[Music]
[Applause]
they say it takes a village to raise a
child what if that village is under
resource what if that village is facing
different types of oppression well if
that village is going through
justification and people are being
displaced and moved into homeless
shelters what's going to happen with the
children who's going to be you know
resourced enough and ready to raise them
in a way that did indeed be raised I
bring this up because I've worked across
several communities across New York City
via the South Bronx East New York
Brownsville Bedford Stuyvesant I bet
I've been everywhere and though every
community is very different it has his
own unique fingerprint there's one thing
that they all had in common and it was
the symptoms of oppression the reason
why I'm so passionate about this because
it really hits home with me my own
personal experience and everything that
I've gone through in my career so I
asked you guys this question are we
there yet what does a bear being to you
and what must we do as a community to
get there so a little bit about myself
before we dive into that I'm going to
put up a few people that inspired me one
is fiction one that's nonfiction
how many guys ever seen The Last Dragon
raise your hand all right this is a
classic growing up I probably actually a
price to his movie about 25 times so I
know it by heart but one of the things
that that I found really profound in
this movie was that Bruce Leroy the
character right there was sent on the
mission by his sensei to find the master
so he works tirelessly to find his
master he he looks everywhere he's
researching he's traveling all around
trying to find who this master is and
then when he finally gets there he finds
out there's nothing but a fortune cookie
machine he felt lied to he was livid but
it wasn't until he found a fortune
cookie machine that he was able to go on
his real mission and
eventually he became a master himself
and and the lobby gossip I wondering
what does Bruce Leroy Harriet Tubman
habit have in common right
so Harriet Tubman a similar type of
journey but she wanted to be free at
first freedom was just about her and her
family because she has to the first
experience how to gain freedom for
herself first so you guys know Harriet
Tubman a story she she made it dwarfs
she became free she came back she got
her family but she realized that this
doesn't feel right to me how can I enjoy
freedom and good conscience when I know
that all my people are back home still
struggling so that's why she went back
over and over and over again and I
thought close to both these stories
because I achieved a level of success
that I thought was what success was
supposed to be I made a lot of money
made well over six figures I had a lot
of power
I had a great title I own my house in
Bedford Stuyvesant so everything that my
parents my community told me is success
I felt like I accomplished that but it
didn't feel right to me
like something's missing I worked for
five large nonprofits over the course of
my career all five nonprofits were
multi-million dollar nonprofits but the
entire leadership the executive staff
and the board of directors were mostly
white and the communities they were
serving were all black and brown youth
and the higher up I started to move in
my career the less people who look like
me
were there and many times I was the only
person of color in the room and I think
I had this moment where I just I was in
a meeting I just couldn't do it anymore
I was like there's no one in here that
looks like me there's no one from the
community that's in here talking about
how these resources are going to be used
in their communities and I also have
local youth organizations from our
communities coming to me asking me how
to get funding you know they're trying
to run their programs and I barely have
two pennies it's great together but in
the meantime a lot of these outside
larger nonprofits I gave millions of
dollars to serve their youth while
they're being overlooked and
marginalized so I didn't
to do what Harriet Tubman did and I
stepped away from all of it I resigned
from my job I wasn't too sure how I was
all going to work out I just knew that
there's a different calling for me I
knew that I'd gained a lot of experience
and expertise and knowledge that could
help my community and I wanted to bring
that back and they'd be able to show
them how to do it so I wrote a proposal
and to create a model in fact first
Iverson and it was funded someone said
yes it was funded and February 2020
marks one year of us running programs
and better Stuyvesant we started off at
47 high school kids and we're now
serving 250 high school kids across six
high schools and Brooklyn so I want to
go into oppression and what oppression
means and the definition of oppression
as you guys see up here it's a situation
in which people who are governed and an
unfair and cruel way and prevent it from
having opportunities and freedom iris
Marianne young she came up with the five
faces of oppression so basically when
oppression is happening one of these
five things are happening in a community
or to use violence marginalization
exploitation cultural imperialism and
powerlessness so I want to start with
violence this one is a hard one for me
and I want to apologize to the TEDx team
here because I was late with everything
they asked me for the script last week I
just gave it got it to them last night I
was even late coming today but the
reason I realized why I put this
together is I'm still trying to get over
some trauma that happened in my life as
a relates to violence oppressive
violence it wasn't physical violence no
one hit me or beat me up but I've worked
there's been times in my career where I
seen people lose their job
I'm talking about this kind of stuff
I've seen people be reprimanded for
talking about oppression and how it
relates to our communities I've been in
a position where I've had to recommend
people for talking about these kind of
things in our communities
and all of these things were very very
traumatic for me to the point where when
I was trying to put this presentation
together I could bear I could barely
think ahead like this block in my mind
because I'm still trying to get through
it I'm still trying to get past it to
the point where I couldn't even get my
my information here on time but I made
it anyway and the reason why I came I
continued and I wanted to talk about
this because because it's important and
we can't allow ourselves to be silenced
because of the things that's happened to
us and our community and our ancestors
you must speak up because if I didn't
come today and I will allow the fear of
any type of backlash I will get from
this talk then things will never change
right so with violence like I spoke on a
panel two weeks ago and it was with the
Robin Hood Foundation and then this was
a topic that they were talking about
oppression and different ways to support
communities of color and all the
panelists were black and brown like
myself and we asked a moderator can we
be honest and tell the truth or do we
gotta like be careful and like welcome
to eggshells right the fact that you
have to even ask that question in the
first place means that it's not okay for
us to tell the truth about what we're
really going through and whatever and
you know our pain and our journey it's
not accepted you get in trouble for it
we get told that how dare you bring that
up you know that's your problem that
ours so we two weeks ago we're still
afraid to talk about these kind of
things and the moderator said no please
please please tell the truth this is
what this is about be yourself
and we're like okay ah so y'all just
kind of let it let everything out in the
table but with the model I designed the
bedford-stuyvesant the way that we con
iraq violence is that we work up our
youth and we have to get them to believe
in something what makes you want to
stand stand against violence and to make
a stand
it's a yet to be 100% sure what you're
standing for and what you're fighting
for if you don't know what you're
fighting for you're not gonna want to
risk anything for it right and also if
you want to stand against violence need
to feel like you have support in the
community in the village around you as
you know has your back and will stand
with you so with our students we talked
to them about systemic systemic
oppression
systemic racism about how what's going
on in their communities and historical
context behind it and how it's not a
coincidence that you're being pushed out
into into shelters because because of
justification
it's not a coincidence that you don't
have healthy food you know readily at
your you know ready readily for you to
eat when you want to eat it right the
second one is marginalization so after I
left my last job I went to the town hall
meeting and better Stuyvesant and one of
the things that they were discussing was
how to build a shared economy in the
arts for people of color it was probably
the most depressing meeting I ever went
to in my life and the reason why was
depressing was because no one knew any
of the answers and the meeting actually
concluded with a moderator saying well
there's just no resources out there and
before they ended the meeting I stood up
and I said that's not true
I just left our arts education nonprofit
that brought in thirteen million dollars
a year to serve our kids and I didn't
hear one person bring up any of those
funding sources that I know of and that
I was and I was a part of helping to
bring to that organization that's the
result of marginalization
the fact that they don't even know that
these funds exist and even if you know
they exist there's certain policies put
in place that make it even harder for
you to be eligible to even get there
right to even get to funding so the new
prophet just posted a concept paper on
our funding and the social sector blacks
and Latinos make a 30 percent of the
u.s. population
ten percent of executive leadership
roles and we receive only four percent
of of all the funding of us out there
right only four percent and most of the
funds are funding our communities we're
only getting four percent right so
where's the other ninety four percent
going to outside organizations who are
also who are making decisions on things
that's happening in our communities
it's not always bad because a lot of
times when they get the funding they
bring you to the table and they and the
people from the community are part of
the decision-making around how those
resources are used that's a healthy way
of being an outsider coming into the
community but a lot of times that's not
always the case
decisions are being made about the
community being consulted with and the
community gets what they get and that's
I mean in the meantime the businesses
that are already there don't have the
funds to run their own programs No
so I put no up there because I have had
a lot of success with my programs over
the past year and a lot of people assume
that I get a lot of yeses that people
are just giving me things and all
actuality I've never heard no so many
times in my life I hear no all the time
from funders when I approached funding
doesn't matter how great our programs
are how big our impact no and these are
different reasons why here no you don't
have a minimum of five hundred thousand
dollars or a million in the bank already
so we can't fund you why hold up
I thought your mission was to close the
wealth gap so why is it they already had
to have a million dollars in order to
receive a million dollars that doesn't
make any sense it's a contradiction and
when I mean that when that policy is put
in place that the minimum has to be five
hundred thousand or a million
they're already marginalizes most of the
local nonprofits in our communities
because you don't have that much yet and
we can't get that much if that's the
policy because no one's going to give it
to us right the other reason why here
know is that you do not have a long
enough fiscal history so if you're a new
I don't know about you guys well my
parents had passed me down in the
Heritage they're still trying to figure
out themselves right so a lot of times
people of color where we're new
entrepreneurs and we're just trying to
you know get it together and get it
started and there's a history of black
communities building wealth like black
Wall Street you know all that when we
did have something it was taken from us
it was bombed it was burned down and no
reparations were getting so a lot of
times tried to get to the point where
you have a long fiscal history it's not
as likely that we're going to have it
then white nonprofits who have old money
and better
already 100 years right so that's
another way that a lot of times were
marginalized and we left out the funding
funding game the application is invite
only and you are not invited so whenever
I meet well funder always asked them the
same question I look at who they fund
and I say I'm noticing that you're not
funding anyone from the community that
you're serving why and what they tell me
well one god is extremely honest with me
was a older white gentleman and he said
I'm gonna give you an honest answer and
you're not going to like my answer but
it's the truth
he said we tend to give to people who
look like this that's just the way that
it is you know if you you know if you
have funding you would give to other
black people and wait I give to other
white people I'm not saying that it's
right that's just the way the field is
and I met with another funder and I
didn't tell her who said this to me but
I told her yeah I heard this mother
funder that this is the case and she
said yep he's sadly he's right it's a
racist field and it's just gonna be hard
for you to get in but keep working hard
keep pushing you know eventually
something will come through for you but
again this ties back to that stat I
showed you my previous slide we're only
getting four percent of all funding and
that's what and these are the reasons
why the last one is a reimbursement
model meaning that you got affront to
cost yourself so the grant could be for
a million dollars but you gotta build a
front two million dollars first in order
to get reimbursed two million dollars
right so again that marginalizes a lot
of the local organizations in our
community because they don't have that
money to front so for automatically left
out the race right and this isn't by
accident this is intentional right this
is a way to keep the money at the upper
end of the wealth gap and the crumbs
that are falling is a four percent right
that's actually coming down to the
community for us to use for ourselves
so the way that I try to counteract this
is that when I did receive my funding I
subcontracted three organizations from
within the community saying COFA
community empowerment it's running my
men's rights of passage program they're
located in bedford-stuyvesant oceans and
rivers is running my women's by
surpasses programming program and gay ax
is running a civic engagement program
and also a honey-baked
HoneyBaked is a black gnome Saanich
company so whenever we have programs
with our kids they drop off healthy
meals and these are all local
organizations within the community and
your plan wasn't just a contract to them
but to also figure out how could we work
together in a way that feels harmonious
I've been in a lot of schools and a lot
of projects where there's a lot of
partners in the building and there are
all they're all tripping over each other
there's no real strategy and how to work
together with this and in this
particular situation we looked at each
other's curriculum looked at where
things were aligned and created shared
goals and clear roles where though we're
all different it still feels like one
and by getting the funding through
through my model it helps get them a leg
up where they have data and will be able
to apply for funding on their own once
they have enough time running their
model that with the students that we're
working with exploitation exploitation
if this is happening and people are
making a lot of money off of our skills
abilities and pain how can we turn on
the air tip around and capitalize off
our own skills and our own abilities so
I created this initiative called the
table the table NYC as I mentioned
earlier when I went to that town-hall
meeting and I made that announcement and
the money is out there I walked away of
about 30 30 business cards and all these
business cards are from people within
the community who had businesses and
they were trying to figure it out so I
met with most of them they were amazing
people I saw their programs and they're
extremely impactful but then one thing
they all had in common was that they did
not have the capacity to fundraise
they're working three jobs and they're
working with kids because they're
passionate about it but they don't
really have the funds to do it full-time
so the table the reason why I call it
the table as this is about creating a
table of our own instead of trying to
sit out other people's tables how can we
create our own table and build wealth
together and serve our own youth right
so this initiative is going to start to
spring I apply for funding for it I kept
getting nose so I'm funding it myself
one of the ways that I'm able to do this
work is that I got the grant I also sold
my house and that gave me the profit to
be able to do this work full-time about
having to get another job but also I was
able to create a donor advisory fund and
with the donor area buyers we find I'm
doing it through the Brooklyn Community
Foundation I'm able to provide grants to
these local organizations in the
community for them to run their programs
through my model and after one year they
would have data that they'll be able to
use to be able to grow on their own so
they can either continue to stay and
work through the table or they can grow
on their own and fly on their own I'm
also a part of the table is bartering
bartering our services money is always
going to be important but you can lessen
the value of money if we're able to
share what we're doing
bedford stuyvesant real estate is really
tough some of these people have spaces
so maybe I can use your space if you
come and you speak into a free workshop
for my students one day and they'll have
a whole system for that I can go through
it right now but there's a safe way to
do that so that's this is how we're kind
of acting exploitation a cultural
imperialism so cultural imperialism is
pretty much the ruling class that's the
dominant culture and everyone has to
adjust to that so you guys have seen in
the news and in social media how people
can't get jobs because they have locks
the boy who couldn't walk across the
stage for graduation because he wouldn't
cut his lots off or the wrestler who
couldn't wrestle and so they fought you
know until they cut his locks off before
he went to the wrestling match there's
all these things that are happening to
us that that's telling us from the
society that you're not accepted the way
you are if you don't conform to what the
ruling class says it says it be then
you're not going to get hired
you're not going to participate for
everyone else right the education system
is still Eurocentric they're still
teaching that Christopher Columbus
discovered America right are you still
are learning their history before
slavery before 1619 and there's
thousands and thousands and thousands of
years of history there so the way they
work on erat counteracting that is that
all of our programs have a culturally
responsive lens
and all of them this right here is a
Sankofa burg this is a West African
symbol and it means how do you know
where you're going if you don't know if
you don't know what you came from right
understanding your culture and valuing
your culture is extremely important and
there's a lot of data out there that
says that students who understand their
cultural background perform better
academically than those who don't
right cultural identity is so important
that the first thing that they took from
us when we stepped off this the slave
ship of 1619 was our identity that was
the first thing that had to go right you
have to lose your names your religions
your values your rituals or traditions
all that has to go because they can't
make us a blank slate and it can't make
us into who they want us to be until we
forget who we are right so that's the
first thing that was taken they also has
to be the first thing that we give back
right we have to give back who you are
and it's a Copa Bert the literal
translation of it is to go fetch go
fetch it when I first read go fetch so I
don't really like that word because you
know that she's like you know who was
the fetch anything but it makes sense to
me why does her miss fetch because it's
not given to us it was not given to me I
was not taught these things these are
all things I had to go find on my own I
really had to go fetch my history I had
to go fetch my identity you know we're
the only people where we have to look
for it we had to get a DNA test to find
out who our ancestors are who else has
to get a DNA test to find out you know
who their great great great grandma was
right powerlessness this one is I would
say the most dangerous out of the five
once it gets to the point where you feel
like you don't have any power and
there's nothing you can do to change
anything then game over nothing's ever
going to change right so working with my
youth one of the things that are and
meeting with them they have all these
ideas all these great ideas on things
that they want to do in their community
things that they want to change but
every single conversation always end it
with well doesn't matter anyway no one
cares
and almost listening so what's the point
right
it's not just our kids who are doing
that or
of adults or this potage well I've done
that like no one's going to listen and
one's going to care so it's trying to
unpack that that mindset of our youth
has been a big project for me getting
them to understand and believe that
things can change and there are things
you can do and this is how you can do it
right and understanding who they are
understanding who they are it's actually
empowered them a lot to the point where
now that they understand the history
behind their community and what's going
on and they're very clear what's
happening they now know what to do to
try to fix it so this right here is one
of my favorite pictures these are two of
my students who attend the research
school called not research school a
transfer school called research and
services high school a transfer school
for those of you those of you who don't
know are four overage under credited his
so these kids are the most marginalised
out of all the marginalized kids because
they failed and this is like the second
third or fourth chance at high school
and a lot of people say they're not
going to be anything they're not going
to be anything and you don't matter this
is one of my favorite pictures because
these are some of the students that was
telling me that no one cares nothing's
ever going to change right then after
going through our process and going
through our programs we had a youth
conference with 400 students there and
these two students performed and present
it and they were so powerful they were
so powerful and they stood there and
they told a lot of kids to put their
fists in the air and 400 students in the
auditorium all put their fists in the
air at the same time hey so all the
students are stand up stand up now on
the kid stood up at the same time right
that was powerful to see because like
these kids are powerful but you know
they just need someone to believe in
them and I see them for who they are and
they teach them who they are