Michael Rain: What it's like to be the child of immigrants | TED

89,017 views ・ 2018-06-12

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
I remember one morning when I was in the third grade,
0
12769
3446
00:16
my mom sent me to school with a Ghanaian staple dish called "fufu."
1
16239
4631
00:20
(Laughter)
2
20894
1557
00:22
Fufu is this white ball of starch made of cassava,
3
22475
4215
00:26
and it's served with light soup, which is a dark orange color,
4
26714
4365
00:31
and contains chicken and/or beef.
5
31103
2234
00:33
It's a savory, flavorful dish
6
33859
2049
00:35
that my mom thought would keep me warm on a cold day.
7
35932
3223
00:39
When I got to lunch and I opened my thermos,
8
39509
2710
00:42
releasing these new smells into the air,
9
42243
3077
00:45
my friends did not react favorably.
10
45344
2419
00:47
(Laughter)
11
47787
1449
00:49
"What's that?" one of them asked.
12
49260
2325
00:52
"It's fufu," I responded.
13
52122
2270
00:54
(Laughter)
14
54416
1015
00:55
"Ew, that smells funny. What's a fufu?" they asked.
15
55455
3336
00:59
Their reaction made me lose my appetite.
16
59642
2311
01:02
I begged my mother to never send me to school with fufu again.
17
62489
4067
01:06
I asked her to make me sandwiches or chicken noodle soup
18
66580
3506
01:10
or any of the other foods that my friends were eating.
19
70110
2758
01:12
And this is one of the first times
20
72892
1714
01:14
I began to notice the distinction between what was unique to my family
21
74630
5443
01:20
and what was common for everyone else,
22
80097
1863
01:22
what was Ghanaian and what was African
23
82730
3830
01:26
and what was American.
24
86584
1295
01:28
I'm a first-generation American.
25
88645
2115
01:30
Both of my parents are immigrants.
26
90784
1736
01:32
In fact, my father, Gabriel, came to the US almost 50 years ago.
27
92933
3865
01:37
He arrived in New York
28
97761
1224
01:39
from a city called Kumasi in a northern region of Ghana,
29
99009
3570
01:42
in West Africa.
30
102603
1184
01:44
He came for school, earning his bachelor's degree in accounting
31
104328
3385
01:47
and eventually became an accountant.
32
107737
1904
01:50
My mother, Georgina, joined him years later.
33
110246
3492
01:53
She had a love of fashion
34
113762
2059
01:55
and worked in a sewing factory in lower Manhattan,
35
115845
3027
01:58
until she saved up enough to open her own women's clothing store.
36
118896
3704
02:03
I consider myself an American
37
123527
1930
02:06
and an African
38
126300
1546
02:07
and a Ghanaian.
39
127870
1154
02:09
And there's millions of people around the world
40
129548
2398
02:11
who are juggling these different classifications.
41
131970
2834
02:15
They might be Jamaican-Canadians or Korean-Americans or Nigerian-Brits.
42
135416
6706
02:22
But what makes our stories and experiences different
43
142146
3042
02:25
is that we were born and raised in a country different than our parents,
44
145212
5273
02:30
and this can cause us to be misunderstood
45
150509
3149
02:33
when being viewed through a narrow lens.
46
153682
3049
02:37
I grew up in New York, which is home to the largest number of immigrants
47
157672
3876
02:41
anywhere in the United States.
48
161572
1489
02:43
And you would think growing up in a place like New York,
49
163681
2943
02:46
it would be easy for a first-generation person to find their place.
50
166648
3585
02:50
But all throughout my childhood,
51
170947
2182
02:53
there were these moments that formed my understanding
52
173153
3430
02:56
of the different worlds I belonged to.
53
176607
1971
02:59
When I was in the fifth grade, a student asked me
54
179522
2819
03:02
if my family was refugees.
55
182365
2354
03:05
I didn't know what that word meant.
56
185386
1794
03:07
He explained to me that his parents told him
57
187680
2262
03:09
that refugees are people from Africa who come to the US
58
189966
4020
03:14
to escape death, starvation and disease.
59
194010
2646
03:17
So I asked my parents, and they laughed a bit,
60
197452
3416
03:20
not because it was funny but because it was a generalization.
61
200892
3466
03:24
And they assured me that they had enough to eat in Ghana
62
204382
2917
03:27
and came to the US willingly.
63
207323
2440
03:29
(Laughter)
64
209787
1529
03:31
These questions became more complex as I got older.
65
211340
3355
03:34
Junior high school was the first time
66
214719
1827
03:36
I went to school with a large number of black American students,
67
216570
3373
03:40
and many of them couldn't understand why I sounded differently than they did
68
220845
3704
03:44
or why my parents seemed different than theirs.
69
224573
3033
03:48
"Are you even black?" a student asked.
70
228336
2452
03:51
I mean, I thought I was black.
71
231788
1486
03:53
(Laughter)
72
233298
1650
03:54
I thought my skin complexion settled that.
73
234972
2502
03:57
(Laughter)
74
237498
1207
03:58
I asked my father about it, and he shared his own confusion
75
238729
3116
04:01
over the significance of that when he first came to the US.
76
241869
3604
04:06
He explained to me that, when he was in Ghana, everyone was black,
77
246806
3197
04:10
so he never thought about it.
78
250027
1813
04:12
But in the US, it's a thing.
79
252768
1684
04:14
(Laughter)
80
254476
2142
04:16
But he would say, "But you're African.
81
256642
3063
04:19
Remember that."
82
259729
1333
04:21
And he would emphasize this,
83
261086
1512
04:22
even though many Africans in the continent would only consider me to be
84
262622
4595
04:27
just an American.
85
267241
1270
04:29
These misconceptions and complex cultural issues
86
269584
3361
04:32
are not just the inquiries of children.
87
272969
2148
04:35
Adults don't know who immigrants are.
88
275141
2002
04:38
If we look at current trends,
89
278016
2104
04:40
if I asked you: What's the fastest-growing
90
280144
2643
04:42
immigrant demographic in the United States,
91
282811
2580
04:45
who would you think it was?
92
285415
1388
04:47
Nine out of 10 people tell me it's Latinos,
93
287249
2388
04:49
but it's actually African immigrants.
94
289661
2079
04:52
How about in academics?
95
292341
1550
04:54
What's the most educated immigrant demographic?
96
294329
2885
04:57
A lot of people presume it to be Asians, but it's actually African immigrants.
97
297754
4239
05:02
Even in matters of policy,
98
302017
1656
05:04
did you know that three out of the eight countries
99
304176
2420
05:06
in the so-called "travel ban"
100
306620
1399
05:08
are African countries?
101
308043
1253
05:09
A lot of people assume those targeted Muslims only live in the Middle East,
102
309859
4191
05:14
but a lot of those banned people are Africans.
103
314074
2595
05:17
So on these issues of education and policy and religion,
104
317334
4782
05:22
a lot of things we presume about immigrants are incorrect.
105
322140
3455
05:26
Even if we look at something like workplace diversity and inclusion,
106
326634
5130
05:31
if I asked you what gender-ethnicity combination
107
331788
3034
05:34
is least likely to be promoted to senior managerial positions,
108
334846
4008
05:38
who would you think it was?
109
338878
1430
05:40
The answer is not Africans this time.
110
340831
1795
05:42
(Laughter)
111
342650
1126
05:43
And it's not black women or men,
112
343800
2276
05:46
and it's not Latin women or men.
113
346100
2416
05:48
It's Asian women who are least likely to be promoted.
114
348540
3179
05:53
Capturing these stories and issues is part of my work
115
353068
3180
05:56
as a digital storyteller
116
356272
1833
05:58
that uses tech to make it easier for people to find these stories.
117
358129
3270
06:02
This year, I launched an online gallery of portraits and firsthand accounts
118
362079
5757
06:07
for a project called Enodi.
119
367860
1857
06:10
The goal of Enodi is to highlight first-generation immigrants just like me
120
370534
5719
06:16
who carry this kinship for the countries we grew up in,
121
376277
3963
06:21
for the countries of origin
122
381081
2349
06:24
and for this concept called "blackness."
123
384136
2238
06:27
I created this space to be a cyberhome for many of us who are misunderstood
124
387581
4880
06:32
in our different home countries.
125
392485
2332
06:35
There are millions of Enodis
126
395521
1817
06:37
who use hyphens to connect their countries of origin
127
397362
2719
06:40
with their various homes in the US
128
400105
3161
06:43
or Canada or Britain or Germany.
129
403290
3330
06:47
In fact, many people you might know are Enodi.
130
407195
2903
06:50
Actors Issa Rae and Idris Elba are Enodi.
131
410738
2848
06:53
Colin Powell,
132
413995
1319
06:55
former Attorney General Eric Holder,
133
415338
2579
06:57
former President of the United States, Barack Obama,
134
417941
2496
07:00
are all the children of African or Caribbean immigrants.
135
420461
2932
07:03
But how much do you know about us?
136
423842
1882
07:06
This complicated navigation
137
426694
3719
07:10
is not just the experience of first-generation folks.
138
430437
4264
07:15
We're so intertwined
139
435701
1998
07:17
in the lives and culture of people in North America and Europe,
140
437723
4953
07:22
that you might be surprised how critical we are
141
442700
2710
07:25
to your histories and future.
142
445434
1991
07:28
So, engage us in conversation;
143
448153
2278
07:31
discover who immigrants actually are,
144
451026
2102
07:33
and see us apart from characterizations
145
453152
3146
07:36
or limited media narratives
146
456322
1882
07:38
or even who we might appear to be.
147
458228
2361
07:41
We're walking melting pots of culture,
148
461336
3035
07:44
and if something in that pot smells new or different to you --
149
464395
3250
07:47
(Laughter)
150
467669
2095
07:49
don't turn up your nose.
151
469788
1590
07:52
Ask us to share.
152
472043
1224
07:53
Thank you.
153
473865
1193
07:55
(Applause)
154
475082
5041
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7