9th annual TEDxUNC conference goes 'Under the Surface'

TEDxUNC’s conference Saturday took on diverse social issues that pertained to race, immigration, female empowerment and more to highlight this year’s theme, "Under the Surface." 

The 9th annual TEDxUNC conference featured several guest speakers, including two UNC students, an expert on the US-Mexico border crisis and a psychologist.

“It was the idea of looking past the surface level to gain a deeper understanding of one another,” Sara Holley, a junior majoring in media and journalism and co-curator of TEDxUNC, said. “We really kind of hit at the idea that there are implicit unseen forces, that really shape the experiences that we have on a daily basis. That’s something that we thought would be good to explore further.” 

Holley said TEDx talks help attendees confront controversial issues in the world today, especially with this year's theme.

“TEDx events are a really great way to start discussion and conversation, and I think they are super important, but at the same time, we want people to walk away with something,” Holley said. “You can’t even begin to understand someone without listening to them. We rarely ever take the time to sit down and talk about these controversial issues.” 

Speakers touched on a variety of topics, from the personal to the political. For Ruth Samuel, a junior majoring in media and journalism, these kinds of issues are important to uncover and discuss.

“They all had different takes, such as resentment for the popular kid in high school or something such as what we think we see at the border versus what isn’t there,” Samuel said. “I like that all the speakers really extracted that, and were able to keep it in mind with the theme.”

Samuel also said she was able to relate with certain messages and found them to speak to her own life. 

“One of the things that was very poignant to me as a Black woman was Clay’s discussion about the origins of the N-word and what it means, and this kind of myth that we’re living in a post-racial society,” Samuel said. “It really struck a chord with me, and I hope it did with everyone else, just to think about, what does it mean to be the step child of the United States or to pledge allegiance to a country that doesn’t pledge allegiance to you.”

Clay Morris, a first-year majoring in political science and media and journalism, gave the talk that Samuel referenced. 

“It was a rewarding experience because it allowed me to use my voice to highlight my identity and what I think is important about my perspective,” Morris said. “As not only a Black person, but also being a gay person on that stage, just the act of me saying what I had to say to them, if they were to listen to it or not, made my point even stronger. It was like, people are listening, people are here, so your voice does matter.” 

Morris said he knew his talk would be controversial, but he felt that the issue needed to be addressed. 

“Even though UNC is known to be a liberal campus, there are still a lot of underlying racial issues that it’s really easy for the majority white campus to kind of turn a blind eye,” Morris said. “What I wanted to do with this speech was to wake people up to the reality that we may be able to agree on a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that I understand everything about you, and that you understand everything about me.” 

During his talk, Morris utilized the N-word often. To him, this was intentional, as he viewed people’s uncomfortableness of the word as an indicator of success.

“I want people to realize that, that initial shock that they feel, that’s primarily how I feel when people that are not Black use that word,” Morris said. “There were plenty of people who made faces, and who had googly eyes the whole time I was talking, but to me that proved that I was having the effect that I had intended to have.”

Holley said TEDxUNC welcomes many speakers to try out and express themselves in varied ways. She said she finds first-year students like Morris to be a great addition. 

“I’m always impressed by the TEDxUNC speakers, but I am infinitely more impressed by how young speakers are so eloquent at such a young age,” Holley said. “It gives me a lot of hope too about the future of Carolina, knowing that there are people that really do care and want to continue with TEDxUNC.” 

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