Manraj Singh

Instructor: Professor McVey

ENGL 110: Freshman Composition

October 20, 2020

A renowned individual once proclaimed that one should “never forget what you are, for surely the world will not.” To many people within this world, this saying holds great clarity and significance upon their personal identification by the general public. One such man, named Safwat Saleem, published in 2016 of what had grown to become one of the most influential Ted Talks till this day. The speaker comes to cross-examine the discrimination and favoritism that occurs within society, as he argues towards the necessity for cultures to become more assimilated and well informed of each other and their many differences. By centering his focus around the personal struggles that an individual comes to face when one’s background and identity is criticized, Saleem begins to build credibility through his successful incorporation of chronological events, his emotional appeal through personal anecdotes, and his acknowledgement of the opposition’s argument.  

In his speech, Saleem first sets the stage by describing a specific recollection of a memory that he can’t seem to ever forget. In other words, Saleem continues to introduce the main exigence behind his story by revealing to the audience of a recurring idea that has haunted him throughout the majority of his life; the many experiences where people have ridiculed him for how he had spoken in the real world. Through providing a recollection of his own memories, the author finds himself struggling to reach the proclaimed “normal standard” of language within society. Saleem, in effect, showcases a newer perspective upon how the average individual is prone to being profiled and singled out because of their cultural indifferences. However, Saleem also comes to suggest that many people may remain oblivious to the fact that one’s normalcy of practices can differ from another’s, and thus bears witness to those that may oppose his argument. 

Throughout his piece, Saleem utilizes many different rhetorical appeals that come to strengthen his credibility towards the audience. To begin with, there comes to hold a great significance, as to why Saleem would even choose to begin his speech in the way that he has done so. By setting the stage with a personal event that has affected his life greatly, Saleem comes to gather the audience for whom he aims to say this speech, as he finds it within himself to inform other people who share common struggles with speech in their own society as well. This is quite effectively seen when Saleem is found stating: 

Every single time, it would take me back to my childhood, when I had a much harder time speaking… I spent my childhood feeling that if I spoke, it would become obvious that there was something wrong with me, that I was not normal.

As shown, Saleem evidently appears to set the stage by developing content in a linear and chronological fashion, dating back to moments within his life where he had felt singled out for who he was. With that being said, Saleem gives the audience this foundation of where his story begins, and promptly leads everyone through a chronological lens of how he has grown from that significant event within his life. 

Not only, but as Saleem continues to showcase his speech to the audience, he also adds on to his credibility as a speaker by strengthening his appeal to pathos. What followed his introduction, came to be a rollercoaster of emotions that were elicited from his usage of vivid descriptions towards specific anecdotals that came along his journey.  This is portrayed when Saleem goes on to exclaim:

I’ve stuttered for as long as I can remember. I was the kid in class who would never raise his hand when he had a question — or knew the answer. Every time the phone rang, I would run to the bathroom so I would not have to answer it. If it was for me, my parents would say I’m not around. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom. And I hated introducing myself, especially in groups. I’d always stutter on my name, and there was usually someone who’d go, “Have you forgotten your name?” And then everybody would laugh. That joke never got old. (​Laughter)

From this, what becomes interesting is that, as Saleem notes the many instances where people undermined him and the way he spoke, he receives a reaction from the audience that most would find to be very strange and insulting. Instead of directly feeling sympathy towards Saleem and his struggles, the audience seems to fill themselves with laughter upon what he has said. However, Saleem’s appeal to pathos is quite strongly expressed through this very laughter that he produced from the audience. With the implication of a satirical reference, Saleem brings together the audience with humor, in order to shed light upon a greater issue at hand that far outweighs their sympathy towards him. This is because, at the end of the day, Saleem’s true purpose behind writing this speech, was rather to raise awareness about the discrimination that occurs upon people that struggle with speaking, through the evoking of emotions upon the audience. 

Along with strong pathos appeals, Saleem also continues on to make effective appeals to ethos within his argument. As he elaborates upon the aspect of discrimination and favoritism within society that he cross examines, Saleem sets up a parallel of his cultural differences with pieces of texts from different cultures throughout history by refining the idea that one’s normalcy of practices can differ from another’s. This is further illustrated through the convincing facts and ideas that Saleem provides in the following: 

Since then, I’ve thought a lot about what it means to be normal. And I’ve come to     understand that “normal” has a lot to do with expectations… Let me give you an example. I came across this story about the Ancient Greek writer, Homer. Now, Homer mentions very few colors in his writing. And even when he does, he seems to get them quite a bit wrong. For example, the sea is described as wine red, people’s faces are sometimes green and sheep are purple. But it’s not just Homer. If you look at all of the ancient literature — Ancient Chinese, Icelandic, Greek, Indian and even the original Hebrew Bible — they all mention very few colors. And the most popular theory for why that might be the case is that cultures begin to recognize a color only once they have the ability to make that color. 

Through a knowledgeable and fair minded standpoint, Saleem offers his own credibility to his argument by conceding to the opposing side that may not agree to his ideas set forth. By mentioning the idea that most people are unknown to the burden that befalls people with cultural indifferences, Saleem appears to utilize this counter argument in order to strengthen his own. Through this acknowledgement of the opposition, Saleem successfully portrays this symbolism of colors and how some people only consider a color because of the insights they have regarding that color. Thus, the generalization of normalcy is yet again brought up. And so, with this, the efforts made behind these comparisons were in part towards expressing the general idea that society must continue to keep challenging the broad spectrum of normal speaking standards, so that all may overcome this profiling and develop as one entity of a society. 

Ultimately, Saleem has come to show a great portrayal of how one’s cultural differences are not a weakness in one’s self identification within the world. Through the utilization of organized chronology within his writing, emotional appeals through anecdotals, and conceding of the opposing side of the argument, Saleem was able to effectively persuade the audience towards working to challenge societal norms so that people of all cultural indifferences are accepted for who they truly are.