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Which box do I check? | Am I Normal? With Mona Chalabi

How we identify makes a difference in our lived experiences, but it’s not always reflected in the checkboxes we see on forms. In this episode, Mona Chalabi explores why language matters in data collection, and why the categories we use should reflect who we really are. Want to hear more from Mona? Check out her…

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How we identify makes a difference in our lived experiences, but it’s not always reflected in the checkboxes we see on forms. In this episode, Mona Chalabi explores why language matters in data collection, and why the categories we use should reflect who we really are. Want to hear more from Mona? Check out her podcast Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi, from the TED Audio Collective.

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67 Comments

67 Comments

  1. Nadie

    November 16, 2021 at 7:06 pm

    “Black, Hispanic, White” ugh…

  2. Linda van den Bogaard

    November 16, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    Im dutch. My boyfriend spanisch. We speak English together.. now what box will our child be 😅😂

  3. Joe Joey

    November 16, 2021 at 7:58 pm

    Any group that has a big enough community should be considered in the census , for example Indians and Pakistani Americans are lumped with Asians despite having completely different cultures , Arabs are lumped with whites … etc

  4. Joshua Klobnock

    November 16, 2021 at 8:01 pm

    Who cares what racial box you check only racists do.

  5. TED

    November 16, 2021 at 8:05 pm

    Enjoying Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi? To watch more episodes, click here:

    • Mesh He ♪

      November 18, 2021 at 6:47 pm

      WASPs and Radical WASPs should be in separate check boxes.

    • Aj Bahlam ♪

      November 18, 2021 at 6:47 pm

      WASPs and Radical WASPs should be in separate check boxes.

    • joaquin smith

      November 21, 2021 at 11:53 am

      No youre not…. you are much more than your skin colour…but you offer only skin treatment differences

  6. Charley Edwards

    November 16, 2021 at 8:12 pm

    wheres the “human” catagory?
    why is colour even a catagory………..

  7. Marianne Hart

    November 16, 2021 at 8:24 pm

    My opinion for what it’s worth… we stop checking boxes… it’s how they control us… it’s how they push racism… Male/Female is more than enough.

  8. Ahmed Shareef

    November 16, 2021 at 8:32 pm

    انتي عراقية ؟

  9. s lee mercer

    November 16, 2021 at 8:42 pm

    I check “mixed” Bec who knows?

  10. Edgars

    November 16, 2021 at 8:43 pm

    Theres just one race, human race 😉

  11. s lee mercer

    November 16, 2021 at 8:51 pm

    FIRST & FOREMOST, THEIR A R E
    NO “RACES ❗” humanity = 1 (one) race ❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️

  12. Amigo Kandu

    November 16, 2021 at 9:38 pm

    Where’s the Hillbilly box?

  13. Patricia Huber

    November 16, 2021 at 9:42 pm

    I allways have trouble when answering my race because I’m alot of things, Im ittalian German and Irish(and some others) for the “white?” Side of things I suppose? But I live/grew up on a reservation and am also native American and Mexican. My skin color is white, so do I say white? Or ittalian? Or like???? Idk, very confusing for me. I normally just list a few things idk XD, forms I say native American.

  14. Lucas Fernandes

    November 16, 2021 at 9:48 pm

    Si no hablas español no sos latino. Change my mind

  15. I am THIS I am

    November 16, 2021 at 9:57 pm

    The black and white box are ignorant. Color classification has always been and will always be stupid. You’re people, my people are more than a color. We have names and history.

  16. Michael Bradley

    November 16, 2021 at 10:18 pm

    Aside for no real reason to ask these questions, I think what may shed some clarity is “Race”, “Ethnicity”, “Nationality” are all differnt things, yet most dont know the difference.
    Me, I am:
    Race: White
    Ethnicity: Italian, Spanish, French
    Nationality: American

    I am not European/American, thats just stupid in my opinion, its like saying Afro-American, yea, i am going to get a lot of hate on this one, but from my point of view it means one doesnt know the difference of race, ethnicity and nationality, is Afro-American mean: Ethnicity: African, Nationality: American? if so, then why dont we change every catagory and change every person who not an american indian into their Ethnicity Category / American?

    Rant over

  17. Svend Tang

    November 16, 2021 at 10:21 pm

    Who cares I’m a human being like every body on this earth and your a friend i haven’t met yet.

  18. Leon Florence

    November 16, 2021 at 10:59 pm

    Goddamn surveys

  19. Brandon Hibbert

    November 16, 2021 at 11:46 pm

    You really mature when you realize that there actually are no boxes.

  20. deysi barnett

    November 16, 2021 at 11:58 pm

    I believe that if you live on this your place of origin is irrelevant!

  21. d b

    November 16, 2021 at 11:58 pm

    I believe that if you live on this your place of origin is irrelevant!

  22. deysi barnett

    November 17, 2021 at 12:01 am

    Your are full of it!!!! Yo soy what is considered minority! Malarkey bottom. Si hablo Espanol

  23. d b

    November 17, 2021 at 12:01 am

    Your are full of it!!!! Yo soy what is considered minority! Malarkey bottom. Si hablo Espanol

  24. Remy Lebeau

    November 17, 2021 at 12:03 am

    Being obsessed with racial identity isn’t normal or healthy.

    • Fate Clash

      November 18, 2021 at 11:05 am

      Being specialized is quite human.

  25. Tony Bowman

    November 17, 2021 at 1:13 am

    MLK would be so proud of what we are becoming………….

    • M S

      November 17, 2021 at 3:18 am

      Who cares. He helped a man rape a woman and probably did way worse than that.

  26. infg3570

    November 17, 2021 at 1:22 am

    Holy shyte… The whole point about this video was for inclusion for federal appropriation of billions of dollars and congregational representation. Apparently no one in the comments section caught that🤦🏾‍♂️

  27. Miss Shaboom

    November 17, 2021 at 3:05 am

    on a side note: does anyone else see the resemblance with Dama G (mexican youtuber) ?

  28. TomoyoYumemi

    November 17, 2021 at 3:51 am

    Aren’t you trying to make a country? Why the need of this kind of divition?

  29. Bruna Castro

    November 17, 2021 at 4:00 am

    My problems exactly! I am brazilian, I have portuguese and african heritage. Now what? Lol

  30. J B

    November 17, 2021 at 4:03 am

    Lived experience = racial identity = community. We need more categories. This is the reasoning we now call “progressive “.

  31. Rakuen Growlithe

    November 17, 2021 at 5:44 am

    Started off well on the importance of language and limitations of data but then veered off into some very weird directions. If you consider race to be a social construct then we shouldn’t be using it more, we should be moving away from it. But I don’t think race is a social construct, there is a biological reality underlying although that is complex and I think many people have very different ideas on what is meant by the term but that discussion should be a separate topic. Also the term “lived experience” is redundant. You can’t experience something without living it. There’s no unlived experience. Even if I read a memoir of someone who fought in WWII, talked to survivors, visited the sites and so on, I would never experience being in WWII.

  32. Keto Kei

    November 17, 2021 at 5:44 am

    Surely you can see that all this stuff is so they can divide and rule us – we are all just people. You are helping them control all of us by dividing us into fake groups.We are all better than this.

  33. Adam B

    November 17, 2021 at 7:24 am

    How to divide people…. With TED. I love how she sounded depressed when she was lumped in with white people. lmao

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    November 17, 2021 at 8:28 am

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    • Rosemary Edit

      November 17, 2021 at 10:05 am

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    • Rosemary Edit

      November 17, 2021 at 10:05 am

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      November 17, 2021 at 10:14 am

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    • Robert Henry

      November 17, 2021 at 10:36 am

      The importance of a professional mentorship of an expert should be the first step in trading…

    • Robert Henry

      November 17, 2021 at 10:36 am

      the only trader I can vogue for is Mr Sam Justin a certified broker with both ASIC and FINRA approved,

  35. Larry the Guy

    November 17, 2021 at 8:29 am

    The need to label and divide people like this is so annoying

  36. me5ng3

    November 17, 2021 at 8:32 am

    The fact that Americans use the term “RACE” instead of Ethnicity is really stupid.

  37. Silent Joe

    November 17, 2021 at 9:55 am

    I always have a gripe about how “Hispanic/Latino” isn’t considered a race in the USA census. According to the census, I’m a white person with “Hispanic or Latino descent”. And while that could be accurate due to my lighter skin and large portion of DNA coming from Spain, I just feel weird putting “White” as my race.

    • Buttercup

      November 17, 2021 at 9:05 pm

      I’m Brazilian and I feel similar.
      However I am indigenous decent
      I’m still concerned white because American Indian and Alaska Indian is the only option and I feel weird

  38. David Twynham

    November 17, 2021 at 11:01 am

    Thank you for this Enterprising monologue. I’m South African and of mixed heritage. Here my race are classified as coloureds. And as Trevor Noah said “we made here in Sa, it’s rather true but it’s fraught with ambiguity. I can’t identify with another coloured person’s culture or heritage as mine is solely different in comparison to one another who is on the other side of my country- even though we tick the same boxes on any government issued form( bloody irks me) and that’s the conundrum. To term ethnic, racial profiling for demographics as a social construct couldn’t be more on the point.
    For me it doesn’t matter the colour of your skin, your heritage, your language to be set aside as a difference. Because from some form or another we definetly have had intermingling some where along the line. So phenotypic appearances and typical differentiation should not be encouraged. Ie your black and you’re white by your skin colour or lineage.
    We should be celebrating what lineage,colour, dialects, skin colour as a form of uniqueness. As hybridization is going to be far more common as the people become more tolerable to one another.

    So if someone were to ask you what are you? My belief is to say I’m human, from Africa, and a Republican of South Africa. So many atime due to accepted racial profiling one would say I’m coloured. And for me that’s not good enough.

    When these terms will disappear who knows.

    • allabout perspective

      November 19, 2021 at 6:27 pm

      We are all coloured the only exceptions are albino and most of the time they too have a slight colour, I held up a black piece of paper beside my hand well I’m not black so I tried a white piece well I’m not white either there were green and purple pieces and even orange with many dots in different colours and none of them was the same colour as my skin so I think I’m pretty unique (just like the rest 😉 of us).

  39. HexaRecter

    November 17, 2021 at 12:04 pm

    Miss i’m sorry but your white, caucasian.
    And by extention using CRT, responsible of all slavery by blood inherited sins.

    Don’t take this seriously, just mocking the recent form of racism.

  40. Muse Inglis

    November 17, 2021 at 12:38 pm

    I’d like a box that’s simply titled ‘pea-brained earthling’ please!
    😉
    🛸 🔭 🌍

  41. Danny Stanczyk

    November 17, 2021 at 1:52 pm

    Dislike

  42. J

    November 17, 2021 at 2:49 pm

    I live in America. I am an AMERICAN. That means so much fucking more than being Hispanic or white or whatever

  43. steven hall

    November 17, 2021 at 6:04 pm

    life has been way to long so check that mix box because there’s no way your family didnt mix it up a bit . for me my skin is white yet my family isnt full blooded its just the primary gens that said the tone of my skin should be light my native gens says not to grow hair so yeah mixed it is

  44. Glenn Owen

    November 18, 2021 at 2:59 am

    Just create races checkbox such as “Human”, “Orc”, “Undead” and I’m sure many problems would gone. Human tends to differentiate itself more than it needs to be.

    • Mesh He ♪

      November 18, 2021 at 6:41 pm

      You forgot Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents and Trolls, which will affect the data collection.

    • Aj Bahlam ♪

      November 18, 2021 at 6:41 pm

      You forgot Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents and Trolls, which will affect the data collection.

    • allabout perspective

      November 19, 2021 at 6:37 pm

      @Aj Bahlam ♪ LOL

  45. hachi Mr

    November 18, 2021 at 8:25 am

    No asian in your boxes! very interesting!

    • allabout perspective

      November 19, 2021 at 6:42 pm

      Well, Asian people are just around 60% of the world population, so just a small mistake 😉.

  46. Юлия Нечипорук

    November 18, 2021 at 8:43 am

    I was listening to this episode yesterday and trying to understand what you offer to fix.
    There are almost 8 billion people on the Earth and it is physically impossible to depict each group separately.
    There are a bit crowded for it already here.

  47. Kongolox

    November 18, 2021 at 4:09 pm

    Or.. make life simplar and remove race / ethnicity.

    This will never ends

  48. Cellar Door

    November 21, 2021 at 2:43 am

    I checked YAWN
    ya done wore out the subject with woketardedness

  49. AnAZPatriot

    November 21, 2021 at 9:04 am

    I’m always an other, and “Individual” who makes $20k a year.
    I am now dumber for having watched this, and will NEVER concede the language.

  50. joaquin smith

    November 21, 2021 at 11:50 am

    Smells exactly at what it is split persons in victim inequality groups… truly untruth… new agenda looking for old power objetives…sorry your goal is not good enougth for the damage you actually do to the world.

  51. Alan Welsh

    November 22, 2021 at 9:02 pm

    No attempt is made at explaining just what the terms ‘ethnicity’ and ‘race’ even mean. Just running away with her crude intuitions, as so many others do.

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