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Why I have coffee with people who send me hate mail

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Özlem Cekic |

We the Future

• September 2018

Özlem Cekic's email inbox has been full of hate mail since 2007, when she won a seat in the Danish Parliament -- becoming the first female Muslim to do so. At first she just deleted the emails, dismissing them as the work of fanatics, until one day a friend made an unexpected suggestion: to reach out to the hate mail writers and invite them to meet for coffee. Hundreds of "dialogue coffee" meetings later, Cekic shares how face-to-face conversation can be one of the most powerful forces to disarm hate -- and challenges us all to engage with people we disagree with.

Özlem Cekic's email inbox has been full of hate mail since 2007, when she won a seat in the Danish Parliament -- becoming the first female Muslim to do so. At first she just deleted the emails, dismissing them as the work of fanatics, until one day a friend made an unexpected suggestion: to reach out to the hate mail writers and invite them to meet for coffee. Hundreds of "dialogue coffee" meetings later, Cekic shares how face-to-face conversation can be one of the most powerful forces to disarm hate -- and challenges us all to engage with people we disagree with.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

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Learn more about DialogueCoffee and Özlem Cekic's mission to to break down prejudice through dialogue.

About the speaker

Bridge builder, author

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Born in Turkey with Kurdish roots, Özlem Sara Cekic was one of the first women with a Muslim immigrant background to be elected to the Danish Parliament, where she served from 2007 to 2015.

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Overcoming Hate Through Dialogue: Confronting Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry with Understanding — and Coffee

Özlem Cekic | Mango Publishing (2020)

Özlem Cekic - *Overcoming Hate Through Dialogue: Confronting Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry with Understanding -- and Coffee*

"We the Future: Talks from TED, Skoll Foundation and United Nations Foundation"

At "We the Future," a day of talks at the TED World Theater presented in collaboration with the Skoll Foundation and the United Nations Foundation, 13 speakers and two performers explored some of our most difficult collective challenges — as well as emerging solutions and strategies for building bridges and dialogue.

null - "We the Future: Talks from TED, Skoll Foundation and United Nations Foundation"

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

Learn more about DialogueCoffee and Özlem Cekic's mission to to break down prejudice through dialogue.

Özlem Cekic: Why I have coffee with people who send me hate mail | TED Talk