Ella va escriure: «Quan sigui famosa, diré a tothom que conec un heroi que es diu Marlon Peterson».
She wrote: "When I become famous, I will tell everyone that I know a hero named Marlon Peterson."
Els herois no tenen aquesta pinta. De fet, semblo més aviat escombraries. No, potser no és la millor manera de començar una xerrada o d'iniciar una conversa, i potser teniu al cap preguntes al respecte. «Per què aquest home diu això d'ell mateix?». «Què vol dir amb això?». «Com pot ser que algú el vegi com a heroi si ell es veu com brossa?».
Heroes rarely look like me. In fact, I'm what garbage looks like. No, not the most appealing way to open a talk or start a conversation, and perhaps you have some questions going through your head about that. Why would this man say such a thing about himself? What does he mean? How can someone view him as a hero when he sees himself as garbage?
Jo crec que aprenem més de les preguntes que de les respostes. Perquè, quan fem preguntes, mirem de copsar informació nova o intentem lluitar contra una ignorància que ens fa sentir incòmodes. I per això sóc aquí: per empènyer-nos a preguntar fins i tot quan ens fa sentir incòmodes.
I believe we learn more from questions than we do from answers. Because when we're questioning something, we're invested in taking in some sort of new information, or grappling with some sort of ignorance that makes us feel uncomfortable. And that's why I'm here: to push us to question, even when it makes us uncomfortable.
Els meus pares són de Trinitat i Tobago, l'illa que es troba més al sud del Carib. A Trinitat també va nèixer l'únic instrument acústic que es va inventar durant el segle XX: el timbal d'acer. Deriva dels timbals africans i va evol·lucionar gràcies al geni d'un dels guetos de Trinitat, una ciutat anomenada Laventille, i a la indiferència dels militars dels Estats Units... Bé, els Estats Units, durant la Segona Guerra Mundial, tenien bases militars a Trinitat, i, quan va acabar la guerra, van deixar per tota l'illa bidons de petroli buits. Les seves deixalles. Bé, doncs la gent de Laventille va transformar aquells bidons vells en l'escala cromàtica sencera. El timbal d'acer. Ara s'hi pot tocar música de Beethoven, Bob Marley o 50 Cent. Aquella gent, literalment, feia música de les escombraries.
My parents are from Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost island in the Caribbean. Trinidad is also home to the only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century: the steel pan. Deriving from the African drums and evolving from the genius of one of the ghettos in Trinidad, a city called Laventille, and the disregard of the American military ... Well, I should tell you, America, during WWII, had military bases set up in Trinidad, and when the war ended, they left the island littered with empty oil drums -- their trash. So people from Laventille repurposed the old drums left behind into the full chromatic scale: the steel pan. Playing music now from Beethoven to Bob Marley to 50 Cent, those people literally made music out of garbage.
Dotze dies abans del meu vintè aniversari, em van detenir per la meva participació en un intent de robatori amb violència al sud de Manhattan. Hi havia gent que seia en una cafeteria i van disparar a quatre persones. Dues van morir. Cinc de nosaltres vam ser detinguts. Érem tots productes de Trinitat i Tobago. Erem els «immigrants dolents» o els «nadons àncora», difamats per en Trump i millions d'americans. Em van rebutjar com si fos un residu, molts pensen que justificadament. Vaig complir una condemna de deu anys, dos mesos i set dies. Em van condemnar a una dècada en una institució correccional. Em van condemnar a la irrellevància... el contrari de la humanitat.
Twelve days before my 20th birthday, I was arrested for my role in a violent robbery attempt in lower Manhattan. While people were sitting in a coffee shop, four people were shot. Two were killed. Five of us were arrested. We were all the products of Trinidad and Tobago. We were the "bad immigrants," or the "anchor babies" that Trump and millions of Americans easily malign. I was discarded, like waste material -- and justifiably so to many. I eventually served 10 years, two months and seven days of a prison sentence. I was sentenced to a decade of punishment in a correctional institution. I was sentenced to irrelevance -- the opposite of humanity.
Curiosament, va ser durant aquells anys a la presó quan unes cartes van redimir-me, em van ajudar a vèncer la foscor i la culpa vinculades al pitjor moment de la meva jove vida. Em van fer sentir que jo era útil. Ella tenia tretze anys. Va escriure que em veia com un heroi. Recordo llegir-ho, i recordo que aquelles paraules em van fer plorar.
Interestingly, it was during those years in prison that a series of letters redeemed me, helped me move beyond the darkness and the guilt associated with the worst moment of my young life. It gave me a sense that I was useful. She was 13 years old. She had wrote that she saw me as a hero. I remember reading that, and I remember crying when I read those words.
Ella era una de 50 estudiants i de 150 cartes que vaig escriure durant un programa de mentoria per correspondècia que vaig codissenyar amb un amic que era professor en una escola de Brooklyn, la meva ciutat. El vam anomenar Programa de Joves Estudiants. Cada vegada que aquells joves compartien les seves històries amb mi, les seves lluites, cada vegada que feien un dibuix del seu personatge de dibuixos preferit i me l'enviaven, cada vegada que deien que depenien de les meves cartes o els meus consells, augmentava el meu sentit de dignitat. Em feia veure què podia aportar a aquest planeta. Va canviar-me la vida.
She was one of over 50 students and 150 letters that I wrote during a mentoring correspondence program that I co-designed with a friend who was a teacher at a middle school in Brooklyn, my hometown. We called it the Young Scholars Program. Every time those young people shared their stories with me, their struggles, every time they drew a picture of their favorite cartoon character and sent it to me, every time they said they depended on my letters or my words of advice, it boosted my sense of worthiness. It gave me a sense of what I could contribute to this planet. It transformed my life.
Amb aquelles cartes i amb allò que compartien amb mi, les seves històries de joventut, em van donar permís, em van donar valor per admetre'm a mi mateix que hi havia raons, no excuses, sinó raons perquè passés allò aquell fatídic dia d'octubre de 1999; que el trauma tenia a veure amb haver viscut en una comunitat on era més fàcil aconseguir armes que sabates; que el trauma tenia a veure amb una violació a punta de pistola als 14 anys; que a mi em semblen raons per les quals aquella decisió, aquella decisió fatal, no costa tant d'entendre.
Because of those letters and what they shared with me, their stories of teen life, they gave me the permission, they gave me the courage to admit to myself that there were reasons -- not excuses -- but that there were reasons for that fateful day in October of 1999; that the trauma associated with living in a community where guns are easier to get than sneakers; that the trauma associated with being raped at gunpoint at the age of 14; that those are reasons for me why making that decision, that fatal decision, was not an unlikely proposition.
Aquelles cartes van ser tan importants per a mi, escriure-les, rebre-les i tenir aquella comunicació amb aquells joves em va impactar tant que vaig decidir compartir-ho amb alguns amics que eren allà dintre amb mi. Els meus amics Bill, Cory i Arocks, també empresonats per crims violents, van compartir la seva saviesa amb els joves, igual que jo, i, a canvi, van poder sentir-se rellevants. Ara som autors publicats i innovadors en programes pel jovent, i experts en traumes, i lluitem contra la violència amb armes, i som oradors de TED i...
Because those letters mattered so much to me, because writing and receiving and having that communication with those folks so hugely impacted my life, I decided to share the opportunity with some friends of mine who were also inside with me. My friends Bill and Cory and Arocks, all in prison for violent crimes also, shared their words of wisdom with the young people as well, and received the sense of relevancy in return. We are now published writers and youth program innovators and trauma experts and gun violence prevention advocates, and TED talkers and --
(Riures)
(Laughter)
i bons pares. Això és el que jo considero un retorn d'inversió positiu.
and good daddies. That's what I call a positive return of investment.
Per sobre de tot, el que vaig aprendre creant aquell programa va ser que quan sembrem, quan invertim en la humanitat de la gent, sense importar on siguin, podem collir recompenses meravelloses.
Above all else, what building that program taught me was that when we sow, when we invest in the humanity of people no matter where they're at, we can reap amazing rewards.
En aquesta època de reforma de la justícia penal, sovint em pregunto per què... Per què tanta gent creu que només els condemnats per delictes no violents de drogues mereixen empatia i humanitat reconeguda. La reforma de la justicia penal és justicia humana. Jo no sóc un ésser humà? Quan invertim en recursos que augmenten la rellevància de la gent a comunitats com Laventille, o a Brooklyn, o a un gueto proper, podem crear, literalment, les comunitats que volem.
In this latest era of criminal justice reform, I often question and wonder why -- why is it that so many believe that only those who have been convicted of nonviolent drug offenses merit empathy and recognized humanity? Criminal justice reform is human justice. Am I not human? When we invest in resources that amplify the relevancy of people in communities like Laventille or parts of Brooklyn or a ghetto near you, we can literally create the communities that we want.
Podem fer-ho millor. Hi ha solucions millors que invertir en l'enduriment de la llei perquè no ens fan sentir rellevants, i aquesta és la clau de per què molts de nosaltres fem coses dolentes buscant ser importants. La violència amb armes és la part visible sota la qual s'amaguen els traumes. Quan invertim en el valor redemptor de la rellevància, podem obtenir a canvi tant responsabilitat personal com cura. És aquest el treball amb la gent que m'importa, perquè la gent treballa.
We can do better. We can do better than investing solely in law enforcement as a resource, because they don't give us a sense of relevancy that is at the core of why so many of us do so many harmful things in the pursuit of mattering. See, gun violence is just a visible display of a lot of underlying traumas. When we invest in the redemptive value of relevancy, we can render a return of both personal responsibility and healing. That's the people work I care about, because people work.
Família, us demano que feu el treball dur, el treball difícil, el treball complicat de concedir amabilitat no merescuda a aquells que podríem relegar com a escombraries, a qui fàcilment podem ignorar i refusar. M'ho demano a mi mateix.
Family, I'm asking you to do the hard work, the difficult work, the churning work of bestowing undeserved kindness upon those who we can relegate as garbage, who we can disregard and discard easily. I'm asking myself.
Durant els últims dos mesos he perdut a dos amics per la violència armada. Només passaven per allà. Un va ser víctima d'un tiroteig des d'un cotxe quan anava cap a casa. L'altre estava assegut en una cafeteria, esmorzant, de vacances a Miami. Em demano veure el valor redemptor de la rellevància en les persones que els van matar, pel treball tan dur que suposa veure'l en mi mateix. Ens animo a desafiar la capacitat que tenim d'experimentar per complet la nostra humanitat, entenent la biografia completa de persones a les que fàcilment podriem escollir no veure. Perquè hi ha herois que esperen ser reconeguts i hi ha música que espera ser composta.
Over the past two months, I've lost two friends to gun violence, both innocent bystanders. One was caught in a drive-by while walking home. The other was sitting in a café while eating breakfast, while on vacation in Miami. I'm asking myself to see the redemptive value of relevancy in the people that murdered them, because of the hard work of seeing the value in me. I'm pushing us to challenge our own capacity to fully experience our humanity, by understanding the full biography of people who we can easily choose not to see, because heroes are waiting to be recognized, and music is waiting to be made.
Gràcies.
Thank you.
(Aplaudiments)
(Applause)