ad-free
Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-12
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_naBT43h4E
or go it is good to be back this is my eighth trip to Fargo North Dakota the first one taking place in a month not name December and it feels like a a foreign you know what's fascinating is the first time I came to Fargo my perception of the city this area was shaped by popular culture and Hollywood and comedy and I remember one of the
first things I did I went to your tourism center and I got a picture by the wood chipper because that's what I thought Fargo was about then I learned pretty quickly that was a stereotype you guys didn't like and the more I frequented Fargo it was incredible how quickly not to stereotype shatter but perceptions also crumbled and the way I started to view not just this
area but the people here changed you start from saying maybe a group of people at the outset the more you come in the more you get to know them and talk to them you find out there these complex characters they're not caricatures there well rounded and a group of people quickly turns into a collection of individuals the reason I bring that up because I'm first generation
our parents came here from India we know what stereotypes alike I was born in New Jersey grew up playing sports going to school doing things American kids do but %HESITATION serial types were unavoidable and I remembered the one stereotype that I hated growing up in that my community as an Indian American that we hated growing up was that of app who from the Simpson's I love
The Simpsons but that was such a caricature that was our version of Marge Gunderson and you rebel against that in your community doesn't like it you try your best to change it and then I discovered as I got older there is a little bit of hypocrisy that exists and as minority subcultures is an Indian American part of that community one of the things that I found
out was that you know we kind of have our own stereotypes our community and maybe we don't like the up who stereo type we put stereo types are wrong people my own community telling us what we can and can't do who we can be and can't be and great example that is you know is an Indian American growing up one of the things that you're expected
to do the expectation the cultural expectation is you going to a profession that's gonna make your money in you can be successful in their parents can brag about you in the number one profession on that list is is doctor now I know you're thinking it's a hell of a stereo type habits pretty good stereo type people lesson here are you are you a doctor if I'm
feeling like it sometimes a lie and also yes because few it's not the worst thing but if you're not a doctor in your not a war your engineer and IT guy on software sometimes your disappointment and that's not a label put on us by society at large that's a label we put on ourselves so if you have somebody from your community somebody from my community who
wants to be a painter a writer a musician sportscaster your first line of resistance is met by the people who look like you and I remember this from growing up I was very fortunate in that my parents were incredibly supportive of what I wanted to do my dad has a degree in accounting and he's been a professional photographers whole life so he can't tell me not
to pursue my dream but the reaction that I got from my community growing up and I knew I wanted to do I was fourteen fifteen years old which you can't do this you can't beat sportscaster why not it's what I love I love sports I grew up watching it I love studying I like the numbers I like the new ones why can't I do this all
worked really hard it's not what we did you do that you're not Indian enough you're too white and here I am thinking to myself well nobody else is told me this wise my community not even giving me the chance to get to that threshold rocket fail or succeed it's funny how it works and I started questioning you know why can't they just be supportive and I
might stepping out of bounds is there some arbitrary and th degree of ethnic authenticity I need to be neat to be considered a member of a group and that's just a drop my group and so I got frustrated and then I decided to do it anyway and one day I and the open yes piano and I got that job and you know it's funny all the
sudden I represented and I struggled with that for some time because I said right the same god that you I couldn't do it because of what I look like and where I was from and what my parents were from it because they have accents but I I got to the finish line and and now like I represent and the message that I want to put forward
is it's not where we need you you know we as minority sometimes like to put these labels on ourselves not black enough not Asian enough not Hispanic enough not brown enough not Indian enough was that means this is America we came here because we don't want to be defined by winds we don't want to be constricted by boundaries and instead that's what we're doing and what
we're we're not having somebody else do it for us romp totally aware yes there are some societal factors that may be can impact what you can do but maybe let's allow us to get to that threshold because we're really good at fighting against that when it happens but coming from our own we don't need that let's encourage our people let's encourage them at the starting line
let's encourage them when they get to mile marker thirteen in their thinking man I got some doubt I need a Cup of water I need a Pat on the back go finish the marathon but sometimes we discourage them to run the race entirely and that's always that's always troubled me and I I wanna tell your story here day to counter wrap things up about this experience
and where we can where we can go from it my first job in television was in a small city in central Washington Yakima and %HESITATION was making a lot of money was living in a small apartment and across the street we used to have all these %HESITATION drive through ba resistance and it's it's big in the state of Washington and you know couple times a week
I can maybe afford a a Cup of coffee from there so I pull up in one of these drive thru breezed is my first couple of weeks and I remembered the woman at the drive through liked the way I presented my order I think you know right yeah I'm on TV on on my bass and treble hitting all the notes he likes the way I sounded
mean no my ego is gonna propped up a little bit a little cave in then she asked a follow up question she said what what's your nationality if you don't mind me asking and the make things perfectly clear the was no mouse I think it was kind of genuine curiosity like no maybe I don't see a top people look like you and %HESITATION don't expect you
to sound the way you sound and so you know maybe me and try to have some fun with it I kinda deadpanned and I said my nationality American so that you don't know me what what were you from to which I replied New Jersey clearly not the answer she was looking for them things got a little bit awkward and she kind of started to stammer Noah
yeah you know what it's okay I'm I'm just gonna make your coffee it's gonna be on me in and get out of here because this conversation needs and what I tried to explain and I said I think what you meant to ask me is what's my ethnicity in my ethnicity is Indian my parents came here from India yeah but at this point you discounts are those
five cars behind of the coffees on me don't worry about pain don't worry about tip just go so I drive off but I'm thinking this whole time I am I'm like alright you know I I grew up in and people from my own community told me I was an Indian off and based on the way I look %HESITATION there's probably a segment of people who will
never look at me and say Hey there goes in America and it's something that I've always thought about you know you kinda get trapped in this vortex of of who are you you know what your cultural identity and I started to think I go you know this idea of what an American is what what what is an American what is the American way you know because
we're always trying to find that as a country will was talk about this is the American way the American it will look well what is that I love the New Jersey I live in North Carolina right now I have lived in upstate New York and Connecticut %HESITATION I've traveled the entire country covering various sports for ESPN I lived in central Washington and everywhere I go this
definition of what an American is it's different what you guys may think American is in North Dakota is different than well people North Carolina may think it's different put people in New Jersey may think people Connecticut may think well people in Texas may think so thought about it I thought about it I said you know what I don't have an answer but that's that's our strength
as a country we are division by zero and we are infinite and we continue to try to define who we are we doing these little subgroups we do it on a macro level and when we do what we close ourselves off the possibility if an Indian American can be a musician or artist or writer or a painter or sportscaster let's take those cultural shackles off because
that could potentially open the door for so many others from the community here in Fargo you guys don't like your stereotypes that you haven't I've seen the way that you've broken them in many ways with what you have in your football team here %HESITATION North Dakota state becoming this national brand but it comes back to this site de and that you know what what we're soul
into defining ourselves it's moved away from that we don't need a rigid definition of who we are because what's beautiful about our country and I say this through the prism of a first generation sort of immigrants it's beautiful about our country is that our nationalism isn't as defined as it is in other homogeneous cultures in Asia and Europe Africa you go all over you see all
