this is a question that my father asked
me when I was a kid and one that his
father asked him and the answer wasn’t
medicine
it wasn’t technology it wasn’t even the
wheel
the answer is language this is the
overriding theme that’s that I’ve held
with me throughout my entire life I was
raised in a bilingual home to two Arab
parents my mother from Morocco and my
father from Lebanon both were just as
passionate about language as I am today
and made sure to instill the same
passion in me growing up bilingual meant
I had to grapple with not only two
dialects within the Arabic language but
Arabic and then English when I go to
school and this taught me language truly
shapes identity you see language is the
keystone of our human experience it’s
how we communicate how we debates how we
write constitutions and laws how we
conversate how we defend our statements
and our opinions how we share ideas and
sometimes how we tweet out questionable
tweets now this has been overriding him
in my life and being an Arabic speaker
has only intensified this passion for
language you see the Arabic language is
deeply poetic and it’s one that speaks
to the power of language within its
patterns let’s look at an example in the
Arabic language the word for letter
comes from the roots that means a sharp
edge and the word for word comes from
the roots that means wound and the word
for story comes from the roots that
means two cuts and there’s a theme here
right and it’s some it’s something we’ve
heard before and that is that words hurt
they cut deep right and my name I am is
the word used to label verses in the
holy quran and its root meaning is
miracle so not to be cheesy but while
words can
and cut deep words can also be magical
it’s our choice now that I’ve told you
my name which is aiya I can tell you all
how excited I am to be here standing in
front of you tonight’s theme is about
going from conversations to action
pursuing change right and what I’m going
to propose in my talk is that perhaps
going beyond words simply requires that
we change the words we’re using or in
the very least be more conscious of them
now I’m going to tackle this from a
variety of perspectives as an Arab
American Muslim woman I’m gonna talk
about how language is monumental in
either building an identity or utterly
destroying it as a aspiring journalist I
will discuss how media makers today and
media creators actually have the chore
or rather the responsibility to create
truth through language and as a poets
how language is of our greatest
advantage in collaborating through human
experience when I was a kid I would play
this game with myself when I go to the
library I loved reading but sometimes I
would purposely check out books without
words
picture books and I would sit for hours
on end trying to generate the greatest
number of possible stories simply based
on the illustrations and in the third
grade I used up every recess session
that we had to organize my classmates to
put on a play that I wrote called a
friendly monster effectively erasing all
possible stigmas against giant fluffy
creatures and forests what these
experiences taught me as a child was
something monumental that still sticks
with me today till today and that is the
bad guy and the good guy could defer
simply based on the words we use to
describe them as I’ve grown older this
isn’t just a blast of a past this is an
idea that I still hold today and as days
go by it grows more relevance let’s
backtrack to one particular day to make
this example to make this more clear to
you
9/11
now in this room raise your hand if you
remember exactly where you were on the
day the attacks happened or what you
were doing okay well basically all of
you um
and same for me but what I want us is
not the day the attacks happened but
what came after the aftermath you see
9/11 was an acts of hate that created a
language of hate one that continues to
persist till today
this language translates into words like
a Reb towelhead terrorist it translates
into the phrases the phrase go home
Arabs with a swastika sign carved into
the hood of my family’s 90s maroon
Chevrolet station wagon and
coincidentally every time without fail
it translates into the phrase ma’am I
think we’re gonna have to do a random
Security check at the airport you see
9/11 wasn’t the day that my story
started but it was a day that my story
and the stories of many others were
hijacked typically stories begin way
before birth
they begin through bloodlines through
geography through mother tongue but when
we reduced people to sound bites labels
one word tag lines we stripped them of
all these things and make them more
susceptible to being dehumanized you see
we sustain stereotypes through the
language that polarizes and simplifies
entire groups of people no longer are we
individuals virtus one big muddle of one
word now I’m gonna play a game with you
guys there are no rules except for that
you need to be really honest with
yourself not with me you don’t use write
anything down I’m just gonna go ahead
and put on some words on the screens and
I want you to pay very close attention
to what your visceral reaction to them
to them is are you going to feel
uncomfortable what’s the image that’s
conjured up in your head I’m gonna go
through them little quickly but just go
ahead and think really deeply as you
read them
all right
so like I said the only rule was to be
honest so raise your hand if you were
actually even slightly surprised by your
responses to these words okay
a few of us and including me I’ve done
this game before as well um you’re not
alone you see humans psychologically
loved to simplify things we love to
categorize things it makes things easy
edible um Hermione from Harry Potter
once said fear of a name only increases
fear of the thing itself what just
happened there was we saw a word or a
phrase and immediately we had a reaction
we didn’t expect one so how was language
that powerful you see what’s happening
nowadays is that we’ve grown so afraid
of certain words certain phrases certain
labels and stereotypes that we’ve
completely walled ourselves off from
seeing those that lie behind them and
this isn’t unique to only the Arab or
Muslim American experience this has
persisted across centuries if language
is powerful those who control it have
the power to control those will they
describe right the power of language is
why Native American does an example
weren’t allowed to speak their native
tongue when entered into boarding
schools in the u.s. it’s why slavery was
justified because it was fine to enslave
a savage or property right it’s why
colonialists renamed cities the moment
they claim a piece of land and it’s my
books are censored because of the
language that they withhold within them
and today it’s calling Mexicans drug
dealers and rapists and refugees
potential murderous Skittles according
to our presidents
from these examples we see that creating
social change doesn’t just come from
civil rights protests or marching in the
streets which those things are important
but we must recognize that social change
also begins by resisting and reclaiming
a deeply ingrained lexicon that
criminalizes and vilifies us now this
brings me to journalism in the fourth
grade I finally put together and put
into words my experiences after 9/11
things I spoke to you about earlier I
put them in an essay and I read that I
say out loud to my class and after
school my teacher asked to speak with me
she was really emotional she told me she
was so happy that I was being brave and
telling my story and she hugged me and
she gave me a notebook
and a really cute mention pen and she
told me to be a journalist she told me
to tell my story I ran home that day
telling my mother I knew exactly what I
wanted to be when I grew up it all
suddenly made sense now granted I had no
idea what a journalist was at that time
all I knew was that telling stories and
getting free pens and notebooks
occasionally cut sounded kind of nice
but from then on I concerned myself with
discovering what this occupation really
was I would say after school with my dad
watching the news every single day with
such concentration in fact that I would
nod and smile at the newscaster thinking
that he or she actually could see me
later I discovered this was not true so
my relationship with the news has
changed over the years as I’ve matured
so too has my perspective on global
issues on domestic issues and if there’s
one thing that that’s taught me it’s
that news is complicated it’s no longer
just about bad guys and good guys like
in my picture books and that has taught
me that journalists hold a monumental
responsibility they have a delicate and
diverted tackle as Edward Chiappa dr.
Edward Schiavo instead naming is never
neutral as we strive to be objective we
must always be aware that every single
person me
all of you here hold our own internal
biases and we must be aware that what we
choose to report how we choose to report
it even how quick we choose to report it
will affect the mindsets of others
essentially media creators and
journalists shape truth now I’m not
speaking to a roomful of journalists so
I understand some of you might be like
okay so what does this have to do with
me well whether we like it or not all of
us are consumers of news we’re
constantly scrolling liking watching
videos they play automatically nowadays
they don’t even have to want to watch it
so we’re constantly digesting these
headlines and these stories without even
thinking twice and isn’t a fault they
just kind of show up but now that you’ve
heard this for me I challenge you all to
be more critical consumers that when you
see something you don’t just swallow it
right away you taste test it you chew it
check the ingredients and if it’s really
fishy and you spit it out um like I
mentioned I am I poets and much needs
earlier and I’m a spoken word poet which
means I perform poetry
it also means I’m a huge nerd so if you
see me typing vigorously away at my
phone I’m probably not texting someone
I’m probably actually just really
inspired by the last TED talk and
writing something down spoken word
poetry is performed poetry and I’ve done
it in countless venues I’ve performed in
churches and mosques in schools
conferences dinners I’ve taught
workshops to young kids to teach them
how they can express themselves and I’ve
done duets but recently I ended up in
this weird funk I deliberately decided I
didn’t wanna write poetry anymore I
didn’t want to perform and the reason I
believed words were powerless words
meant nothing
I became demoralized amidst all the
injustice not only abroad but it was in
her in her own backyards I thought to
myself what difference is this going to
make after a lot of thought in several
months and the encouragement of several
friends I came to the realization that
it actually wasn’t poetry that was so
important
it wasn’t what made the performance so
important it wasn’t about the rhymes or
the alliterations or the metaphors
rather it was simply about speaking my
truth
and speaking the truth of many others
whose voices otherwise couldn’t hear us
now I’m not asking you all to go ahead
and write a Shakespearean sonnet because
to be honest I would never want to take
up that offer either
I’m simply challenging you guys to find
a means of expression to state your
truth to use language to grapple with it
and if not to listen to others you see
what’s special about spoken word poetry
and I love spoken word poetry so I’m
gonna talk about this all day what’s
special about spoken word poetry is the
fact that it’s not about following rules
and regulations set by professors and
their offices it’s about breaking the
rules of language it’s about writing a
twenty five line poem that actually
includes three languages and is like
five different sentences like it doesn’t
make sense it’s so it’s so confusing and
it’s messy but isn’t that how we are as
human beings our identities are
ever-evolving our backgrounds our
stories see what spoken word poetry does
and what other means of expression do is
they challenge others who want to strip
us down to one soundbite to one word to
one label they’re nuanced they’re rich
they’re chaotic like every single person
in this room and every single person on
this planet now we all gathered here
today for this TED conference I guess
with hopes of hearing the personal
stories of others and crossing our
fingers that we leave knowing exactly
what we need to do to change the world I
don’t that’s how you feel but sometimes
I feel that way and this cut sounds kind
of overwhelming right easy enough
actually yeah it’s not so difficult we
all communicate with others we all read
we all attend classes and buy read I
don’t mean just read books read the
world around you reading science reading
stories
so what I’m challenging you to do is
simply reassess the language you’re
reading reassess the words others are
using reassess the labels that we are
calling ourselves by to know ourselves
and thereby revolutionize the way we
perceive the world now this whole time
we’ve been talking about how powerful
language is right and we know from
Batman something very monumental and
that is with great power comes yes great
responsibility and so that means that we
have a prime opportunity here it
shouldn’t be overwhelming it should be
exciting all of us could change the
world simply by changing our words thank
you guys so much [Applause]