How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time | Baratunde Thurston

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2020

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Baratunde Thurston explores the phenomenon of white Americans calling the police on black Americans who have committed the crimes of ... eating, walking or generally "living while black." In this profound, thought-provoking and often hilarious talk, he reveals the power of language to change stories of trauma into stories of healing -- while challenging us all to level up.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Elise Hugh, and you're listening to TED Talks Daily.
0:07.7	As we wrestle with a breathtakingly difficult moment in American history,
0:12.4	we're bringing back an archive talk from my friend Baratune-Thurston.
0:16.6	In his talk from TED 2019, he breaks down the system of structural advantage that favors white people at the expense of people of color.
0:24.8	It's a powerful education and a call to action.
0:28.3	If you're witnessing this moment in America's unfinished work on racial equality,
0:32.6	this talk will leave you smarter and better prepared to see the structures hurting so many people.
0:42.0	My parents gave me an extraordinary name.
0:47.3	Baratunde, Rafique, Thurston.
0:52.9	Now, Baratunde is based on a Yoruba name from Nigeria, but we're not Nigerian.
0:58.6	That's just how black my mama was.
1:01.5	Get this boy the blackest name possible.
1:03.9	What does the book say?
1:06.6	Rafiq is an Arabic name, but we are not Arabs.
1:10.1	My mom just wanted me to have difficulty boarding planes in the 21st century.
1:15.6	She foresaw America's turn toward nativism.
1:18.7	She was a black futurist.
1:22.1	Thurston is a British name, but we are not British.
1:26.7	Shout out to the multi-generational dehumanizing economic institution of American
1:30.9	child's slavery, though.
1:33.0	Also, Thurston makes for a great Starbucks name, really expedites the process.
1:40.7	My mother was a Renaissance woman.
	...

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