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I used to have this recurring dream

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where I'd walk into a roomful of people,

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and I'd try not to make
eye contact with anyone.

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Until someone notices me,

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and I just panic.

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And the person walks up to me,

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and says, "Hi, my name is So-and-so.

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And what is your name?"

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And I'm just quiet, unable to respond.

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After some awkward silence, he goes,

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"Have you forgotten your name?"

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And I'm still quiet.

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And then, slowly, all the other people
in the room begin to turn toward me

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and ask, almost in unison,

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(Voice-over, several voices)
"Have you forgotten your name?"

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As the chant gets louder,
I want to respond, but I don't.

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I'm a visual artist.

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Some of my work is humorous,

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and some is a bit funny but in a sad way.

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And one thing that I really enjoy doing

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is making these little animations

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where I get to do the voice-over
for all kinds of characters.

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I've been a bear.

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(Video) Bear (Safwat Saleem's voice): Hi.

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(Laughter)

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Safwat Saleem: I've been a whale.

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(Video) Whale (SS's voice): Hi.

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(Laughter)

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SS: I've been a greeting card.

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(Video) Greeting card (SS's voice): Hi.

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(Laughter)

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SS: And my personal favorite
is Frankenstein's monster.

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(Video) Frankenstein's monster
(SS's voice): (Grunts)

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(Laughter)

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SS: I just had to grunt
a lot for that one.

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A few years ago,
I made this educational video

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about the history of video games.

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And for that one, I got to do
the voice of Space Invader.

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(Video) Space Invader (SS's voice): Hi.

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SS: A dream come true, really,

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(Laughter)

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And when that video was posted online,

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I just sat there on the computer,
hitting "refresh,"

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excited to see the response.

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The first comment comes in.

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(Video) Comment: Great job.

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SS: Yes!

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I hit "refresh."

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(Video) Comment: Excellent video.
I look forward to the next one.

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SS: This was just the first
of a two-part video.

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I was going to work
on the second one next.

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I hit "refresh."

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(Video) Comment: Where is part TWO?
WHEREEEEE? I need it NOWWWWW!: P

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(Laughter)

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SS: People other than my mom
were saying nice things about me,

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on the Internet!

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It felt like I had finally arrived.

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I hit "refresh."

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(Video) Comment: His voice
is annoying. No offense.

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SS: OK, no offense taken. Refresh.

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(Video) Comment: Could you remake this
without peanut butter in your mouth?

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SS: OK, at least the feedback
is somewhat constructive. Hit "refresh."

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(Video) Comment: Please don't use
this narrator again

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u can barely understand him.

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SS: Refresh.

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(Video) Comment: Couldn't follow
because of the Indian accent.

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SS: OK, OK, OK, two things.

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Number one, I don't have an Indian accent,

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I have a Pakistani accent, OK?

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And number two, I clearly
have a Pakistani accent.

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(Laughter)

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But comments like that kept coming in,

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so I figured I should just ignore them

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and start working
on the second part of the video.

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I recorded my audio,

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but every time I sat down to edit,

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I just could not do it.

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Every single time, it would take me
back to my childhood,

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when I had a much harder time speaking.

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I've stuttered for as long
as I can remember.

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I was the kid in class

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who would never raise his hand
when he had a question --

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or knew the answer.

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Every time the phone rang,

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I would run to the bathroom
so I would not have to answer it.

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If it was for me, my parents
would say I'm not around.

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I spent a lot of time in the bathroom.

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And I hated introducing myself,

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especially in groups.

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I'd always stutter on my name,
and there was usually someone who'd go,

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"Have you forgotten your name?"

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And then everybody would laugh.

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That joke never got old.

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(Laughter)

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I spent my childhood
feeling that if I spoke,

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it would become obvious
that there was something wrong with me,

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that I was not normal.

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So I mostly stayed quiet.

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And so you see, eventually for me to even
be able to use my voice in my work

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was a huge step for me.

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Every time I record audio,

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I fumble my way through saying
each sentence many, many times,

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and then I go back in

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and pick the ones
where I think I suck the least.

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(Voice-over) SS: Audio editing
is like Photoshop for your voice.

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I can slow it down, speed it up,
make it deeper, add an echo.

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And if I stutter along the way,
and if I stutter along the way,

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I just go back in and fix it.

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It's magic.

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SS: Using my highly edited
voice in my work

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was a way for me
to finally sound normal to myself.

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But after the comments on the video,

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it no longer made me feel normal.

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And so I stopped
using my voice in my work.

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Since then, I've thought a lot
about what it means to be normal.

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And I've come to understand

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that "normal" has a lot to do
with expectations.

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Let me give you an example.

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I came across this story

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about the Ancient Greek writer, Homer.

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Now, Homer mentions
very few colors in his writing.

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And even when he does,

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he seems to get them quite a bit wrong.

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For example, the sea
is described as wine red,

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people's faces are sometimes green
and sheep are purple.

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But it's not just Homer.

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If you look at all
of the ancient literature --

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Ancient Chinese, Icelandic, Greek, Indian

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and even the original Hebrew Bible --

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they all mention very few colors.

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And the most popular theory
for why that might be the case

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is that cultures begin
to recognize a color

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only once they have the ability
to make that color.

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So basically, if you can make a color,

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only then can you see it.

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A color like red, which was fairly easy
for many cultures to make --

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they began to see that color
fairly early on.

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But a color like blue,
which was much harder to make --

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many cultures didn't begin to learn
how to make that color

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until much later.

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They didn't begin to see it
until much later as well.

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So until then, even though
a color might be all around them,

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they simply did not have
the ability to see it.

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It was invisIble.

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It was not a part of their normal.

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And that story has helped
put my own experience into context.

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So when I first read
the comments on the video,

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my initial reaction was to take it
all very personally.

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But the people commenting did not know

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how self-conscious I am about my voice.

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They were mostly reacting to my accent,

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that it is not normal
for a narrator to have an accent.

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But what is normal, anyway?

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We know that reviewers will find
more spelling errors in your writing

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if they think you're black.

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We know that professors are less likely
to help female or minority students.

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And we know that resumes
with white-sounding names

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get more callbacks than resumes
with black-sounding names.

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Why is that?

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Because of our expectations
of what is normal.

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We think it is normal

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when a black student has spelling errors.

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We think it is normal

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when a female or minority student
does not succeed.

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And we think it is normal

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that a white employee
is a better hire than a black employee.

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But studies also show
that discrimination of this kind,

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in most cases, is simply favoritism,

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and it results more from wanting
to help people that you can relate to

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than the desire to harm people
that you can't relate to.

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And not relating to people
starts at a very early age.

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Let me give you an example.

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One library that keeps track of characters

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in the children's book
collection every year,

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found that in 2014,
only about 11 percent of the books

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had a character of color.

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And just the year before,
that number was about eight percent,

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even though half of American children
today come from a minority background.

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Half.

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So there are two big issues here.

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Number one, children are told
that they can be anything,

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they can do anything,

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and yet, most stories
that children of color consume

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are about people who are not like them.

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Number two is that majority groups
don't get to realize

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the great extent to which
they are similar to minorities --

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our everyday experiences, our hopes,

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our dreams, our fears

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and our mutual love for hummus.

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It's delicious!

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(Laughter)

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Just like the color blue
for Ancient Greeks,

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minorities are not a part
of what we consider normal,

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because normal is simply a construction
of what we've been exposed to,

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and how visible it is around us.

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And this is where things
get a bit difficult.

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I can accept the preexisting notion
of normal -- that normal is good,

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and anything outside of that very
narrow definition of normal is bad.

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Or I can challenge
that preexisting notion of normal

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with my work

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and with my voice

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and with my accent

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and by standing here onstage,

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even though I'm scared shitless
and would rather be in the bathroom.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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(Video) Sheep (SS's voice):
I'm now slowly starting to use my voice

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in my work again.

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And it feels good.

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It does not mean I won't have a breakdown

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the next time a couple dozen
people say that I talk

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(Mumbling) like I have peanut
butter in my mouth.

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(Laughter)

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SS: It just means I now have
a much better understanding

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of what's at stake,

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and how giving up is not an option.

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The Ancient Greeks didn't just wake up
one day and realize

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that the sky was blue.

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It took centuries, even, for humans
to realize what we had been ignoring

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for so long.

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And so we must continuously challenge
our notion of normal,

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because doing so is going
to allow us as a society

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to finally see the sky for what it is.

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(Video) Characters: Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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Frankenstein's monster: (Grunts)

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(Laughter)

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SS: Thank you.

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(Applause)