We Aren't Who We Think We Are

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every family has a myth about who they are and where they came from. And there are a lot of reasons people tell these stories. Sometimes it's to make your family seem like they were part of an important historical event. Other times, it's to hide something that is too painful to talk about. That last point can be especially true for African American families.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jean Demby.
0:01.2	I'm Shireen Madisole-Maraghi and this is Code Switch.
0:04.8	From NPR. Shireen, all right.
0:07.2	So I have a way of question for you.
0:09.2	Um, does your family have any stories that they tell themselves,
0:14.2	about themselves that are not exactly true?
0:18.2	Uh, I feel like every family has these types of stories.
0:22.4	I can think of two off the top of my head.
0:24.4	On my Puerto Rican side, my T.D. Lucy is totally convinced or was
0:28.8	resting piece, T.D. Lucy was totally convinced that we are related to the actor Benicio de
0:33.8	Thoro. This is probably something I could figure out, but I have not tried to do that.
0:38.2	I don't think it's true. It could be true.
0:40.6	And then on my dad's side, on my Iranian side, we're supposed to be direct descendants
0:45.0	of the prophet Mohammed.
0:47.0	Oh, wow. I don't even know how you find out if that's true or not.
0:51.8	It would be dope if it was true, but I don't think it's true.
0:56.0	Yeah. It also is the story is too good.
0:58.3	It's like too good to check, too good to check.
1:00.3	Yes. I don't even want to check.
1:01.6	Yes, I am a direct descendent of the prophet Mohammed.
1:04.7	Well, the truth is just about every family has some sort of myth or story that they tell
1:09.8	themselves about who they are.
	...

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