Fabiana Soto
Noelle Marie Nagales
Writing I ENG 2100
Saleem is a visual artist. His work is mainly known for being humorous. He expresses how much he enjoys creating funny (can be regarded as sad) animations and voicing his own characters. However, the comments people left under his videos didn’t leave him feeling very confident.
“His voice is annoying no offense.” Refresh. “Could you remake this without peanut butter in your mouth?” Refresh. “Please don’t use this narrator again, you can barely understand him.” Refresh. “Couldn’t follow because of the Indian accent.”
They hurt him, in fact he was pondering on giving up. Nonetheless, he decided not to. He decided to stay optimistic and tell himself that the people watching him were uneducated. They assumed his accent was Indian. It was actually a Pakistani accent. They simply didn’t think his accent was normal. This led to him asking himself, “What is normal?” Saleem goes on to explain to his audience that nothing is normal and that it is okay to be different. He states that the ancient Greeks thought that the ocean was red because they haven’t discovered the color blue yet. This is an example he gives to communicate how naive people can be.
Saleem appeals to his intended audience when speaking of the struggles with having a strong accent by contributing ethos and pathos into his speech. His credibility can be trusted because he has received rude feedback regarding the way he talks. The emotions he endures throughout his journey can inspire the audience to not let others get them down.
In the beginning of the video Saleem uses comedy from his animations to reel them in. He gives off this wholesome aura that you can’t help but admire because all he is trying to do is make people smile. Then he engages the audience even further by describing the anxiety he faced as a kid when he was asked his name. He was afraid that the other kids would make fun of the way he pronounced it, therefore he stayed quiet. Then they would ask him, “have you forgotten your name? And then everybody would laugh. That joke never got old.” He spent his entire childhood feeling as if he spoke, it was obvious to other people that there was something wrong with him.
There is a certain trauma that the children of immigrants can endure because they feel different. Such as, having a different accent of feeling humiliated towards your own culture because America has painted it out to be embarrassing. I would know as I am the daughter of immigrants. He states that in the United States, “Minorities are not a part of what we consider normal, because normal is simply a construction of what we’ve been exposed to, and how visible it is around us.” You can hear the pain in his voice as he discusses everything he went through. While watching his TedTalk I hear the audience laugh when it’s meant to be funny, and stay silent when it’s meant to be sad. Saleem did an amazing job directing their emotions and getting their empathy.
I believe the audience had no problem relating to Saleem. Everyone has a special quick that makes them feel unnormal. Mine is my ADHD. For years, this mental disorder has made me feel very ashamed. I can’t help it if I have trouble paying attention or being hyperactive. Another symptom of ADHD is speaking without thinking. I am guilty of this and that can really hurt people’s feelings. Recently I ruined a friendship because of certain words I chose to say. To this day I regret using them towards one of the only people that were ever truly a good friend to me. Whether my friend will choose to accept me for my faults or not, I am not sure. I am leaving this up to fate.
I am also sad about having a single father. My mother, who is in Peru, doesn’t financially support me during the times I need it the most. Of course, none of these occurrences are my fault, this is just the situation I was put in. Like Saleem and his accent, it is something that is outside of my control. Like Saleem, I choose to accept this and move forward with my life. What keeps me going is graduating from college and starting my career in international business. I cannot wait for the opportunity to travel alongside work! It is important that we as a society keep an open mind and not judge because you never know what anyone could be going through.
