Transcriber: Julia Samson Reviewer: Denise RQ
My name is Eijah Miles, I'm 18 years old,
and I'm a freshman at Morgan State University.
(Applause)
I'd first like to thank TEDxBaltimore
for giving me this opportunity to speak this evening.
So let me tell you a little bit about myself.
I'm the youngest of five.
Three brothers, one sister,
baby of the bunch, Mommy's favorite.
I was born and raised here in Baltimore city.
The city of no hope, is what I've always been told.
Growing up, the people in my block would always say
"Elijah, that boy, he got potential.
He's going to make it far away from Baltimore."
My teachers would say that the reason
we should get good grades and stay in school
is so we can go to college, get a good job,
and be able to lead a neighboorhood.
My friends, when they tell me about their goals,
they would always say that "my goal is to, you know,
work hard in school, go to a four year college,
get a good job, and be able to move my family out of this neighborhood."
These goals, on the surface, seem harmless or wonderful.
We think to ourselves, "Isn't that great?
An ambitious kid, who is going to make something of himself no matter what."
We love these rags to riches dreams.
They seem like something straight off a movie.
Kids walking around,
thinking that success in their neighborhood is not compatible,
thinking that success is literally whether or not
they can leave the hood or not.
But I tell you today that it's this idea,
this perception of success,
that keeps Baltimore the same Baltimore,
generation, after generation, after generation.
(Applause)
This is because our leaders of tomorrow
don't want to stay here and make it better,
instead, they are in a constant pursuit
of this wonderful place that is not here.
And when they are all gone,
who have our kids left to look up to?
No one.
The absence of role models to point to
is what leaves the city hopeless.
Instead of raising kids in pursuit of a better future
for themselves and their families, let's raise heroes, saviors even.
But you can't raise a hero who fears its own environment.
Heroes are courageous.
You tell 'em "it's like this right now, little man.
Sure, there is drugs, there is violence, sure there are gangs.
But if you stay in school and you work hard,
maybe you can come back and do something about this."
We can't raise our heroes
to chase after these money, cars and dream homes,
because we all know that materials don't bring true satisfaction
and they surely don't bring change.
We can't raise our heroes by telling them to work hard,
so you don't end up like the man on the corner.
We raise them by constantly telling them to work hard, stay in school,
your community needs you.
And when you come back, be able to offer opportunity,
that might just take that brother off the corner.
We need to begin to raise
the Supermen and Wonderwomen that these neighborhoods need.
We say we want to raise the leaders of tomorrow,
but we teach them to hate where they come from
and work hard to get to some artificial Utopia.
It seems to me like we're trying to bake a cake with the wrong ingredients.
Martin Luther King was stabbed by a black woman
at a book signing.
Malcolm X was killed by a black man, while making a speech.
To raise a leader for our community, he must love us, even when we hate him,
and even when we hate ourselves.
We need people that are going to love the neighborhood.
We need them to not only lead us, but embrace us,
become a functional part of us.
There is a bunch of people that say they want to help,
but they want to be comfortable helping.
They want to donate money to fix the problem. They won't visit the problem.
They want to do it 9 to 5 and leave the problem
and escape to the safety of their own homes.
They are afraid to get their hands dirty.
They fear they might get hurt.
They want to change us, and change our communities,
but refuse to make a change in themselves.
How arrogant is that?
That we've got people that come in our neighborhoods,
and come in our schools wanting to teach because we need help.
And we do!
But at the same time, they don't even try to understand us. Not even a little.
They don't want to listen to the same music as us,
they don't want to move into the same neighborhoods as us.
And when they have kids,
they don't want to send their kids to the same public schools as us.
It just boggles my mind.
(Applause)
It just boggles my mind.
And you wonder why we got kids growing up out of these neighborhoods,
feeling so insecure, hating themselves
and hating their communities, and wanting to leave so bad
because they've been told by people,
most of whom that don't even live in our neighborhoods,
that the first chance you get to leave, take it!
This type of help just doesn't work.
This 1 foot in and 1 foot out attitude, it just doesn't work.
A wise man told me that the problem
with giving a homeless man a dollar is that he'll still be homeless tomorrow.
This type of one foot in and one foot out approach to things
just doesn't work.
I'm sorry I got to be so blunt, but this is something dear to my heart.
This is something that no one addresses, this problem.
These kids, they deserve more than half of you.
We got to be all in with this.
We got to be willing
to deny ourself comfort, willing to face controversy,
willing to even lay down our life because if not,
the problems of today will continue to be the problems of tomorrow,
and our kids will grow up in a world
as brutal and as harsh as the one I grew up in.
This is my motivation, this is what drives me.
This is what pushes me to go to college
and get a 3.7 in the first semester.
(Applause)
But I'm no genius.
I graduated from high school with a 2.7.
This is what pushes me
to not poison myself with the drugs and the alcohol
that destroy and plague my neighborhood.
This is what pushes me to love the neighborhood that produced me,
but also love the peers, some of whom that I fought,
that have junked me, and robbed me at gunpoint,
because I know that Elijah Miles is no different from them.
I wear golds in my mouth.
I sag my pants.
I listen to the same music.
I grew up in the neighborhoods with them.
I know them.
So I can't judge them, because I am them.
And I refuse to give up on them.
(Applause)
You know before I made this TED talk, there was a bunch of people telling me
"Dang, Elijah, you're making a TED talk. You're going big time, eh?!"
(Laughter)
But you got to understand I'm not about going big time.
I'm not doing this for the sake of Elijah Miles and my future.
I don't care if this takes me to the next level.
It's not about me, it's bigger than me.
I will live in Baltimore city, in the hood, for the rest of my life,
until I can transform my hood back into a neighborhood.
Working with them, fighting with them, struggling with them,
because that is the only way we will make progress,
and that's the only way we will make change.
Jesus did not hang out with the Pharisees,
that cured people with leprosy.
Jesus hung with the downtrodded,
ate with the downtrodded, fought for the downtrodded,
because that's who he wanted to help.
So ask yourself this afternoon:
what are you doing to make the world a better place?
Are you giving all that you can give?
And are you OK with that?
It was Albert Einstein that said "The world is a dangerous place.
Not because of those of us who do evil,
but because of those of us who witness it, are aware of it, and do nothing"
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Elijah Miles.
Thank you.
(Applause)