When living in a diverse country like America, especially in a city like New York, we tend to see people from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, immigrants, and languages. However, actually being a person of color in a country where colorism is so prevalent can have its many disadvantages, especially if you are someone who is not fluent in English or has an accent. You’re often seen as “less American”. In his TED talk, Safwat Saleem shares his own personal anecdotes and challenges he’s experienced, particularly in the way others treated him because of his accent. His experiences emphasize the reality of how having weak English skills or an accent tends to cause people to treat you with less respect and equality. 

Safwat Saleem is a Pakistani-American animator who’s struggled with a stutter and heavy accent since childhood. Throughout his TED talk, he uses elements such as storytelling and humor to express the experiences that he’s gone through. From his stories about the comments of people making fun of his accent under his animation videos, to stories of how minorities in the US are given less opportunities and as seen as less “normal”, he further shows the harsh reality of not being a fluent English speaker in America.

People often find those with an accent as an easy target to put down, they perceive it as an inferior trait and use it as an excuse to belittle others. When Safwat Saleem first posted his animation videos, he received comments like “could you remake this without peanut butter in your mouth” (02:32). Rather than appreciating his work and commenting positive feedback, people focus on his accent, making jokes about it. Other comments he would receive were “couldn’t follow because of the Indian accent”, to which Saleem would respond to with humor, by saying something like “Number one, I don’t have an Indian accent, I have a Pakistani accent, Ok? And number two, I clearly have a Pakistani accent”. By using humor to address these comments to his audience, it shows how Saleem doesn’t let these comments affect him. He understands that such comments are made by those who put others down to make themselves feel better, and explains how those who comment see his accent as abnormal, which is why they feel the need to spread hate. Having an accent is a reminder of how people use our differences as an opportunity to disrespect others, when we should be celebrating our differences instead. 

Saleem further speaks about the challenges that not only those with accents, but people of color go through in general as well. Favoritism in society has been normalized to the point where people of color are less likely to receive successful opportunities, or their flaws and mistakes are more looked at than a white person would. Saleem gives many examples of this, such as how “resumes with white-sounding names get more callbacks than resumes with black-sounding names.”, or how “ professors are less likely to help female or minority students.” (06:52). It’s normalized in today’s society that when non-white people make mistakes, spelling errors, stutters, or when more white people are chosen for successful positions rather than people of color, it’s because of their background and the fact that they are not white. People tend to assume that when they see people of color or ethnic names, they won’t be as skilled and intelligent as what they stereotype a white person would be, which is false. Anyone is capable of anything, regardless of how good at English you are or what race you are, everyone deserves an equal chance at success. 

To conclude, Safwat Saleem’s powerful TED talk supports the idea of how individuals who struggle with English and are ethnic deal with many challenges throughout their daily lives, from the way people treat them to opportunities and becoming successful. It is a major setback for these people, when it shouldn’t be, and they should be treated with the same respect and equality as those who are fluent English speakers.