What it's like to be the child of immigrants | Michael Rain
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2018
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Rain is on a mission to tell the stories of first-generation immigrants, who have strong ties both to the countries they grew up in and their countries of origin. In a personal talk, he breaks down the mischaracterizations and limited narratives of immigrants and shares the stories of the worlds they belong to. "We're walking melting pots of culture," Rain says. "If something in that pot smells new or different to you, don't turn up your nose. Ask us to share."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This TED Talk features art and technology entrepreneur Michael Rain, recorded live at TED residency 2017. |
| 0:09.6 | I remember one morning when I was in the third grade. My mom sent me to school with a Ghanaian staple dish called foo. |
| 0:19.6 | Fufu is this white ball of starch made of cassava, |
| 0:23.6 | and it's served with light soup, |
| 0:25.6 | which is a dark orange color, |
| 0:27.6 | and contains chicken and their beef. |
| 0:30.6 | It's a savory, flavorful dish |
| 0:32.6 | that my mom thought would keep me warm on a cold day. |
| 0:35.6 | When I got to lunch and I opened my thermos, |
| 0:39.7 | releasing these new smells into the air, |
| 0:42.6 | my friends did not react favorably. |
| 0:46.4 | What's that? |
| 0:47.6 | One of them asked. |
| 0:49.4 | It's foo, I responded. |
| 0:52.5 | Oh, that smells funny. |
| 0:54.4 | What's a foo? |
| 0:55.3 | They asked. |
| 0:57.0 | Their reaction made me lose my appetite. |
| 0:59.8 | I begged my mother to never send me to school with foo again. |
| 1:04.0 | I asked her to make me sandwiches or chicken noodle soup |
| 1:07.2 | or any of the other foods that my friends were eating. |
| 1:10.2 | And this is one of the first times I began to notice the distinction |
... |
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