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00:00:11,392 --> 00:00:13,665
Whenever I travel,

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00:00:13,665 --> 00:00:17,585
I carry a little metal box
of Altoids mints

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00:00:17,585 --> 00:00:23,463
because after a four-hour,
7 AM flight, everyone has bad breath,

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00:00:23,463 --> 00:00:28,164
so almost anyone
is willing to take the mint

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00:00:28,164 --> 00:00:30,895
from the Muslim on the airplane.

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(Laughter)

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00:00:33,174 --> 00:00:37,915
And I know I've been successful
when my neighbor turns and asks,

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"So, what's your name?"

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00:00:41,365 --> 00:00:45,615
You see, even if there was
an elephant in the room,

10
00:00:46,205 --> 00:00:48,835
I'm still the elephant in the room.

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00:00:48,835 --> 00:00:49,955
(Cheer) Yeah!

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00:00:49,955 --> 00:00:53,546
When an elephant
offers you mints on an airplane,

13
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I'm fully aware that
it's not always easy to accept,

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so when the courageously curious
do pop the what's-your-name question,

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I try to make it worth their while.

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(Laughter)

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My name is Amal.

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It means 'hope' in Arabic.

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Most days my name is waitress
at my family's Damascus restaurant,

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full-time university student
and then some,

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pre-law, world traveler, 11 countries.

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My name is I've performed poetry
in eight of those countries.

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(Cheers) (Applause)

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International spoken word poet,
unapologetic Muslim woman.

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Syrian, American, hijabi,
activist, social justice advocate.

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My name is writer, teacher,
Colorado-born Mile High baby!

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00:01:49,332 --> 00:01:50,762
(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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00:01:52,492 --> 00:01:57,063
But at the airport,
my name is random search.

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(Laughter)

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And on the street, it's terrorist,

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sand nigger, raghead, oppressed,

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and on the news, it's ISIS,

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jihadi,

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suspect,

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radical.

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My name is, "Could your Muslim
neighbor be an extremist?"

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My mama, who wears the hijab,
the Islamic headdress,

39
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is often referred to as
"Go back to you country,"

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but she's from Iowa!

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(Laughter)

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And her nickname is Lisa Pizza.

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(Laughter)

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And it does not take more
than a couple questions

45
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to figure out that her country
is the Council Bluffs cornfields.

46
00:02:47,057 --> 00:02:48,247
(Laughter)

47
00:02:48,247 --> 00:02:52,248
But, how would someone
know this without asking?

48
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They say the shortest distance
between two people is a story.

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Well, I elaborate on that to say
that the greatest distance you can travel

50
00:03:03,119 --> 00:03:07,720
in the shortest amount of time,
is by asking someone their name.

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00:03:08,550 --> 00:03:13,471
The way we name ourselves
is a reflection of who we are,

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our declarations, family histories,
the things we believe,

53
00:03:18,041 --> 00:03:22,869
the morals we abide by,
our homes, cultures, transformations.

54
00:03:23,269 --> 00:03:29,092
Like a Mohammed turned Mo,
or a Lisa Pizza turned Iman.

55
00:03:29,892 --> 00:03:36,514
And how we name others, and how,
if, we allow others to name themselves

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is a reflection of our own declarations,

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of our courage, and our fear.

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The malleability of a person's story
must be self-determined,

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coming from the lips of the storyteller,

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not the anchorman, not the megaphone,

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not even the scarf on her head
or the melanin in his skin,

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because no one can speak
the names of billions in one breath,

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unless it's in prayer,

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and oftentimes when we generalize,
it isn't because we're praying.

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And when we don't ask someone their name,
we're not asking for their story.

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In the world of mass media
and rampant misinformation,

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it is hard for anyone, including myself,

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00:04:30,898 --> 00:04:35,578
to deconstruct all these
terrifying stories that we hear.

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Sometimes, instead of isolating them,
individualizing them,

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we tend to paint a group of people
with a broad brush,

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until suddenly, everyone with a hijab on
is a raghead that needs liberating,

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or everyone with white skin
is a racist cracker,

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or everyone with black skin
is a fatherless nigger,

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00:05:00,861 --> 00:05:04,201
or everybody who looks like my father
is going to blow up the airplane,

75
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or if the killer had a light complexion,
he's just a mentally fragile lone wolf.

76
00:05:08,912 --> 00:05:10,293
And we come to this point

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where we feel like we don't even need
to ask people their names

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because we already gave it to them.

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In Europe right now,
a monumental name change is taking place

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that has completely transformed
a humanitarian responsibility.

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Countries are deporting refugees,

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but when you watch news coverage,

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these refugees
are being referred to as migrants.

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Because let's face it, deporting migrants
sounds way more reasonable

85
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than deporting individuals
who have been forced to flee their country

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because of persecution,
war, and violence -

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the United Nations definition of refugee.

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(Applause)

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00:06:05,172 --> 00:06:07,902
And in naming these people this way,

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we've attributed to them a choice
instead of a circumstance,

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some economic gain instead
of a desperation to flee a war zone.

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These little ones
are refugees, not migrants.

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I took this photo last year
at a refugee camp

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on the Syrian-Turkish border,
and contrary to popular belief,

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they aren't poisons.

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They're not here to steal our democracy 
or to take over our neighborhoods.

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They're people,

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families who wish that they could go home

99
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but have had to make
that home somewhere else.

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And we've come to this point,
where the word 'migrant'

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essentially means piles of brown,
foreign-speaking people,

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and we end up forgetting
that there was a point where some people

103
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would've considered
those who looked like this

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00:07:14,356 --> 00:07:16,177
to be migrants as well.

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(Applause)

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Right, though?

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(Applause)

108
00:07:24,888 --> 00:07:29,268
And it is in this forgetfulness
that we assume,

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monopolize on people's stories,
attribute their race, social class,

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religions, clothing to the names
that we chose for them.

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Terrorism is a fine
modern-day example, unfortunately.

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In the past few years,

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so much violence
has just spread across our country,

114
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but when you watch the news,
there's always a specification

115
00:07:58,260 --> 00:08:01,060
as to whether or not
terrorism was involved,

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which I think we all know
means the killer looked like this.

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[Arab dude]

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Which...

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00:08:07,230 --> 00:08:08,552
(Laughter)

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He's a babe!

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00:08:09,716 --> 00:08:11,458
Which must mean...

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00:08:11,458 --> 00:08:13,010
(Laughter)

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Which must mean that the killer,
of course, pledges his allegiance to this.

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[ISIS]

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Right?

126
00:08:20,063 --> 00:08:25,685
But correct me if I'm wrong, news coverage
does in fact tend to be a little different

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00:08:26,195 --> 00:08:28,514
when the terrorist looks like this.

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00:08:28,514 --> 00:08:31,514
[Robert Dear, Planned Parenthood Shooter]

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00:08:31,514 --> 00:08:33,684
(Applause)

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And it ultimately
has us forgetting that terrorism,

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by definition of terrorism,


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has always come in all shapes

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[Ku Klux Klan]

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and colors.

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00:08:49,786 --> 00:08:52,066
[Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City Bomber]

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00:08:52,066 --> 00:08:53,567
(Cheers) (Applause)

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00:08:55,737 --> 00:09:01,027
And what happens when we confine
certain names with certain depictions,

138
00:09:01,027 --> 00:09:04,777
wrongfully excluding some
and including others,

139
00:09:05,237 --> 00:09:10,758
we end up caging masses of people
under a name that says 'dangerous,'

140
00:09:10,758 --> 00:09:12,588
even if they're nowhere near it.

141
00:09:12,898 --> 00:09:17,349
Like when we say 'thug'
instead of 17-year-old black child.

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00:09:17,349 --> 00:09:18,159
[Trayvon Martin]

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00:09:18,159 --> 00:09:21,308
When we say 'alien'
instead of 'immigrant.'

144
00:09:21,748 --> 00:09:26,159
When we say 'lazy poor people'
instead of 'unequal wealth distribution.'

145
00:09:26,159 --> 00:09:29,039
When we say 'bomb' instead of 'clock.'

146
00:09:29,039 --> 00:09:30,790
[Ahmed Mohammad, clock inventor]

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00:09:30,790 --> 00:09:32,130
(Applause) (Cheers)

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00:09:39,011 --> 00:09:42,841
This man's name is Craig Hicks.

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00:09:44,381 --> 00:09:46,821
He's often referred to
as a parking dispute,

150
00:09:46,821 --> 00:09:53,262
but his real name is a man who shot
and killed three Americans in their homes,

151
00:09:53,262 --> 00:09:58,261
in their heads, execution style
because they were Muslim.

152
00:09:58,922 --> 00:10:01,572
His name is hate crime.

153
00:10:02,792 --> 00:10:06,054
Their names are Deah, Yusor, and Razan,

154
00:10:06,494 --> 00:10:11,004
a 23 year old, 21, and 19.

155
00:10:11,884 --> 00:10:17,844
Deah and Yusor were just named
husband and wife, newlyweds,

156
00:10:18,294 --> 00:10:20,544
and the three were known
by their loved ones

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00:10:20,544 --> 00:10:24,885
as sons and daughters, brothers,
sisters, students, activists,

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00:10:24,885 --> 00:10:28,106
Instagrammers, tax payers, Americans.

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00:10:28,906 --> 00:10:35,358
But now, their names
are too young to have been taken,

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00:10:36,278 --> 00:10:40,006
their names are rest in peace,
Allah Yerhamo.

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00:10:41,206 --> 00:10:44,898
Hicks did not ask them their name.

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00:10:45,918 --> 00:10:49,457
He assigned it to them
when he assigned them each a bullet,

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00:10:49,457 --> 00:10:55,209
named them a threat to his America,
and as a result, took their lives.

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00:10:57,777 --> 00:11:01,008
This is a photo
on Dia and Yusor's wedding day.

165
00:11:01,868 --> 00:11:03,539
It's so beautiful.

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00:11:05,219 --> 00:11:08,549
They were killed
before they could even see this.

167
00:11:10,439 --> 00:11:14,189
Studies show that during
breaking news coverage,

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00:11:14,189 --> 00:11:18,050
the first story is the one
that sticks, even if it isn't true.

169
00:11:18,790 --> 00:11:20,611
Like during the Paris attacks,

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00:11:20,611 --> 00:11:22,860
when there was talk
that refugees were dangerous

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00:11:22,860 --> 00:11:24,631
because they found a passport,

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00:11:24,631 --> 00:11:29,531
only to later confirm that there were
no Syrians or refugees involved.

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00:11:30,541 --> 00:11:33,981
But when we have such
a huge habit of misnaming people,

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00:11:33,981 --> 00:11:37,412
it's easy to overlook
these kinds of mistakes.

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00:11:37,412 --> 00:11:42,052
And this is exemplary
of what happens in a culture of fear.

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00:11:42,912 --> 00:11:46,312
In a society that doesn't ask
one another their names,

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00:11:46,682 --> 00:11:48,653
you end up with the mouth of an anchorman

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00:11:48,653 --> 00:11:51,304
or the mouth of a gun
doing all the talking.

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00:11:52,724 --> 00:11:55,304
On September 11th, 2001,

180
00:11:55,984 --> 00:12:00,494
I attended a private K-8 Islamic school,

181
00:12:01,744 --> 00:12:04,364
and within the first hours of the tragedy,

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00:12:04,364 --> 00:12:07,124
my school received two bomb threats.

183
00:12:07,944 --> 00:12:11,886
The word 'terrorist'
was not on my spelling list,

184
00:12:12,546 --> 00:12:16,336
but all of us kids picked it up
pretty soon after.

185
00:12:16,936 --> 00:12:20,462
And in naming us terrorists
amidst this mass tragedy

186
00:12:20,462 --> 00:12:23,907
that affected us as Americans too,

187
00:12:23,907 --> 00:12:25,518
in the words of Dalia Mogahed,

188
00:12:25,518 --> 00:12:29,008
we were not just mourners,
but we were suspects as well.

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00:12:29,588 --> 00:12:32,669
But, a few months ago,

190
00:12:32,669 --> 00:12:36,939
me and my very handsome,
white-boy-looking brother named Usama

191
00:12:37,869 --> 00:12:42,566
were at the museum
buying planetarium tickets,

192
00:12:42,566 --> 00:12:45,811
and an elderly white man
walked up to me and said,

193
00:12:47,001 --> 00:12:50,428
"I'm sorry about everything
you must be going through right now.

194
00:12:51,248 --> 00:12:56,652
I want you to know that not all Americans
believe what these buffoons are saying."

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00:12:57,122 --> 00:12:58,151
(Applause)

196
00:12:58,151 --> 00:13:00,480
"Yeah, he used the word 'buffoons!'"

197
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:02,129
(Applause)

198
00:13:03,952 --> 00:13:08,150
And he said, "I want you to know
that we stand by you."

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00:13:09,250 --> 00:13:13,691
Now, had I not been wearing
a little piece of my identity on my head,

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00:13:14,271 --> 00:13:16,423
he wouldn't have known to tell me this.

201
00:13:16,863 --> 00:13:19,685
And even though he didn't ask me
what my name was,

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00:13:19,685 --> 00:13:21,803
he instead told me his.

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00:13:22,513 --> 00:13:28,934
I have learned from experience
that when someone really wants to know,

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00:13:28,934 --> 00:13:33,045
they will be willing to cross
that threshold of fear

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00:13:33,045 --> 00:13:35,544
and find out that my name means hope.

206
00:13:35,944 --> 00:13:41,586
And then, they'll have the courage
to ask the much more important questions

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00:13:41,586 --> 00:13:45,516
that probably only I can answer, like,

208
00:13:45,926 --> 00:13:48,116
"What's that thing on your head?

209
00:13:49,006 --> 00:13:50,897
Were you forced to wear it?

210
00:13:51,627 --> 00:13:54,236
Are all Muslims really violent people?

211
00:13:54,236 --> 00:13:57,437
Does the Quran
really say to kill all of us?

212
00:13:57,437 --> 00:14:00,769
Can you please tell me
what's up with ISIS?"

213
00:14:01,069 --> 00:14:04,488
And these questions,
though seemingly uncomfortable,

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00:14:05,148 --> 00:14:09,169
are how I know that I have been humanized,

215
00:14:09,629 --> 00:14:13,529
and are how the courageously curious
know that really,

216
00:14:13,529 --> 00:14:17,289
I'm only as scary
as the silence fear festers in.

217
00:14:18,329 --> 00:14:23,059
Upon meeting someone new,
we ask their names.

218
00:14:23,439 --> 00:14:25,161
We do not assign it to them.

219
00:14:25,911 --> 00:14:29,351
And with that name, we are given ancestry,

220
00:14:29,351 --> 00:14:32,211
bloodlines and dialects, books and poems,

221
00:14:32,211 --> 00:14:36,332
perspectives, wars, struggles,
and survival stories.

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00:14:36,952 --> 00:14:40,852
"What's your name?"
is such a short distance to cross,

223
00:14:41,212 --> 00:14:43,503
but when you ask me, oh, buddy!

224
00:14:43,503 --> 00:14:48,252
I will take you from Kuala Lumpur
to Barcelona to Beirut.

225
00:14:48,252 --> 00:14:52,522
We're going to go to Damascus,
to Sydney, to Trinidad and Tobago.

226
00:14:52,522 --> 00:14:54,424
I will show you Mecca,

227
00:14:54,424 --> 00:14:57,803
my closet with 70-plus
international scarves,

228
00:14:57,803 --> 00:15:02,303
the graves of my 31 family members
who've been killed in Syria,

229
00:15:02,303 --> 00:15:05,884
the coffee shop that I hang out at
and do my homework.

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00:15:06,694 --> 00:15:13,664
But we must have the courage
to claim our curiosity,

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00:15:14,914 --> 00:15:20,576
to go beyond anything we ever knew,
anything we ever feared.

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00:15:21,236 --> 00:15:22,806
But it takes two:

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00:15:24,146 --> 00:15:26,666
the elephant who offers the mint

234
00:15:28,426 --> 00:15:30,366
and the one who takes it.

235
00:15:31,356 --> 00:15:33,628
(Applause)

236
00:15:33,628 --> 00:15:35,756
(Cheers)