Watch the full talk:
A clip from America Ferrera’s TED Talk “My identity is a superpower — not an obstacle” from TED2019
Hollywood needs to stop resisting what the world actually looks like, says actor, director and activist America Ferrera. “Presence creates possibility,” she says. “Who we see thriving in the world teaches us how to see ourselves, how to think about our own value, how to dream about our futures.”
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When I was 15, I got my first professional
audition.
It was a commercial for cable subscriptions
or bail bonds—I don’t really remember—but
what I do remember is that the casting director
asked me, “Could you do that again?
But just this time, sound more Latina.”
It took me most of the car ride home to realize
that by “sound more Latina,” she was asking
me to speak in broken English, and I couldn’t
figure out why the fact that I was an actual
real-life, authentic Latina didn’t really
seem to matter.
Anyway, I didn’t get the job.
I didn’t get a lot of the jobs people were
willing to see me for: the gangbanger’s girlfriend,
the sassy shoplifter, pregnant chola number
two.
These were the kinds of roles that existed
for someone like me, someone they looked at
and saw as too brown, too fat, too poor, too
unsophisticated.
I kept receiving the same message again and
again and again: that my identity was an obstacle
I had to overcome, and so I thought, “Come
at me, obstacle.
I’m an American.
My name is America.
I trained my whole life for this.
I’ll just follow the playbook.
I’ll work harder.”
I stayed out of the sun so that my skin wouldn’t
get too brown.
I straightened my curls into submission.
I constantly tried to lose weight.
I bought fancier and more expensive clothes,
all so that when people looked at me, they
wouldn’t see a too-fat, too-brown, too-poor
Latina.
They would see what I was capable of, and
maybe they would give me a chance.
Just a few years ago, my agent called to explain
to me why I wasn’t getting a role in a movie.
He said, “They loved you and they really,
really do want to cast diversely, but the
movie isn’t financeable until they cast the
white role first.”
I went through this process for years of accepting
the failure as my own, and then feeling deep
shame that I couldn’t overcome the obstacles.
But this time I heard a new voice, […] a
voice that understood my tears and my pain
were not about losing a job.
They were about what was actually being said
about me—what had been said about me my
whole life by executives and producers and
directors and writers and agents and managers
and teachers and friends and family—that
I was a person of less value.
I couldn’t change what a system believed about
me while I believed what the system believed
about me—and I did.
I, like everyone around me, believed that
it wasn’t possible for me to exist in my dream
as I was,
What this revealed to me was that it is possible
to be the person who genuinely wants to see
change, while also being the person whose
actions keep things the way they are.
Change will come when each of us has the courage
to question our own fundamental values and
beliefs and then see to it that our actions
lead to our best intentions.
I am just one of millions of people who have
been told that in order to fulfill my dreams,
in order to contribute my talents to the world,
I have to resist the truth of who I am.
My identity is not my obstacle.
My identity is my superpower.
I, for one, am ready to stop resisting and
to start existing as my full and authentic
self.
SHORT:
I am just one of millions of people who have
been told that in order to fulfill my dreams,
in order to contribute my talents to the world,
I have to resist the truth of who I am.
I didn’t get a lot of the jobs people were
willing to see me for: the gangbanger’s girlfriend,
the sassy shoplifter, pregnant Chola number
two.
These were the kinds of roles that existed
for someone like me, someone they looked at
and saw as too brown, too fat, too poor, too
unsophisticated.
My identity is not my obstacle.
My identity is my superpower.
Kshitija Shekhar
July 12, 2021 at 3:44 pm
Woah!
H K
July 12, 2021 at 5:18 pm
Wow i was shocked when I read the title.
There is a right-wing racist movement in Europe who call themselves “identitarian movement”.
Do you have any idea how racist your title sounds in European ears?
H K
July 12, 2021 at 5:26 pm
The video is good, but please change the title 🙏
Boris Sheen
July 13, 2021 at 7:09 am
well yeah I suppose you could spin it that way.. but I don’t think most people would think anything close to what you thought.
H K
July 15, 2021 at 6:36 am
You don’t get it, because you are no European.
InMaTeofDeath
July 15, 2021 at 4:12 pm
@H K Sadly the american left is loud and proud about their identitarian movement and they have their own racism too though instead of teaching to hate blacks they teach Critical Race Theory which teaches White people and “whiteness” are the cause of all the “minorities” problems. Thankfully thanks to kids coming home from school freaking out their parents with this stuff everyday Americans are starting to notice and speak up against it. There have even been a few cases where school boards refused to hear why parents didn’t want their kids to be taught CRT and despite being at a meeting where the school board is meant to listen to parents concerns they had a few of them arrested.
Yanitza Quiles
July 12, 2021 at 8:09 pm
Sitting here crying. Gracias America por su fortaleza 🤗
Heron Rodriguez
July 13, 2021 at 12:40 am
she actualyb hasnt been saying anything for the ast five minuetes
ShinbrigTV
July 13, 2021 at 1:39 am
Ngl, seeing her my first thought was “Si se puede, si se puede, si se puede!!”
CreativityZero
July 13, 2021 at 1:03 pm
The best part is when she says about being yourself because your authentic identity is your biggest superpower. Sincerely, there are a lot of people who say that it’s not something common to go through that kind of thing nowadays, but they’re forgetting that it still happens.
Anton Wereta
July 13, 2021 at 3:20 pm
This focus on such things isn’t strengthening anything, I’m a native New Zealander and I just see it creating mental weakness and reasons to remove oneself from blame or excellence. Breeding victimhood, definitely not strength.
Yulian Coronado
July 14, 2021 at 5:18 am
And Ferrera’s superpower is to assume a political position instead of becoming a neutral party.
What are you real intentions America?
I’m disappointed with your bias message becoming an advertisement in social media like I support people because they belong to the community “the minority of latinos bla bla”
M Ni
July 14, 2021 at 6:39 am
Thank you so much.
LEANA slg
July 14, 2021 at 7:55 am
It’s true!
Rik Michael
July 14, 2021 at 12:39 pm
And this is how the Democratic Party gets less popular, they follow the rich liberal ideology and strengthen the right wing. Real Super powers are policy that gives us more freedom but instead because of identity politics we keep getting more authoritative and the rich are getting richer while the rest are suffering
Austin Richards
July 14, 2021 at 10:02 pm
Wow the first 2 minutes of the video, just right on the mark. Immediately captivating.
Alexa Saltz
July 15, 2021 at 12:59 am
I have always loved this woman😁
MrJustbrowsing12345
July 15, 2021 at 1:43 pm
How is this super power practical in the real world? I’m a white British guy, can I use this power to star as Kim Jong un in a Korean movie studio?
Bert Vallejo
July 16, 2021 at 12:38 am
America is brilliant and this was very powerful ! Thank you America