellers, is shown from Nicki choosing to describe his unfortunate experience in the form of a story. This event being told in story form allows for a deeper impact within the minds of audience members in the process of Nicki conveying his emotions at the time. In terms of the Narrative Paradigm’s second and third assumptions, Nicki’s story holds up in the minds of his listeners because it is both believable and easy to relate to. Because of the knowledge his listeners had of previous racial profiling occurrences in the past, Nicki’s listeners were able to view his story as one that is both logical and credible, illustrating the second assumption of the Narrative Paradigm. The third assumption involves a narrative’s rationality being affected through its listener’s history, biography, culture, and character. Both history and biography allow for the persuasion of Nicki’s listeners through their recollection of historical events in which racial profiling existed, and their relation to a time when they too were bullied and humiliated. The material ultimately persuading Nicki’s listeners is that which is relevant to them personally, not that which works according to a set code of logic or persuasion.

When considering the fourth assumption of the Narrative Paradigm, the narrative’s rationality is dependent on the internal consistency and truth within it. Because Nicki’s story most likely strikes home with how listeners would’ve felt if put in that same situation, there is no question regarding the internal consistency and degree of truth present in his narrative. The paradigm’s fifth assumption involves the experiences of individuals within society as a set of selected stories, ultimately resulting in society living life in a continual process of re-creation. Nicki’s narrative follows this assumption through the idea of his listeners changing the way they think about racial profiling as a whole. From viewing how personally affected Nicki was by the events on that particular day, it would come as no surprise to me if his narrative’s impact on particular listeners was significant. As a whole, the story Nicki told about being racially profiled was one which demonstrated the various assumptions of the Narrative Paradigm successfully.