Communication across cultures

Ethan Igbanugo

10/22/21

This Ted Talk is given by a biracial man named Jamil, Jamil starts this talk off by

expressing how different his experience was in his neighborhood as compared to his

mom. Stating that even though they lived in the same house, they didn't live in the same

neighborhood. This is because racial profiling within that neighborhood made his world

completely different than his white mother’s. He then goes on to discuss the distrust he

had for law enforcement, which developed from a young age and memories of his black

father being harrassed by police. This topic is important because as he said in his

speech, a distrust for law enforcement leads to a distrust in the government as a whole.

I believe Jamil is discussing this topic because of not only his own personal experiences

with racial profiling, but also because of current tragedies that have made national news

and cause uproar across the country. These tipping points of frustration within

communities of color only further the issue of distrust for law enforcement. Jamil

believes that trust can be built back between minorities and law enforcement, but only

through productive dialogue and each side learning more about each other.

This topic relates closely to my life. I too have witnessed my father and uncles be

harassed by police when I was a child, and just like Jamil said, when the answers my

father or uncles gave the police weren’t good enough the attention shifted to me despite

the fact that I was a kid. Fast forward to my teenage/young adult years and I have faced

poor experiences with law enforcement on numerous occasions, despite never

committing a crime. As recently as a couple months ago I actually had a pretty serious

and unpleasant interaction with a police officer that I’m still dealing with till this day, and

I still have no clue what I did to bring about that type of treatment. My parents taught me

from a young age how to carry yourself when you come in contact with a police officer.

There’s certain rules I always follow because I was trained to understand that even

getting pulled over on the road can be a very dangerous situation. Before watching this

video I already had a certain distrust for law enforcement. After listening to Jamil’s ideas

on how to mend this relationship I’m really not too convinced that dialogue is going to be

the difference maker, but I do hope to see the day when minorities feel comfortable to

trust law enforcement.

I commend Jamil for his optimism and call to action. I definitely believe that

there’s a long way to go when it comes to his plan but people like him are essential on a

journey towards change. The fact that he has taken it upon himself to start

conversations on this topic is certainly inspiring. Especially considering the experiences

he had as a child.