A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided
-
0:01 - 0:06"Where are you from?"
said the pale, tattooed man. -
0:08 - 0:11"Where are you from?"
-
0:12 - 0:15It's September 21, 2001,
-
0:17 - 0:2210 days after the worst attack
on America since World War II. -
0:23 - 0:27Everyone wonders about the next plane.
-
0:27 - 0:30People are looking for scapegoats.
-
0:31 - 0:34The president,
the night before, pledges to -
0:34 - 0:40"bring our enemies to justice
or bring justice to our enemies." -
0:41 - 0:46And in the Dallas mini-mart,
-
0:46 - 0:52a Dallas mini-part surrounded
by tire shops and strip joints -
0:52 - 0:56a Bangladeshi immigrant
works the register. -
0:56 - 1:03Back home, Raisuddin Bhuiyan
was a big man, an Air Force officer. -
1:03 - 1:07But he dreamed of a
fresh start in America. -
1:07 - 1:12If he had to work briefly in a mini-mart
to save up for I.T. classes -
1:12 - 1:15and his wedding in two months, so be it.
-
1:16 - 1:21Then, on September 21,
that tattooed man enters the mart. -
1:21 - 1:23He holds a shotgun.
-
1:24 - 1:26Raisuddin knows the drill:
-
1:26 - 1:29puts cash on the counter.
-
1:30 - 1:35This time, the man doesn't
touch the money. -
1:35 - 1:39"Where are you from?" he asks.
-
1:39 - 1:44"Excuse me?" Raisuddin answers.
-
1:44 - 1:48His accent betrays him.
-
1:48 - 1:53The tattooed man, a self-styled
true American vigilante, -
1:53 - 1:58shoots Raisuddin in revenge for 9/11.
-
1:58 - 2:03Raisuddin feels millions of bees
stinging his face. -
2:04 - 2:10In fact, dozens of scalding,
birdshot pellets puncture his head. -
2:10 - 2:14Behind the counter, he lays in blood.
-
2:14 - 2:18He cups a hand over his forehead
to keep in the brains -
2:18 - 2:21on which he'd gambled everything.
-
2:22 - 2:29He recites verses from the Koran,
begging his God to live. -
2:29 - 2:33He senses he is dying.
-
2:33 - 2:36He didn't die.
-
2:36 - 2:39His right eye left him.
-
2:39 - 2:43His fiancée left him.
-
2:43 - 2:47His landlord, the mini-mart owner,
kicked him out. -
2:47 - 2:52Soon he was homeless and
60,000 dollars in medical debt, -
2:52 - 2:56including a fee for dialing
for an ambulance. -
2:58 - 3:00But Raisuddin lived.
-
3:00 - 3:06And years later, he would ask
what he could do to repay his God -
3:06 - 3:09and become worthy of this second chance.
-
3:10 - 3:12He would come to believe, in fact,
-
3:12 - 3:18that this chance called for him
to give a second chance -
3:18 - 3:22to a man we might think
deserved no chance at all. -
3:24 - 3:30Twelve years ago, I was a fresh graduate
seeking my way in the world. -
3:30 - 3:32Born in Ohio to Indian immigrants,
-
3:32 - 3:35I settled on the ultimate rebellion
against my parents, -
3:35 - 3:40moving to the country they had worked
so damn hard to get out of. -
3:40 - 3:46What I thought might be a six-month stint
in Mumbai stretched to six years. -
3:46 - 3:51I became a writer and found myself
amid a magical story: -
3:51 - 3:55the awakening of hope across much
of the so-called Third World. -
3:55 - 4:00Six years ago, I returned to America
and realized something: -
4:00 - 4:03The American Dream was thriving,
-
4:03 - 4:07but only in India.
-
4:07 - 4:10In America, not so much.
-
4:10 - 4:14In fact, I observed that
America was fracturing -
4:14 - 4:16into two distinct societies:
-
4:16 - 4:21a republic of dreams
and a republic of fears. -
4:21 - 4:24And then, I stumbled onto this
incredible tale of two lives -
4:24 - 4:32and of these two Americas that brutally
collided in that Dallas mini-mart. -
4:32 - 4:34I knew at once I wanted to learn more,
-
4:34 - 4:37and eventually that I would write
a book about them, -
4:37 - 4:41for their story was the story
of America's fracturing -
4:41 - 4:46and of how it might be put back together.
-
4:46 - 4:50After he was shot, Raisuddin's life
grew no easier. -
4:50 - 4:55The day after admitting him,
the hospital discharged him. -
4:55 - 4:57His right eye couldn't see.
-
4:57 - 4:59He couldn't speak.
-
4:59 - 5:02Metal peppered his face.
-
5:02 - 5:06But he had no insurance,
so they bounced him. -
5:06 - 5:10His family in Bangladesh
begged him, "Come home." -
5:11 - 5:14But he told them he had
a dream to see about. -
5:15 - 5:18He found telemarketing work,
-
5:18 - 5:21then he became an Olive Garden waiter,
-
5:21 - 5:25because where better to get over his fear
of white people than the Olive Garden? -
5:25 - 5:28(Laughter)
-
5:28 - 5:33Now, as a devout Muslim,
he refused alcohol, -
5:33 - 5:35didn't touch the stuff.
-
5:35 - 5:40Then he learned that not selling it
would slash his pay. -
5:40 - 5:44So he reasoned, like a budding
American pragmatist, -
5:44 - 5:48"Well, God wouldn't want me
to starve, would he?" -
5:48 - 5:51And before long, in some months,
Raisuddin was that Olive Garden's -
5:51 - 5:55highest grossing alcohol pusher.
-
5:55 - 5:59He found a man who taught him
database administration. -
5:59 - 6:01He got part-time I.T. gigs.
-
6:01 - 6:07Eventually, he landed a six-figure job
at a blue chip tech company in Dallas. -
6:08 - 6:13But as America began
to work for Raisuddin, -
6:13 - 6:17he avoided the classic
error of the fortunate: -
6:17 - 6:21assuming you're the rule,
not the exception. -
6:21 - 6:27In fact, he observed that many with
the fortune of being born American -
6:27 - 6:33were nonetheless trapped in lives that
made second chances like his impossible. -
6:33 - 6:37He saw it at the Olive Garden itself,
-
6:37 - 6:40where so many of his colleagues had
childhood horror stories -
6:40 - 6:45of family dysfunction, chaos,
addiction, crime. -
6:45 - 6:49He'd heard a similar tale about
the man who shot him -
6:49 - 6:52back when he attended his trial.
-
6:52 - 6:58The closer Raisuddin got to the America
he had coveted from afar, -
6:58 - 7:02the more he realized there was
another, equally real, America -
7:02 - 7:06that was stingier with second chances.
-
7:08 - 7:14The man who shot Raisuddin grew up
in that stingier America. -
7:14 - 7:19From a distance, Mark Stroman
was always the spark of parties, -
7:19 - 7:23always making girls feel pretty.
-
7:23 - 7:27Always working, no matter what
drugs or fights he'd had the night before. -
7:27 - 7:31But he'd always wrestled with demons.
-
7:31 - 7:34He entered the world through
the three gateways -
7:34 - 7:36that doom so many young American men:
-
7:36 - 7:41bad parents, bad schools, bad prisons.
-
7:41 - 7:45His mother told him, regretfully, as a boy
-
7:45 - 7:50that she'd been just 50 dollars
short of aborting him. -
7:50 - 7:56Sometimes, that little boy
would be at school, -
7:56 - 8:01he'd suddenly pull a knife
on his fellow classmates. -
8:01 - 8:04Sometimes that same little boy
would be at his grandparents', -
8:04 - 8:07tenderly feeding horses.
-
8:07 - 8:09He was getting arrested before he shaved,
-
8:09 - 8:12first juvenile, then prison.
-
8:12 - 8:15He became a casual white supremacist
-
8:15 - 8:21and, like so many around him,
a drug-addled and absent father. -
8:21 - 8:26And then, before long,
he found himself on death row, -
8:26 - 8:32for in his 2001 counter-jihad,
he had shot not one mini-mart clerk, -
8:32 - 8:34but three.
-
8:34 - 8:36Only Raisuddin survived.
-
8:37 - 8:42Strangely, death row was
the first institution -
8:42 - 8:45that left Stroman better.
-
8:45 - 8:48His old influences quit him.
-
8:48 - 8:51The people entering his life
were virtuous and caring: -
8:51 - 8:56pastors, journalists, European pen-pals.
-
8:56 - 9:02They listened to him, prayed with him,
helped him question himself. -
9:02 - 9:07And sent him on a journey
of introspection and betterment. -
9:07 - 9:12He finally faced the hatred
that had defined his life. -
9:12 - 9:15He read Viktor Frankl,
the Holocaust survivor -
9:15 - 9:19and regretted his swastika tattoos.
-
9:19 - 9:21He found God.
-
9:21 - 9:25Then one day in 2011,
10 years after his crimes, -
9:25 - 9:28Stroman received news.
-
9:28 - 9:35One of the men he'd shot, the survivor,
was fighting to save his life. -
9:35 - 9:41You see, late in 2009,
eight years after that shooting, -
9:41 - 9:47Raisuddin had gone on his own journey,
a pilgrimage to Mecca. -
9:47 - 9:51Amid its crowds,
he felt immense gratitude, -
9:51 - 9:53but also duty.
-
9:53 - 9:57He recalled promising God,
as he lay dying in 2001, -
9:57 - 10:02that if he lived, he would serve
humanity all his days. -
10:02 - 10:08Then, he'd gotten busy
relaying the bricks of a life. -
10:08 - 10:11Now it was time to pay his debts.
-
10:12 - 10:16And he decided, upon reflection,
that his method of payment -
10:16 - 10:19would be an intervention
in the cycle of vengeance -
10:19 - 10:22between the Muslim and Western worlds.
-
10:22 - 10:25And how would he intervene?
-
10:25 - 10:29By forgiving Stroman publicly
in the name of Islam -
10:29 - 10:31and its doctrine of mercy.
-
10:31 - 10:37And then suing the state of Texas
and its governor Rick Perry -
10:37 - 10:41to prevent them from executing Stroman,
-
10:41 - 10:44exactly like most people
shot in the face do. -
10:44 - 10:46(Laughter)
-
10:46 - 10:54Yet Raisuddin's mercy was inspired
not only by faith. -
10:54 - 11:00A newly minted American citizen,
he had come to believe that Stroman -
11:00 - 11:07was the product of a hurting America that
couldn't just be lethally injected away. -
11:07 - 11:11That insight is what moved me
to write my book "The True American." -
11:11 - 11:16This immigrant begging America
to be as merciful to a native son -
11:16 - 11:20as it had been to an adopted one.
-
11:21 - 11:24In the mini-mart, all those years earlier,
-
11:24 - 11:28not just two men,
but two Americas collided. -
11:28 - 11:31An America that still dreams,
still strives, -
11:31 - 11:35still imagines that tomorrow
can build on today, -
11:35 - 11:38and an America that has resigned to fate,
-
11:38 - 11:41buckled under stress and chaos,
lowered expectations, -
11:41 - 11:44an ducked into the oldest of refuges:
-
11:44 - 11:48the tribal fellowship of one's
own narrow kind. -
11:48 - 11:51And it was Raisuddin, despite
being a newcomer, -
11:51 - 11:52despite being attacked,
-
11:52 - 11:55despite being homeless and traumatized,
-
11:55 - 11:58who belonged to that republic of dreams
-
11:58 - 12:03and Stroman who belonged to that
other wounded country, -
12:03 - 12:08despite being born with the privilege
of a native white man. -
12:08 - 12:15I realized these men's stories formed
an urgent parable about America. -
12:15 - 12:19The country I am so proud to call my own
-
12:19 - 12:23wasn't living through a
generalized decline -
12:23 - 12:30as seen in Spain or Greece,
where prospects were dimming for everyone. -
12:30 - 12:35America is simultaneously the most
and the least successful country -
12:35 - 12:37in the industrialized world.
-
12:37 - 12:40Launching the world's best companies,
-
12:40 - 12:43even as record numbers
of children go hungry. -
12:43 - 12:47Seeing life-expectancy drop
for large groups, -
12:47 - 12:51even as it polishes
the world's best hospitals. -
12:51 - 12:55America today is a sprightly young body,
-
12:55 - 13:01hit by one of those strokes
that sucks the life from one side, -
13:01 - 13:04while leaving the other
worryingly perfect. -
13:05 - 13:12On July 20, 2011, right after
a sobbing Raisuddin -
13:12 - 13:14testified in defense of Stroman's life,
-
13:14 - 13:21Stroman was killed by lethal injection
by the state he so loved. -
13:21 - 13:25Hours earlier, when Raisuddin still
thought he could still save Stroman, -
13:25 - 13:28the two men got to speak
for the second time ever. -
13:28 - 13:32Here is an excerpt from their phone call.
-
13:32 - 13:37Raisuddin: "Mark, you should know
that I am praying for God, -
13:37 - 13:40the most compassionate and gracious.
-
13:40 - 13:43I forgive you and I do not hate you.
-
13:43 - 13:46I never hated you."
-
13:46 - 13:50Stroman: "You are a remarkable person.
-
13:50 - 13:53Thank you from my heart.
-
13:53 - 13:55I love you, bro."
-
13:55 - 13:59Even more amazingly, after the execution,
-
13:59 - 14:04Raisuddin reached out to Stroman's
eldest daughter, Amber, -
14:04 - 14:06an ex-convinct and an addict.
-
14:06 - 14:08and offered his help.
-
14:08 - 14:11"You may have lost a father,"
he told her, -
14:11 - 14:15"but you've gained an uncle."
-
14:15 - 14:20He wanted her, too, to have
a second chance. -
14:20 - 14:26If human history were a parade,
-
14:26 - 14:32America's float would be
a neon shrine to second chances. -
14:32 - 14:38But America, generous with second chances
to the children of other lands, -
14:38 - 14:44today grows miserly with first chances
to the children of its own. -
14:44 - 14:49America still dazzles at allowing
anybody to become an American. -
14:49 - 14:56But it is losing its luster at allowing
every American to become a somebody. -
14:56 - 15:01Over the last decade, seven million
foreigners gained American citizenship. -
15:01 - 15:03Remarkable.
-
15:03 - 15:08In the meanwhile, how many Americans
gained a place in the middle class? -
15:08 - 15:12Actually, the net influx was negative.
-
15:12 - 15:14Go back further,
and it's even more striking: -
15:14 - 15:19Since the 60s, the middle class
has shrunk by 20 percent, -
15:19 - 15:23mainly because of the people
tumbling out of it. -
15:23 - 15:26And my reporting around the country
tells me the problem is grimmer -
15:26 - 15:29than simple inequality.
-
15:29 - 15:35What I observe is a pair of secessions
from the unifying center of American life. -
15:35 - 15:38An affluent secession of up, up and away,
-
15:38 - 15:42into elite enclaves of the educated
and into a global matrix -
15:42 - 15:44of work, money and connections,
-
15:44 - 15:48and an impoverished secession
of down and out -
15:48 - 15:51into disconnected, dead-end lives
-
15:51 - 15:55that the fortunate scarcely see.
-
15:55 - 16:00And don't console yourself
that you are the 99 percent. -
16:02 - 16:07If you live near a Whole Foods,
-
16:07 - 16:10if no one in your family serves
in the military, -
16:10 - 16:15if you're paid by the year,
not the hour, -
16:15 - 16:19if most people you know finished college,
-
16:19 - 16:21if no one you know uses meth,
-
16:21 - 16:23if you married once and remain married,
-
16:23 - 16:28if you're not one of 65 million Americans
with a criminal record -- -
16:28 - 16:31if any or all of these things
describe you, -
16:31 - 16:34then accept the possibility that actually,
-
16:34 - 16:37you may not know what's going on
-
16:37 - 16:43and you may be part of the problem.
-
16:43 - 16:49Other generations had to build
a fresh society after slavery, -
16:49 - 16:53pull through a depression,
defeat fascism, -
16:53 - 16:56freedom-ride in Mississippi.
-
16:56 - 16:58The moral challenge of
my generation, I believe, -
16:58 - 17:01is to reacquaint these two Americas,
-
17:01 - 17:06to choose union over secession once again.
-
17:06 - 17:10This ins't a problem we can tax
or tax-cut away. -
17:10 - 17:15It won't be solved by tweeting harder,
building slicker apps, -
17:15 - 17:19or starting one more
artisanal coffee roasting service. -
17:19 - 17:25It is a moral challenge that begs
each of us in the flourishing America -
17:25 - 17:29to take on the wilting America as our own,
-
17:29 - 17:32as Raisuddin tried to do.
-
17:32 - 17:35Like him, we can make pilgrimages.
-
17:35 - 17:38And there, in Baltimore and Oregon
and Appalachia, -
17:38 - 17:41find new purpose, as he did.
-
17:41 - 17:44We can immerse ourselves
in that other country, -
17:44 - 17:48bear witness to its hopes and sorrows,
-
17:48 - 17:55and, like Raisuddin, ask what we can do.
-
17:55 - 17:58What can you do?
-
17:58 - 18:00What can you do?
-
18:00 - 18:02What can we do?
-
18:02 - 18:07How might we build
a more merciful country? -
18:07 - 18:11We, the greatest inventors in the world,
-
18:11 - 18:16can invent solutions to the problems
of that America, not only our own. -
18:16 - 18:19We, the writers and the journalists,
can cover that America's stories, -
18:19 - 18:23instead of shutting down
bureaus in its midst. -
18:23 - 18:26We can finance that America's ideas,
-
18:26 - 18:29instead of ideas from New York
and San Francisco. -
18:29 - 18:32We can put our stethoscopes to its backs,
-
18:32 - 18:38teach there, go to court there,
make there, live there, pray there. -
18:38 - 18:43This, I believe, is the calling
of a generation. -
18:43 - 18:47An America whose two halves learn again
-
18:47 - 18:52to stride, to plow, to forge,
to dare together. -
18:54 - 19:00A republic of chances, rewoven, renewed,
-
19:00 - 19:04begins with us.
-
19:04 - 19:06Thank you.
-
19:06 - 19:11(Applause)
- Title:
- A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided
- Speaker:
- Anand Giridharadas
- Description:
-
Ten days after 9/11, a shocking attack at a Texas mini-mart shattered the lives of two men: the victim and the attacker. In this stunning talk, Anand Giridharadas, author of "The True American," tells the story of what happened next. It's a parable about the two paths an American life can take, and a powerful call for reconciliation.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 19:23
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided | ||
Madeleine Aronson accepted English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided |