Embrace the strange magic of your true self | Casey Gerald

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2019

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The way we're taught to live has got to change, says author Casey Gerald. Too often, we hide parts of ourselves in order to fit in, win praise, be accepted. But at what cost? In this inspiring talk, Gerald shares the personal sacrifices he made to attain success in the upper echelons of American society -- and shows why it's time for us to have the courage to live in the raw, strange magic of ourselves.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features author Casey Gerald recorded live at TED Salon Belonging 2018.
0:08.2	This talk contains mature language.
0:12.5	My mother called this summer to stage an intervention.
0:19.0	She'd come across a few snippets of my memoir,
0:24.8	which wasn't even out yet,
0:26.6	and she was concerned.
0:29.4	It wasn't the sex.
0:32.5	It was the language that disturbed her.
0:36.9	For example, I have been so many things along my curious
0:43.3	journey. A poor boy, a nigger, a Yale man, a Harvard man, a faggot, a Christian, a crack baby,
0:54.0	alleged, the spawn of Satan, the second coming, Casey.
0:59.7	That's just page six.
1:03.0	So you may understand my mother's worry.
1:06.8	But she wanted only to make one small change.
1:11.6	So she called, and she began.
1:14.6	Hey, you are a man.
1:18.6	You're not a faggot, you're not a punk, and let me tell you the difference.
1:23.6	You are prominent. You are intelligent. You dress well.
1:28.3	You know how to speak.
1:29.3	People like you.
1:31.3	You don't walk around doing your hand like a punk.
1:33.3	You're not a vagabond on the street.
	...

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