This article is a collaboration between Ashby Strauch and Ben Duong.
There are many different types of identities. There are identities you connect with, other people’s perception of your identities and identities you just don’t understand. Because humans rely so readily on categorizing people, places and things, identities play an immeasurable role in our lives.
Ten different speakers at TEDxUF expressed their experience with identities in their school, careers, jail and lives. Through sharing inspirational anecdotes, groundbreaking research and their own personal stories, TEDxUF showcased individuals with different identities and passions, but one uniting goal: making the world a better place through a better understanding of who we really are.
Here’s a brief recap of a few of our favorite talks from TEDxUF 2016.
Veronica Hernandez, a senior at UF, opened by discussing how apathy is the enemy of empathy.
“Everyone has compassion,” she said. “The problem comes from hopelessness.”
She struggled to find her purpose in life because she was so focused on being a “superhero,” which was what she called an advocate who works to enact change. She originally studied nursing in school because she wanted to help people. She got a 4.0, she worked in hospice and with children, but it wasn’t what she wanted to do.
She now studies digital arts and sciences and understands how games and design can help the world. She considers herself a “designer for change” because she wants to create experiences through video games that other people will walk away, talk about and empathize with.
She now works with Immerse XP, which teaches children about game development and startups.
Hernandez advises that everyone be their own superhero.
Monekka Munroe went to the doctor with what she thought was the stomach flu at 18. She discovered she was pregnant, but she didn’t let that stop her.
She thought she wouldn’t accomplish anything because she was a teen parent with disabilities, but she worked her ass off for her daughter anyway, making whatever sacrifices were necessary to build a better life for her.
She thought she had really turned her life around when she was studying at FSU. She made the Dean’s list and honor roll several times. She was even working part time. That is, until she was arrested on a third degree felony for fraud. She failed to disclose that she had a part time job and was receiving $2.13 from child support checks.
While she was in jail, an officer told her that she would be back, which angered her.
She went on to get a master’s in criminal justice from FIU, and she became an advocate for single mothers and women.
She ended up returning to that same jail, but this time she was getting paid for it. The same guard who told her she would be back was still working there. Granted, he didn’t remember her, but she remembered him. When he greeted her by calling her by her first name, she told him “I am Professor Munroe to you.”
Munroe advised people to not get angry at the world and other people and to always remember that you were born for greatness.
She ended by saying, “My identity is nothing less than being fabulous.”
Emma Humphries, a UF graduate, discussed the controversial nature of social media politics and how we won’t be able to “meme” ourselves out of modern political problems.
“Why are we using stolen images, Impact fonts and snarky one liners to argue about complex socioeconomic issues?” she asked.
Memes won’t be able to fix the widespread lack of knowledge about the American government and history. Memes won’t be able to fix the polarized party system.
According to Humphries, only one-third of American adults can name the three branches of the United States government, and one-third can only name one.
“We are frustrated with and lacking information about institutions with which we have very little knowledge,” Humphries said.
She advocates for early civic education because many children drop out well before government is taught in 12th grade. This will ensure that future generations will participate in government responsibly, even if they don’t make it through high school.
Wade Davis II, a former NFL player, closed out TEDxUF with a powerful speech on homophobia in sports, toxic masculinity and coming to terms with sexuality.
Davis recalled that even early in his life, toxic masculinity and homophobia were constantly reinforced in him, and his friends.
Boys growing up have to put on masks of masculinity. They have to be tough, they have to act a certain way and they have to do all these little behaviors lest they are thought to be “gay” or “queer.”
When Davis learned that he was attracted to men, this mask became even more of a prison that stifled who he really was.
As an athlete, he played football in college and then in the NFL. The aggressive and competitive atmosphere in sports, especially football, has long been breeding grounds for the toxic masculinity that Davis encountered growing up, except that it was amplified and used as a weapon.
Gay slurs were hurled at athletes doing poorly, or athletes who didn’t exemplify unquestionable masculinity and heterosexuality, or anything that stepped out of line.
As he died beneath his mask, Davis hid his sexuality from his peers for years, with every action he took to do so like wasted motion by a defensive back.
When Davis retired from the NFL in 2003, it was a long time before he truly broke the mask of masculinity, and embraced who he truly was.
After coming out publicly in 2012, Davis has devoted his life to working with youth and athletes alike, to eliminate the rampant homophobia in sports, disentangle masculinity from the toxic, misogynistic version that he and many others are subjected to, and helping others to accept that it’s okay to not be perfectly masculine.
In clear terms, Davis spoke how sexism is the root of homophobia, that “until women are free, men can never be free.”
We must work to love ourselves, everyday, for who we truly are, because to Davis, anything else is wasted motion.
Cover image via: TEDxUF
