Transcriber: Helen Huang Reviewer: David DeRuwe
Hello everyone.
So you wouldn't believe it if I told you that we spent $1.1 trillion.
And the only thing worse than spending that $1.1 trillion
is that no one seems to be bothered by the fact that in less than six hours,
that money was no longer ours.
Those dollars have left our community, never to return.
With nothing to show for it but unemployment trends.
Maybe if we were a little bit more astute about the impact that $1.1 trillion
has on our community,
we would've realized that our choice to divest,
our choice to divest, is not without impunity.
Well how bad can it be, right? What can $1.1 trillion really buy?
Well, let's start with 50 million scholarships
to attend your college of choice.
Or 900,000 community centers to help facilitate our collective voice.
1.4 million Charter Schools could start an educational revolution.
Especially when you couple that with academic pathways
to 3,000 predominantly white institutions.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn't include entertainment on my spending tour.
No more nosebleed seats. I'm on the floor ...
(Laughter)
of the 500 NBA teams that we have decided to acquire,
and to broadcast the games, we bought CBS, NBC, and ESPN
with $1 trillion left over for our desires.
So you tell me, who is to blame for our unemployment rate?
How many jobs can $1.1 trillion truly create?
Well let's try 12 million jobs through direct impact
and another 4 million jobs through induced feedback.
You see, this is what happens when we decide to invest back in our community.
So maybe we can take a page from other cultures' economic unity.
Right, consider 30, 20, and 17 days
that $1 circulates in the Asian, Jewish, and White communities respectively.
You know, I always say the truth is crazier than the lie.
Some of this stuff I just can't make up.
So recall what I told you, that less than six hours of circulation
is all the African American dollar could muster up.
Imagine that. $1.1 trillion.
Gone with the wind. Fabulous!
(Laughter)
Spent on iPhones, the latest fashions,
and other random acts of depreciable luxuriousness.
But only if we had access to capital, right?
We could open up our companies,
we could patronize our businesses overnight.
Well, there's 21 African American owned banks for us to consider.
Unfortunately, however they're faced with a lot of challenges -
essentially facing closed doors -
as evidenced by the previous total of 54.
Now, the remaining 21 African American owned banks
have assets totaling $4.7 billion.
Seemingly respectable until you compare it to the $1.1 trillion.
Now I know some of you math people in here are already doing the math, right?
$4.7 billion equates to simply only
less than 1/2 of 1% of the $1.1 trillion
in African American buying power.
If I didn't know any better, I would say the blame is partly ours.
So finally, I'm going to end with this - I have more questions than solutions,
thereby leaving the door open for an economic revolution.
Thank you.
(Applause)