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What we don't know about Europe's Muslim kids

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    When I was a child,
    I knew I had superpowers.
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    That's right.
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    I thought I was absolutely amazing
    because I could understand
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    and relate to the feelings
    of brown people, like my grandfather,
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    a conservative Muslim guy.
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    And also, I could understand
    my Afghan mother, my Pakistani father,
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    not so religious but
    laid-back, fairly liberal.
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    And of course, I could understand
    and relate to the feelings of white people.
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    The white Norwegians of my country.
    You know, white, brown, whatever,
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    I loved them all. I understood them all,
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    even if they didn't always
    understand each other,
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    they were all my people.
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    My father, though,
    was always really worried.
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    He kept saying that
    even with the best education,
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    I was not going to get a fair shake.
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    I would still face discrimination,
    according to him, and that they only way
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    to be accepted by white people
    would be to become famous.
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    Now mind you, he had this conversation
    with me when I was seven-years-old.
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    So while I'm seven-years-old,
    he said, look,
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    soo its either got to be sports,
    or its got to be music.
Title:
What we don't know about Europe's Muslim kids
Speaker:
Deeyah Khan
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
20:11

English subtitles

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