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As Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month approaches in May, Huey Hsiao, associate director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, asked Wajahat Ali to speak to the Syracuse University community.

“I’m the guy your university gets when the rest of them say no,” Ali joked as he referred to other popular Asian American celebrities, such as Mindy Kaling and Hasan Minhaj. “Literally Huey told me, ‘You’re the last pick we have because the rest of them said no,’ and I said, ‘I’ll gladly take it,’ because beggars can’t be choosers.”

Ali, a New York Times op-ed contributing writer and award-winning playwright, talked to SU students, faculty and staff virtually on Thursday night, with a screening of the talk held at Schine Student Center. As he began his lecture, Ali emphasized that he didn’t just want to perform a speech. Instead, he wanted to tell stories, specifically the story of his life.

“I have some mileage. I might have some wisdom, and at least this won’t be boring,” he said.

Ali described how his family had problems admitting that they were Americans due to how popular media depicted Muslims.

Despite being born and raised in California, Ali still receives racist messages where people tell him to “go back to his country.”

“I always respond, ‘I’d love to go back to the Bay Area if you could subsidize my rent,’” Ali said.

It wasn’t until fifth grade that Ali finally discovered his superpower: storytelling.

In one of his classes, his teacher, Ms. Peterson, assigned him a one-page short story assignment. He didn’t know what to write about until he saw the film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and watched Morgan Freeman depict a Muslim named Azeem, the first strong Muslim character he’d ever seen on screen.

Instead of sticking to his one-page assignment, he wrote a 10-page rendition on Robin Hood where most of the characters were Muslim. His assignment received high praise from his teacher.

“Ms. Peterson gave me an A-plus-plus-plus-plus and said, ‘You have to recite this story in front of the whole room.’ I said, ‘Ms. Peterson, I’m shy and fat, don’t make me do it,’ and she said, ‘Do it,’” Ali said.

After Ali recited the story, his classmates showed him respect for the first time. The story received such praise that he was asked to tell it to the whole school at the talent show. Following another argument between him and his teacher about reciting the story, he gave in, and he discovered his talent.

Later, as a 20-year-old senior at the University of California, Berkeley, Ali was a part of the Muslim Student Association. He thought of becoming a writer or storyteller, but he was quickly reminded of the harsh reality that he faced as a Muslim man.

A major shift occurred in Ali’s life, as well as the life of every other Muslim American, when 9/11 happened.

“You were the axis of evil, and this thing called Islam became a civilizational threat,” he said.

Shortly after 9/11, Ali enrolled in a short story class during his senior year that was taught by Ishmael Reed, a professor who is Black. Once the professor found out that Ali was Muslim, he decided to go talk to him.

Reed told Ali that Black people for centuries have used art, storytelling and culture to fight against oppression, and he encouraged Ali to write a play about a Muslim American.

The play he made was an early version of what would become his off-Broadway show “The Domestic Crusaders,” which is about a day in the life of a Pakistani American family living in a post-9/11 world and how they have to reconcile the struggles they’re enduring.

Ali again emphasized the storytelling aspect of his lecture later on and told his audience why the ability to tell stories is so important.

“If you are not writing your story, your story is being written for you,” he said. “You have to Daft Punk it through life, you have to work harder, better, faster and stronger”

The second half of the event featured a Q&A where Ali was asked how young people should solve the racial and social issues harming Asian and Black people, among others.

“Give yourself room for mistakes, room for disagreements,” he said. “It’s time to come together beyond our differences, and I have immense faith that your generation is the generation that actually does.”

Published on April 16, 2021 at 1:02 am

Contact Siron: sthoma10@syr.edu | @sironthomas