so I shall ask quickly who here is a
first-generation immigrant so that’s the
way of me asking who here wasn’t born in
Canada today we have a lot of hands up
alright so let me ask you another
question that’s completely unrelated
have you ever wondered why magazine
covers or TV shows or movies or
billboard ads don’t have any anybody
that really looks like you let me ask
you another question actually if those
magazine covers TV shows or billboard
ads had a more diverse representation
women man race sexual orientation how
might that influence you from buying
those magazines watching those movies or
TV shows more recently I was at my
parents house and I like to collect
magazines from all over the world for
fashion and design magazines and I
realize out of 55 magazines that have
collected over the years none of them
have someone on the cover that’s not
that’s not a van on white race Oh male
or female and more recently I was
actually thinking about this I am more
likely to want to do a business
partnership or engage in social venture
with the white male then I am with one
of my own race this may seem shocking to
some of you but it shouldn’t be because
I was originally born in Congo actually
a country that’s been colonized by
belgium and i immigrated to canada not
so long ago and both in congo and in
canada I’ve only been taught about
characters or political leaders or
wealthy businessman on TV that are white
males now I know this is TEDx sfu or an
educated crowd who do not have any
prejudice or just carry to review stores
others we know better well last semester
in my master’s program here at us a few
i’m a proud alumni my professor asked us
in class
do you think that a woman of African
descent was black can have the same
world impact as dr. Paul Farmer or
fair enough unanimously in a class of
about thirty graduate students everyone
said no it’s 2016 guys this is a problem
at the age of eight i immigrated canada
in the city of Montreal with my family
and I quickly realize that the way women
who look like me are perceived by
society is not always positive or were
there many of us in the media promoted
as a success story for me to look up to
in my preteens I never understood why
every magazine cover have the same
looking girl on it usually big perky
breasts which is very hard to find real
in reality blue eyes blonde hair really
skinny and at that age I wasn’t familiar
with photoshop so I really thought that
for me to think of myself as beautiful
or feel beautiful I had to look like
that during my teens when I would watch
Nickelodeon or white TV on Saturday
mornings I never understood why none of
the character and characters ever look
like me from my hair my body shape I
love my curves my skin color none and
all of this I was observing at the age
of eight now let’s fast forward a little
bit at the age of 19 I’ll end in my
first internship at the World Health
Organization in Kinshasa where I was
originally from and I was really honored
to be part of boardroom meetings with
international agency members from all
over the world where one stakeholder
told me that as an African idian I get
to speak up at these meetings because
I’m perceived as a white woman living in
so a very intellectual powerful person
told me that I was an Oreo yes yes now
during my master’s program my professors
explained to me that the way particular
groups are portrayed by society goes
back to poorly documented historical
facts that continues to be poorly taught
in classrooms such facts no Google
search will elaborate on Google is not
going to elaborate on how certain groups
of people continue to be treated poorly
Google is not going to talk about that
because let’s be honest it’s
uncomfortable to talk about nobody wants
to talk about it it’s not a sexy topic
it leads to many of us feeling so guilty
in the fact that we’re on able to tackle
the issue now at the age of 16 I had the
chance of visiting South Africa for the
very first time where I got to see the
prison where Mandela spent his last few
years behind bars and I’ll never forget
until this day there was a quote beside
the jalsa from a book which collected
all of Mandela’s popular and famous
speeches and until this day I have this
very quote memorized to be free is to
live in a way that respects and enhances
the freedom of others our human
compassion binds us to one another not
in pity not patronizing Lee but as
humans who have learned to turn outcome
now I really believe that it is possible
for our society to change the historical
portrayals of particular groups we
notified that to occur there’s a need
for social change and for social change
to occur there’s a need for a paradigm
shift first in order for that to occur
we must recognize our very own innate
and inherited by sees again we must
recognize our innate and internalized by
sees which we all have this includes
recognizing that those who you are at
least exposed to are usually the ones
that you have the most prejudiced
towards this includes recognizing that
the majority of your life has been lived
in particular spaces of dominance where
when you’re in elementary school your
teacher would unknowingly teacher about
particular characters that would uplift
particular groups at the expense of
others this includes recognizing your
position of power and supremacy which we
all exercise on others without any care
any conscious or any thoughts that’s why
it is so critical to recognize the harsh
reality live by others and only through
exposing yourself to those with lived
experiences that are different from your
own will you allow yourself to shift
these misconception that you continue to
exercise on others and it is so critical
to always be reflective of our own
biases it’s not comfortable but you have
to do it and only then will you shift
the discourse that continues to uphold
social inequities not inequalities with
social inequities secondly once we
recognize these internalized biases we
must address it and I truly believe that
we can address these biases by creating
safe spaces safe spaces are where we
learn to be comfortable with
uncomfortable topics safe spaces are
where we have this way of challenging
the elephant in the room we all either
do it or see it so much we’ll talk about
it safe spaces must happen anywhere and
everywhere from coffee shops to
restaurant to classrooms to TEDx
anywhere human
dialogue can stimulate these
conversations and shift our
misconception of others and that way we
can address the social myth that
continue to undermine prejudice views
that we exercise on others when you hear
the story of graduate students here at
sfu not not agree with the idea of a
black mother teresa our black women have
ever having the impact that mother
Teresa had on the world your heart aches
and I SAT there in class and there’s a
voice in my head that said you’re never
going to be as successful or no matter
how hard you try you’re never going to
get to the top you know guys it’s
exhausting I wish I was part of a
society where when I walked down the
street or when I’m at a bar here in
Vancouver some people don’t look at me
weird I wish to someone like Beyonce yes
the queen bee I love her when she
released a song like formation which she
talks about the issues that many blacks
enough or african-americans I should
specify continue to live that she didn’t
get a lot of backlash for it I wish that
when I walked down the street and I see
beautiful muslim woman wearing a head
job or a niqab that people behind them
are not whispering things like terrorism
bomb dropper or I Qaeda I wish that
Asian women were not seen as some kind
of weird fetish for their subordinate
ways we’ve all seen mulan asian women
I wish that my friend who just came out
to her family about being a lesbian was
not this owned by her family or she
didn’t fear that when she’s at work
she’ll be discriminated for her sexual
orientation I wish that I was part of a
generation that was more familiar with
terms like intersectionality I wish that
more of us when we take the bus 135 a
walk down down the East Side area in
Hastings we didn’t just look at the
population as they’re from a pitiful I
but we ask ourselves why is it that
indigenous Canadians first nation in and
so forth are disproportionately way more
impoverished than any other racial
groups and saying that they choose to be
poor it’s garbage I come from a
third-world country poverty is not a
choice nor is it great trust me i wish
the more of us in this generation we’re
familiar with terms like
institutionalized racism write that down
if you don’t know what that is i wish i
wish that black man that are perceived
on television were more than just
violent rappers seeing vulgarity because
that’s what the industry wants and I
wish oh I wish that more of us will be
more curious to inquire about other
people’s culture because after all the
majority of us here are immigrants I
wish that some of you would come up to
me and ask me but my culture I love it I
asked me what about black hair maybe
people find their very interesting ask
it’s okay to be curious if anything it’s
a good thing but what’s not okay is
internalize these biases that we all
have and lie to yourself in thinking
that you’re not acting on those biases
you are whether you like it or not
that’s why I chose to speak here today
because it’s crazy to me that in the
year 2016 a group of well-educated
graduate student from an institution
that prides itself in engaging the world
is training future leaders who don’t
believe that a woman like myself could
guys I’ll see it again recognize those
internal biases which we all have
address it in an environment that’s
welcoming where you create the space
that you have to create it where you
welcome these conversations where you
open minded in being comfortable with
what’s up may seem as uncomfortable that
way we stop putting particular groups of
people in a box of limitations thank you [Applause]
first-generation immigrant so that’s the
way of me asking who here wasn’t born in
Canada today we have a lot of hands up
alright so let me ask you another
question that’s completely unrelated
have you ever wondered why magazine
covers or TV shows or movies or
billboard ads don’t have any anybody
that really looks like you let me ask
you another question actually if those
magazine covers TV shows or billboard
ads had a more diverse representation
women man race sexual orientation how
might that influence you from buying
those magazines watching those movies or
TV shows more recently I was at my
parents house and I like to collect
magazines from all over the world for
fashion and design magazines and I
realize out of 55 magazines that have
collected over the years none of them
have someone on the cover that’s not
that’s not a van on white race Oh male
or female and more recently I was
actually thinking about this I am more
likely to want to do a business
partnership or engage in social venture
with the white male then I am with one
of my own race this may seem shocking to
some of you but it shouldn’t be because
I was originally born in Congo actually
a country that’s been colonized by
belgium and i immigrated to canada not
so long ago and both in congo and in
canada I’ve only been taught about
characters or political leaders or
wealthy businessman on TV that are white
males now I know this is TEDx sfu or an
educated crowd who do not have any
prejudice or just carry to review stores
others we know better well last semester
in my master’s program here at us a few
i’m a proud alumni my professor asked us
in class
do you think that a woman of African
descent was black can have the same
world impact as dr. Paul Farmer or
fair enough unanimously in a class of
about thirty graduate students everyone
said no it’s 2016 guys this is a problem
at the age of eight i immigrated canada
in the city of Montreal with my family
and I quickly realize that the way women
who look like me are perceived by
society is not always positive or were
there many of us in the media promoted
as a success story for me to look up to
in my preteens I never understood why
every magazine cover have the same
looking girl on it usually big perky
breasts which is very hard to find real
in reality blue eyes blonde hair really
skinny and at that age I wasn’t familiar
with photoshop so I really thought that
for me to think of myself as beautiful
or feel beautiful I had to look like
that during my teens when I would watch
Nickelodeon or white TV on Saturday
mornings I never understood why none of
the character and characters ever look
like me from my hair my body shape I
love my curves my skin color none and
all of this I was observing at the age
of eight now let’s fast forward a little
bit at the age of 19 I’ll end in my
first internship at the World Health
Organization in Kinshasa where I was
originally from and I was really honored
to be part of boardroom meetings with
international agency members from all
over the world where one stakeholder
told me that as an African idian I get
to speak up at these meetings because
I’m perceived as a white woman living in
so a very intellectual powerful person
told me that I was an Oreo yes yes now
during my master’s program my professors
explained to me that the way particular
groups are portrayed by society goes
back to poorly documented historical
facts that continues to be poorly taught
in classrooms such facts no Google
search will elaborate on Google is not
going to elaborate on how certain groups
of people continue to be treated poorly
Google is not going to talk about that
because let’s be honest it’s
uncomfortable to talk about nobody wants
to talk about it it’s not a sexy topic
it leads to many of us feeling so guilty
in the fact that we’re on able to tackle
the issue now at the age of 16 I had the
chance of visiting South Africa for the
very first time where I got to see the
prison where Mandela spent his last few
years behind bars and I’ll never forget
until this day there was a quote beside
the jalsa from a book which collected
all of Mandela’s popular and famous
speeches and until this day I have this
very quote memorized to be free is to
live in a way that respects and enhances
the freedom of others our human
compassion binds us to one another not
in pity not patronizing Lee but as
humans who have learned to turn outcome
now I really believe that it is possible
for our society to change the historical
portrayals of particular groups we
notified that to occur there’s a need
for social change and for social change
to occur there’s a need for a paradigm
shift first in order for that to occur
we must recognize our very own innate
and inherited by sees again we must
recognize our innate and internalized by
sees which we all have this includes
recognizing that those who you are at
least exposed to are usually the ones
that you have the most prejudiced
towards this includes recognizing that
the majority of your life has been lived
in particular spaces of dominance where
when you’re in elementary school your
teacher would unknowingly teacher about
particular characters that would uplift
particular groups at the expense of
others this includes recognizing your
position of power and supremacy which we
all exercise on others without any care
any conscious or any thoughts that’s why
it is so critical to recognize the harsh
reality live by others and only through
exposing yourself to those with lived
experiences that are different from your
own will you allow yourself to shift
these misconception that you continue to
exercise on others and it is so critical
to always be reflective of our own
biases it’s not comfortable but you have
to do it and only then will you shift
the discourse that continues to uphold
social inequities not inequalities with
social inequities secondly once we
recognize these internalized biases we
must address it and I truly believe that
we can address these biases by creating
safe spaces safe spaces are where we
learn to be comfortable with
uncomfortable topics safe spaces are
where we have this way of challenging
the elephant in the room we all either
do it or see it so much we’ll talk about
it safe spaces must happen anywhere and
everywhere from coffee shops to
restaurant to classrooms to TEDx
anywhere human
dialogue can stimulate these
conversations and shift our
misconception of others and that way we
can address the social myth that
continue to undermine prejudice views
that we exercise on others when you hear
the story of graduate students here at
sfu not not agree with the idea of a
black mother teresa our black women have
ever having the impact that mother
Teresa had on the world your heart aches
and I SAT there in class and there’s a
voice in my head that said you’re never
going to be as successful or no matter
how hard you try you’re never going to
get to the top you know guys it’s
exhausting I wish I was part of a
society where when I walked down the
street or when I’m at a bar here in
Vancouver some people don’t look at me
weird I wish to someone like Beyonce yes
the queen bee I love her when she
released a song like formation which she
talks about the issues that many blacks
enough or african-americans I should
specify continue to live that she didn’t
get a lot of backlash for it I wish that
when I walked down the street and I see
beautiful muslim woman wearing a head
job or a niqab that people behind them
are not whispering things like terrorism
bomb dropper or I Qaeda I wish that
Asian women were not seen as some kind
of weird fetish for their subordinate
ways we’ve all seen mulan asian women
I wish that my friend who just came out
to her family about being a lesbian was
not this owned by her family or she
didn’t fear that when she’s at work
she’ll be discriminated for her sexual
orientation I wish that I was part of a
generation that was more familiar with
terms like intersectionality I wish that
more of us when we take the bus 135 a
walk down down the East Side area in
Hastings we didn’t just look at the
population as they’re from a pitiful I
but we ask ourselves why is it that
indigenous Canadians first nation in and
so forth are disproportionately way more
impoverished than any other racial
groups and saying that they choose to be
poor it’s garbage I come from a
third-world country poverty is not a
choice nor is it great trust me i wish
the more of us in this generation we’re
familiar with terms like
institutionalized racism write that down
if you don’t know what that is i wish i
wish that black man that are perceived
on television were more than just
violent rappers seeing vulgarity because
that’s what the industry wants and I
wish oh I wish that more of us will be
more curious to inquire about other
people’s culture because after all the
majority of us here are immigrants I
wish that some of you would come up to
me and ask me but my culture I love it I
asked me what about black hair maybe
people find their very interesting ask
it’s okay to be curious if anything it’s
a good thing but what’s not okay is
internalize these biases that we all
have and lie to yourself in thinking
that you’re not acting on those biases
you are whether you like it or not
that’s why I chose to speak here today
because it’s crazy to me that in the
year 2016 a group of well-educated
graduate student from an institution
that prides itself in engaging the world
is training future leaders who don’t
believe that a woman like myself could
guys I’ll see it again recognize those
internal biases which we all have
address it in an environment that’s
welcoming where you create the space
that you have to create it where you
welcome these conversations where you
open minded in being comfortable with
what’s up may seem as uncomfortable that
way we stop putting particular groups of
people in a box of limitations thank you [Applause]
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