now how many of you has ever been in a
situation where you were thrown into a
place and you neither knew the norms the
language or the culture in New York
doesn’t count so a few of you that
ladies and gentlemen it’s culture shock
and culture shock is defined as a state
of disorientation where someone is taken
from one culture to another where they
neither understand that attitudes the
norms the realities let alone the
language culture shock has been one of
the facets that has defined my
experience here since I came to the US
and I want to be able to share some of
those experiences with you now I want to
because my mother always tells me that
the best kind of story is one where you
start from the beginning because usually
when I’m explaining something to her she
tells me it’s something with no head of
no tail so I want to be able to start
with to the beginning with you so
imagine I am from Senegal West Africa
it’s the lion head looking country and
my mother is from the country north of
that and when I was eight I had lived in
Senegal with in my grandfather’s house
while she fled as a refugee to the US
and during that process when I was 8 she
was working to get us me and my two
older brothers here now when I was 8 in
my grandfather’s house there was an
extended sense of family why because my
grandfather always had 4 wives at any
given a year and they would change from
time to time but you would understand
that with four wives comes a lot of
aunts and uncles and with that many
aunts and uncles you have a lot of
cousins and so they all lived in this
one big house where each wife had their
own
apartment and in these house we also had
mains now maids are affordable and
anyone would be able to get them they
would work in the house for weeks at a
time so you’d grow up making them part
of the family you would call them either
sisters aunts to what have you but
they’d be part of that family what we
also had we’re neighbors now neighbor is
not in the sense that we understand here
as someone that likes and that lives
next to you but a neighbor that eats
lunch with you it’s breakfast with you
that eats dinner with you someone you
see all the time someone that you would
not call neighbor but you will call your
uncle or your honor that was my
environment and I remembered this one
time we’re back in our little town we
didn’t have a lot of toys when I was
eight um so how me and my peers would
play was that outside of the house there
was this narrow street that trucks would
run by and now don’t tell my grandmother
this but we would grab on to the trucks
and see how far we could go and whoever
got the farthest and would win
what would you win I don’t know but you
would win so there was just one time
where one of our neighbors caught me
hanging on before we got to our door and
so I jumped off and quickly rushed to
our house and Lord behold she got there
before me she got to my grandmother
before me and that day um I knew no
matter what I’d say um there was there
was nothing I could do so a couple hours
later my grandmother told me to take a
cold shower
in the middle of the day now for an
African kid if you’re getting told if
you’re being told to take a cold shower
in the in the middle of the day that’s a
problem so I knew that there was trouble
and later that night she beat me with a
wire now you’re sad now but see it was
any sad woman to her so she beaten with
a wire and I remember that night that
the beating was so painful that I ended
up sleeping under her bed
I knew that that was the only place that
you would not care to look for me um I
was I was determined to get away from
her as much as possible and aside from
the occasional eyewire beatings I’m
understandably because she wanted to
make a point you don’t hang on trucks as
an eight-year-old so I got the point
years later but at that time I’m like
but um as an eight-year-old in Senegal I
was my mom would send us these pictures
of how the US was we see these mansions
in these big houses all these like
sidewalks and the in the streets that
were clean in these tall trees and I was
like I can’t wait to go to the US
because like it’s a lot better than
where I’m at now um so we had all these
different things that we wanted to do
when we got to the US um and when we got
here
in 1998 me and my two older brothers um
my first thought when we got to JFK was
whose idea was it to bring us here at a
time of war because I had mistaken
December snow for Ash I had never
acknowledged that that was a real thing
and so for someone that is discovering
snow for the first time you can
understand why I would be like someone
was confused on this date let’s go back
and retry this and a couple months so
when we got here that was my first
experience with snow and then when we
went to where my mom was living it was a
two-bedroom apartment
understanding someone that lived in a
huge house with people always I’d eaten
with each other with these extended
families now I’m in a two-bedroom
apartment with my mom and to all the
brothers that gives you a sense of
loneliness but I was determined it’s
like now we’re in the u.s. let’s make
this work there’s some there’s something
that we can do here so a couple uh
couple weeks later we have started
school and the first the first
elementary school that I had gone to I
remember they sat me down in a
with kids that ate em dad Eden slept
English and I did not know how to tell
you my name any sentence and I was sat
down given these piece of papers I
understood that they were weekly quizzes
because every Friday we would get them
but I had no idea what was on them and
when the teacher would tell me to give
them my paper why I didn’t tell it out I
did not understand what she was saying
nor would I look her in the face because
where I come from you don’t look at
adults in the eye when they’re speaking
to you she didn’t understand that so I
went to five different elementary
schools until one teacher decided one
day that they were going to sit down and
see why I was being unresponsive in
during my to school changing I was
labeled as this troublemaker this
disrespectful student that was not
paying attention that was being
disrespectful in class when all they had
to do was tell me why won’t you look at
us in the face that’s all it took and
that to me was lack of compassion so
moving on to schooling and going on to
high school um when I first started to
go to school I was the most proficient
person in English at home and so I was
the one as a 8 year old that would
translate letters that would come to
school that would schedule doctor’s
appointments that would occasionally um
whenever they were satisfying to me I’m
translate my report card that stays
between us though um so I I had done all
these things and I was forced to mature
as an 8 year old from being a careless
truck grabbing the kid to someone that
was supposed to be making sure that
bills were paid on time because I knew
how to read English words at home and
when I went to school I had to be a
elementary student I had to be a middle
school student I had to be a high
schools through them
and then going on to college when I
finally graduated from the Ohio State
University
the graduation wasn’t the graduation
wasn’t just mine because education is a
is one of those pinnacles of the
American dream that African parents have
because when you graduate it’s not you
it’s your mom that graduates it’s your
uncle
it’s the grandparents that are miles in
oceans away that graduate
it’s the aunts and uncles it’s the
cousins it’s the far extended people
that you didn’t know you were related to
that would call you and say we’re proud
of you because education in success it’s
a family thing it’s not an individual
thing and so for just imagine if no one
had sat me down and understood what was
causing my unresponsiveness in
elementary school then I wouldn’t have
had that success on behalf of my family
and so we have that and then after high
school after a college graduation I
decided to run for Kohima City Council
and I ran because I genuinely wanted to
be able to be a voice for the
communities that I am from but as I
learned society is not as as my head as
where I would like them to be because
one of the challenges that I had a
series of the challenges that I had was
people would come to me and not ask me
what I wanted to do for them but
actually how do you pronounce your name
what kind of culture do you come from
what kind of food is that what kind of
clothes do you wear not about the
competence that I have but about the
differences that we said that we don’t
share that they wanted to focus on me
and that I felt it wasn’t fair and that
was in compassion and because it’s not
the only thing that makes me who I am
and so that’s why I wanted to share this
with you that true compassion
love in action and if you know anything
about compassion compassion has to do
with what being able to not just
understand where someone is coming from
but be empathetic to what their
experiences are and there are a lot of
people here that go through a lot of
culture shocks and many of you have
probably gone through a culture shock
that may be minor or major that you are
unconscious of but to be able to
understand that you have to have
compassion to your fellow man in order
to be a good neighbor to them is what
builds community and so culture shock
plus kin compassion is what builds
community because what we understand is
that there are no neighbors because
there are no walls that separate us
there’s what we have in common and
there’s what I can learn from you and
what you can learn from me and that is
what I charge you with let us all go in
build community together thank you
[Applause]
you
situation where you were thrown into a
place and you neither knew the norms the
language or the culture in New York
doesn’t count so a few of you that
ladies and gentlemen it’s culture shock
and culture shock is defined as a state
of disorientation where someone is taken
from one culture to another where they
neither understand that attitudes the
norms the realities let alone the
language culture shock has been one of
the facets that has defined my
experience here since I came to the US
and I want to be able to share some of
those experiences with you now I want to
because my mother always tells me that
the best kind of story is one where you
start from the beginning because usually
when I’m explaining something to her she
tells me it’s something with no head of
no tail so I want to be able to start
with to the beginning with you so
imagine I am from Senegal West Africa
it’s the lion head looking country and
my mother is from the country north of
that and when I was eight I had lived in
Senegal with in my grandfather’s house
while she fled as a refugee to the US
and during that process when I was 8 she
was working to get us me and my two
older brothers here now when I was 8 in
my grandfather’s house there was an
extended sense of family why because my
grandfather always had 4 wives at any
given a year and they would change from
time to time but you would understand
that with four wives comes a lot of
aunts and uncles and with that many
aunts and uncles you have a lot of
cousins and so they all lived in this
one big house where each wife had their
own
apartment and in these house we also had
mains now maids are affordable and
anyone would be able to get them they
would work in the house for weeks at a
time so you’d grow up making them part
of the family you would call them either
sisters aunts to what have you but
they’d be part of that family what we
also had we’re neighbors now neighbor is
not in the sense that we understand here
as someone that likes and that lives
next to you but a neighbor that eats
lunch with you it’s breakfast with you
that eats dinner with you someone you
see all the time someone that you would
not call neighbor but you will call your
uncle or your honor that was my
environment and I remembered this one
time we’re back in our little town we
didn’t have a lot of toys when I was
eight um so how me and my peers would
play was that outside of the house there
was this narrow street that trucks would
run by and now don’t tell my grandmother
this but we would grab on to the trucks
and see how far we could go and whoever
got the farthest and would win
what would you win I don’t know but you
would win so there was just one time
where one of our neighbors caught me
hanging on before we got to our door and
so I jumped off and quickly rushed to
our house and Lord behold she got there
before me she got to my grandmother
before me and that day um I knew no
matter what I’d say um there was there
was nothing I could do so a couple hours
later my grandmother told me to take a
cold shower
in the middle of the day now for an
African kid if you’re getting told if
you’re being told to take a cold shower
in the in the middle of the day that’s a
problem so I knew that there was trouble
and later that night she beat me with a
wire now you’re sad now but see it was
any sad woman to her so she beaten with
a wire and I remember that night that
the beating was so painful that I ended
up sleeping under her bed
I knew that that was the only place that
you would not care to look for me um I
was I was determined to get away from
her as much as possible and aside from
the occasional eyewire beatings I’m
understandably because she wanted to
make a point you don’t hang on trucks as
an eight-year-old so I got the point
years later but at that time I’m like
but um as an eight-year-old in Senegal I
was my mom would send us these pictures
of how the US was we see these mansions
in these big houses all these like
sidewalks and the in the streets that
were clean in these tall trees and I was
like I can’t wait to go to the US
because like it’s a lot better than
where I’m at now um so we had all these
different things that we wanted to do
when we got to the US um and when we got
here
in 1998 me and my two older brothers um
my first thought when we got to JFK was
whose idea was it to bring us here at a
time of war because I had mistaken
December snow for Ash I had never
acknowledged that that was a real thing
and so for someone that is discovering
snow for the first time you can
understand why I would be like someone
was confused on this date let’s go back
and retry this and a couple months so
when we got here that was my first
experience with snow and then when we
went to where my mom was living it was a
two-bedroom apartment
understanding someone that lived in a
huge house with people always I’d eaten
with each other with these extended
families now I’m in a two-bedroom
apartment with my mom and to all the
brothers that gives you a sense of
loneliness but I was determined it’s
like now we’re in the u.s. let’s make
this work there’s some there’s something
that we can do here so a couple uh
couple weeks later we have started
school and the first the first
elementary school that I had gone to I
remember they sat me down in a
with kids that ate em dad Eden slept
English and I did not know how to tell
you my name any sentence and I was sat
down given these piece of papers I
understood that they were weekly quizzes
because every Friday we would get them
but I had no idea what was on them and
when the teacher would tell me to give
them my paper why I didn’t tell it out I
did not understand what she was saying
nor would I look her in the face because
where I come from you don’t look at
adults in the eye when they’re speaking
to you she didn’t understand that so I
went to five different elementary
schools until one teacher decided one
day that they were going to sit down and
see why I was being unresponsive in
during my to school changing I was
labeled as this troublemaker this
disrespectful student that was not
paying attention that was being
disrespectful in class when all they had
to do was tell me why won’t you look at
us in the face that’s all it took and
that to me was lack of compassion so
moving on to schooling and going on to
high school um when I first started to
go to school I was the most proficient
person in English at home and so I was
the one as a 8 year old that would
translate letters that would come to
school that would schedule doctor’s
appointments that would occasionally um
whenever they were satisfying to me I’m
translate my report card that stays
between us though um so I I had done all
these things and I was forced to mature
as an 8 year old from being a careless
truck grabbing the kid to someone that
was supposed to be making sure that
bills were paid on time because I knew
how to read English words at home and
when I went to school I had to be a
elementary student I had to be a middle
school student I had to be a high
schools through them
and then going on to college when I
finally graduated from the Ohio State
University
the graduation wasn’t the graduation
wasn’t just mine because education is a
is one of those pinnacles of the
American dream that African parents have
because when you graduate it’s not you
it’s your mom that graduates it’s your
uncle
it’s the grandparents that are miles in
oceans away that graduate
it’s the aunts and uncles it’s the
cousins it’s the far extended people
that you didn’t know you were related to
that would call you and say we’re proud
of you because education in success it’s
a family thing it’s not an individual
thing and so for just imagine if no one
had sat me down and understood what was
causing my unresponsiveness in
elementary school then I wouldn’t have
had that success on behalf of my family
and so we have that and then after high
school after a college graduation I
decided to run for Kohima City Council
and I ran because I genuinely wanted to
be able to be a voice for the
communities that I am from but as I
learned society is not as as my head as
where I would like them to be because
one of the challenges that I had a
series of the challenges that I had was
people would come to me and not ask me
what I wanted to do for them but
actually how do you pronounce your name
what kind of culture do you come from
what kind of food is that what kind of
clothes do you wear not about the
competence that I have but about the
differences that we said that we don’t
share that they wanted to focus on me
and that I felt it wasn’t fair and that
was in compassion and because it’s not
the only thing that makes me who I am
and so that’s why I wanted to share this
with you that true compassion
love in action and if you know anything
about compassion compassion has to do
with what being able to not just
understand where someone is coming from
but be empathetic to what their
experiences are and there are a lot of
people here that go through a lot of
culture shocks and many of you have
probably gone through a culture shock
that may be minor or major that you are
unconscious of but to be able to
understand that you have to have
compassion to your fellow man in order
to be a good neighbor to them is what
builds community and so culture shock
plus kin compassion is what builds
community because what we understand is
that there are no neighbors because
there are no walls that separate us
there’s what we have in common and
there’s what I can learn from you and
what you can learn from me and that is
what I charge you with let us all go in
build community together thank you
[Applause]
you
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