Summary

Anand Giridharadas starts off his 2015 TED Talk “A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided” with the story of a dramatic meeting. In a mini-mart, the self-styled defender of America Mark Stroman shot Bangladeshi immigrant Raisuddin Bhuiyan in the face in revenge for the 9/11 attacks ten days before.

Bhuiyan had come to America to create a better life for himself. He was working in a mini-mart to save up money for his wedding and I.T. classes. The brutal attack meant the loss of an eye, and soon his fiancée walked out on him, and he was left homeless with 60,000 dollars in medical debt.

Anand Giridharadas describes Bhuiyan’s slow journey back up the social ladder. He found work again, learned about I.T., and eventually found a well-paid job at a tech company. In 2009, he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of Muslims, which inspired him to repay his god for his second chance in life. He decided to forgive his attacker publicly in the name of Islam, and he even sued the state of Texas to stop it from executing Stroman.

Meanwhile, Stroman had become a better man in prison. Anand Giridharada describes how Stroman’s life had always been one of neglect and violence. As an adult he had become a drug addict and a white supremacist. However, on death row, he confronted the hatred he had been carrying around all his life, making him shoot Bhuiyan and two other mini-mart cler...