TEDxGreenville: TEDxGreenville – Ideas worth Spreading

TEDxGreenville Open Blog post by Maxim Williams.

I recognize this video may not be for everyone who visits this blog. I recognize that some of her words challenge the realities, walls, and assumptions people have set up for themselves. However, if it challenges you, then that’s a good thing and you should embrace that journey and see where it leads within you. I hope it unsettles some and unhinges them from whatever stranglehold their self-deception may hold upon them. I watch this video to remind me of my own wrestle with “self” and “otherness.”

I was raised in Canada. My parents were raised in Jamaica. Our relationship to “race” and “otherness” has not been a linear journey and easy for me to figure out to this day. My “programming” refuses to let me just settle in and do what might be convenient because when I dig deeper into that line of reasoning, I realize settling into one ascribed identity would be more convenient for others, not for me. I have a colorful family, with parents who are beautifully mixed with native Jamaican (similar to Native American); Scottish; Maroon (African); and Lebanese heritage. What then is race? I have family, friends, God parents who love us who are from here to India. What then is “otherness?”

My struggle with self and otherness usually is triggered by people attempting to hurriedly try to identify me; place me into their box or category rather than allow me to exist as Maxim. Having been exposed both from my family background and the places around the world I’ve traveled and lived, I empathize with many “others” I encounter. My work in Greenville, SC requires me to have a level of empathy with an African American community. Upon learning of the history of that community, I discover our shared human connection as I relate their historic struggle and rise to overcome to my family’s “immigrants” struggle that my parents and their parents had to overcome from Jamaica to Canada.

Our shared human stories are echoed throughout my biological family and friendships from around the globe yet it creates a level of local empathy for me to identify with those here who have had to overcome strife, discrimination, or hardship based on their perceived race or class. I say perceived because like Thandie, I have studied the topic exhaustively and know full well that race is a social construction that we treat as “real” and thus create near impenetrable (albeit psychological) walls that burn deep into our psyche and keep us from the conversations we should be having and the relationships we could be enjoying. I feel empathy to all who cross my path in town, whether they be from Mexico, Honduras, Iran, or Aiken, SCJ. I have had the honor of serving, working with, or learning from almost every culture in the world since living in Greenville and each story holds some shelf space within my “self.”

I believe when you can quiet your “self” you make space to hear and have true compassion for another. You start to listen for that shared story and shared humanity. Your actions may even become a little more conscientious, collaborative, and community oriented. This by no means makes me a “perfect” human being. Far from it. I gave up on the fight for perfection a few years ago. If anything, I may be overly sensitive to the pain of others and hypersensitive when I may have caused pain for another. However, in a world full of division; violence; war; and apathy towards our neighbor and the planet; I wish more would have the courage to be a little more sensitive and more “selfless.”

This is Maxim Williams‘ favorite TED or TEDx video of the moment. What’s yours? Click here to find out how to share it on the TEDxGreenville Open Blog!