Michael Rain: What it's like to be the child of immigrants
迈克尔·瑞恩: 身为二代移民是什么感觉?
TED Resident Michael Rain communicates ideas through written and visual stories. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
when I was in the third grade,
有一天早上,
叫“富富”的加纳式主食去学校。
with a Ghanaian staple dish called "fufu."
made of cassava,
由木薯做成,
which is a dark orange color,
would keep me warm on a cold day.
它能在那样一个冷天为我暖身。
and I opened my thermos,
What's a fufu?" they asked.
他们又问。
send me to school with fufu again.
别再让我带富富去学校了。
or chicken noodle soup
或者鸡肉汤面,
that my friends were eating.
我的朋友们吃的食物。
between what was unique to my family
什么是非洲人,
came to the US almost 50 years ago.
差不多五十年前就到了美国。
in a northern region of Ghana,
his bachelor's degree in accounting
几年后也和父亲一样移民美国。
joined him years later.
in lower Manhattan,
her own women's clothing store.
开了一间自己的女装店。
around the world
these different classifications.
or Korean-Americans or Nigerian-Brits.
韩裔美国人或是尼尔利亚裔英国人。
and experiences different
in a country different than our parents,
和父母亲的不一样,
狭隘的眼光看待我们,
to the largest number of immigrants
in a place like New York,
很容易就能找到自己的位置。
person to find their place.
that formed my understanding
a student asked me
that his parents told him
为了躲避死亡、饥饿以及疾病,
who come to the US
and they laughed a bit,
而是因为它只是一种宽泛的概括。
but because it was a generalization.
他们在加纳吃喝无忧,
enough to eat in Ghana
被问到的问题也更复杂。
more complex as I got older.
of black American students,
why I sounded differently than they did
为什么我的口音和他们不一样,
different than theirs.
“你真是黑人吗?”
and he shared his own confusion
对“黑人” 真正含义的困惑。
when he first came to the US.
when he was in Ghana, everyone was black,
大家都是一样的黑人,
would only consider me to be
and complex cultural issues
哪一个移民群体是增长最快的?
in the United States,
tell me it's Latinos,
immigrant demographic?
but it's actually African immigrants.
答案却依然是非裔移民。
out of the eight countries
八个所谓的有“旅行禁令”国家中,
Muslims only live in the Middle East,
的穆斯林只居住在中东,
banned people are Africans.
and policy and religion,
about immigrants are incorrect.
like workplace diversity and inclusion,
比如工作场合的多样性及包容性,
gender-ethnicity combination
to senior managerial positions,
least likely to be promoted.
我的工作内容就包括
is part of my work
for people to find these stories.
of portraits and firsthand accounts
和一手资料的在线展览馆,
first-generation immigrants just like me
类似我这样的第一代移民,
for the countries we grew up in,
for many of us who are misunderstood
我们这些在各自国家被误解的移民
their countries of origin
英国或德国的家
you might know are Enodi.
许多你可能认识的人都是Enodi。
States, Barack Obama,
or Caribbean immigrants.
of first-generation folks.
in North America and Europe,
how critical we are
用另一种眼光看待我们。
全新的或不同的气味——
smells new or different to you --
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Rain - Digital storytellerTED Resident Michael Rain communicates ideas through written and visual stories.
Why you should listen
Michael Rain communicates ideas through written and visual stories. He is the creator of ENODI, a digital gallery that chronicles the lives of first-generation Black immigrants of African, Caribbean and Latinx descent, and the co-founder of the emerging tech startup ZNews Africa, a Google, Facebook and Microsoft accelerator member that builds mobile app, email and web products.
Rain's creative and commercial work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, Upscale Magazine and the Harlem Arts Festival. He has moderated panels and delivered remarks on entrepreneurship and digital media at major events and conferences at the US Department of State, Harvard Business School, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and the NYU Stern School of Business.
Rain earned a BA in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations from Columbia University. He is a 2017 TED Resident and a fellow at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is Ghanaian-American, a lifelong New Yorker and Brooklyn native.
Michael Rain | Speaker | TED.com