Transcripts For CSPAN Rep. Frederica Wilson Asst. AG Kristen Clarke And Others Discuss Social... 20220828

The work that it will take to ensure that boys and men will finally be able to experience the kind of america they richly deserve. Lets keep in mind, today, we are talking about prevention. Because the individual that is being released from incarceration is not the individual he was when he went in. No, he is hardened, he is wise. He has learned how to beat the system and he has learned from the best. Other criminals. So, we can either pay now or we can pay later. And today, that is why we are concentrating on prevention before they become hardened criminals. When a baby is born, the doctor says this will soon, its a boy. They do not say it is a murderer, so what happens between birth and one that 14yearold has the courage to pick up a gun and terrorize the community. What can we do . What should we do . We can either pay now or pay later. By incarcerating young black boys. I say immediately create universal prek and mandatory kindergarten throughout the nation. Recruit black male teachers, find tuition free hbcus as reparations pattern policies. Recruit and incentivize black counselors and Mental Health workers, just for black males. Establish in school tutoring, not afterschool tutoring, by creating primary learning centers for small struggling groups of boys during the school day. Make every school day and extended school day for sports and chess and music, drama and technology. We pay 1 million for schools, and yet they close at 3 00. There they should be able to take a meal home so we say we can pay now or pay later. Make uniforms mandatory. Issue them just like textbooks, every boy it the same outfits, the same sneakers, the same shirts and the same pants. Study singlesex schools and their longterm outcomes. We do not want them all graduating [no audio] no place to go. Musicals, the zoo, oceanic trips, instate, outofstate, all summer long exposure. Phil black boys summers with internships, summer jobs, touring the capital and the Nations Capital and college tours. Teach black boys how to deal with the police. You say freeze do not move. Never run from the police, never fight the police. Remember the badge number and name and report it to a trusted adult. Annual checkups for the family had a Family Health center and concentrate on your family. If we reach out to our own families and pull them up, because all black families have a black boy or man who is challenged by the system, a brother, a cousin, a daddy, a nephew, a son, a grandson. Help them invest in them. Establish and expand College Classes for incarcerated men around pell grants and award pell grants in increased technical vocational skills in prison. Pay prisoners fair wages for their work and save it. Upon release, give it to them as they return to society. Now, lets get started. I want to thank and acknowledge our roundtable participants for this national discussion. Commissioner clark, our assistant attorney general for civil rights and an amazing scholar. At this hour, in this time, will serve as the moderator and offer introductory comments to set the tone for the discussion. She is our star. Without further ado, lets begin our discussion. Before turning the meeting over to the moderator, i wanted to introduce the panelists. Dr. Gregory hutchins junior, the superintendent for alexandria city Public Schools. And i would like for dr. Gregory s picture to be shown on the screen if possible. Technology. Commissioner, founder, ceo of the group. And we see commissioner jake brewer. Dr. Robert simmons, head of social impact and stem programs. Mr. Troy vincent, Vice President of operations for the nfl. Mr. Timothy belcher senior, a former police chief and special advisor to the city manager of north miami beach. Thank you so much for being with us today. We are honored by your presence and i look forward to the discussion. Now i am excited to bring forward our moderator. And our commissioner, so we will call commissioner clark. And that i am so proud to serve with her on the commission, so at this time, i will turn the discussion over to commissioner clark for her comments that will lead us into the discussion, which she will moderate. Commissioner, go on. Commissioner clark thank you so much madame chair wilson. It is wonderful to see you and our fellow commissioners today. I am grateful for your leadership and in meeting all of us at this important moment in our nations history. I am proud to be a part of this discussion today, as we come together to identify Constructive Solutions and proactive strategies to address many of the problems and disparities that are facing black men and boys all across our country today. And we know that the challenge is gearing out 21stcentury approaches to these issues and best practices that we hope ensure that black men and boys enjoy full access to every sector of society. I should note that this discussion today is a continuation of the conversation that we begin at our april meeting where we examined disparities in the context of the criminal Justice System, very briefly, by way of recap, we heard from representative clyburn who offered up a historical perspective, reminding us that disparities that we see today are not new, but have manifested themselves in this country for generations. He encouraged us to think about legal and legislative fixes to address the problems that black men and boys are confronting today. I highlighted in my remarks to criminal justice priorities that i and my colleagues in the Justice Department Civil Rights Division are pursuing, ensuring that there is an accountability in the publics interaction with Law Enforcement and i will just note that yesterday, Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in our federal prosecution of mr. Derek chauvin for the killing of george floyd. I also talked about our work to address conditions inside our nations jails and prisons and juvenile detention facilities. Representative hank johnson joined us as well to talk about legislative priorities for criminal Justice Reform with a particular focus on drug policies, which he has championed. We also heard from desmond mead, who spoke passionately about issues facing returning citizens who are seeking access to the ballot and restoration of putting rights. Finally, we heard from dr. Raymond, who spoke about his school to prison pipeline and the ways that criminalization of juvenile behavior has a harmful effect on black boys. So weve got a Firm Foundation laid for us at our fat last Public Meeting and today we were to build on that and stand on that discussion to dive into talking about strategies. That is what we are going to hear from panelists today. We are going to focus on strategies for prevention and mitigation. And i am excited because weve got a panel of experts that comes to us from a variety of disciplines to lead us through a discussion on addressing the achievement gap between black boys and other peer groups. We are going talk about inequities and access to stem programs for black boys. Were are also going to talk about disproportionately high rates of joblessness and other obstacles to equal opportunity in the workplace for black men and black boys and we will talk about the conditions that must be corrected to ensure that black men and boys interactions with the criminal Justice System are constitutionally sound and just. As always our goal is not only to identify problems contributing to disparities, but again to really dig deep on strategies for prevention and education. So without delay i am going to turn the floor over to our panelists and i want to start first with dr. Gregory hutchins. It is wonderful to have you here with us dr. Hutchings. My question for you to get us started, there was a recent may 2022 article that appeared in the Public School review that outline strategies for addressing critical areas relating to black boys in the School Systems throughout the country. And although many School Systems have developed strategies that boost graduation rates, reducing crime and violence and establishing role model programs , little has been done to close the achievement gap for young black men. And i know that you have experience as a superintendent and as someone who has served as a director of prek12 grade programs and special initiatives. So talk with us about the National Strategies that you would propose to address and mitigate the achievement gap that we see among black boys and black men in Public Education. How would those strategies work or be implement it . Dr. Hutchings thank you for the question. I want to thank congresswoman wilson as well, for hosting me and us, to have this very important discussion. You know, i think first and foremost, as a nation, we need to accept the fact that black men are human beings. How about that . Just acknowledge that. You know, we talk about black lives matter, you look at the tail end of the statement. Black men have received the tail end for over a hundred years and what we are not doing is dismantling the system of racism that is occurring all over this nation, particularly in Public Educational systems. Right now unfortunately, i see so many people trying to discredit what Public Education means and does for children, especially for black males. There are some School Systems doing very good things for black males, but there are many of them that have some challenges that we need to be unapologetic about calling out. I think when we think of the national strategy, and i am glad you asked, what we do as a nation. The first thing is having representation of black men and black people in general, in education. One thing i have shared with many of my educational colleagues is that we sometimes discredit our own profession. We say you dont want to be a teacher, you dont want to go into education. You cannot make that kind of money. And education is, i believe, one of the most impactful professions that are out there. It is very rewarding. Sometimes you may not reap your benefits within a year, but 20 years later, people come back and say you changed my life. We need to see more black men in education, not in the superintendent role, which i do want to see more, trust me, its only 3 black people who are superintendents across this nation right now, so we do need more black superintendents. But we need more black male teachers in the classroom, so that these young men can see that representation and see people that can be role models to them. We also need to make sure that we have black men sitting at the table to make this curriculum. We are constantly in many states, putting together lesson objectives and their state curriculums and developing their assessments for their state to hold schools accountable. But we do not see a lot of black men at the table, to provide feedback on what some of these lessons should look like and what should be actually taught to our black males. And in our classrooms across this country. And then, i also feel and this is something that i think is a key point that i see, many folks around this country right now are trying to dismantle having real conversations about our history and what black people have done and contribute it to the United States of america. Being able to talk about our truth. The fact that race is a construct that was put in place to do exactly what it is doing today and why people do not want us to learn about our history is because if we learn about our history, we are going to be able to change tomorrow for the better. Some people do not want it to be better. Some people want to continue to have the privilege that they are consistently having in Public Education and also across this nation. So those are three specific things. I can go through 20 oh, but i felt like those were three key areas that the nation can do to help our black boys and that is having that representation and making sure that we have black teachers in our classrooms. Having black men at the table to develop our curriculum. And making sure that our history is being taught, so that our black men can know where they come from, so they can have their pride and know that they stand on the shoulders of so many who molded america to be what it is today. Thank you. Thank you very much for sharing those observations, particularly the importance of representation at every level. From teachers all the way up into leadership roles, leadership ranks, you know, we need to see representation among superintendents as well. Thank you for that. I note that you opened in your remarks, noting that we are Better Together than apart and having history, a full account of our nations history is so critical to promoting that kind of cohesion. So thank you. Thank you. I want to move next to commissioner jack brewer. And talk a little bit about the state of our economy and joblessness. In a report that was recently produced by the center for Economic Policy and research, it is estimated that joblessness among black men caused the American Economy about 50 billion a year. And then the estimate only highlights the severity in the employment gap for black men, which has increased over the past 20 years. So what i would like to hear from you as someone who is an expert in Global Economics and someone with deep relationships with multinational companies, what are some of the strategies that you would recommendtalk abe truly spiritual. As we look at numbers this big, you talk about 50 billion. Our jobless black men costing our economy. I try to break that down. I encourage people to look at the root cause. As we look at all of these issues come i do not want the future of our black men and boys to be dependent on what other people think. I do not want the future employment of hourly our young black men and boys depend on someone loving black men or not, or accepting them. I think we can solve some of these issues from within. When you start to take a deep dive into really what that 50 billion number comes from, you have to start by looking at our incarcerated individuals. That number says 50 billion, but if you take the number of black men in prison and in jail across america and combine that with the unemployed black men in america, that number it self, just from the incarcerated population, is over 38 billion. That it cost our economy right now. We must start looking at that issue and why we have such a crisis of men who get caught up with Law Enforcement, who take on those felonies and those records that prevent them from being able to get a job to be a member of society and actually getting a career. We are not talking about just getting hourly wage jobs, we are talking about africanamerican men going on to real careers. How do we take that step forward as a nation . As i have done my research and looked into this, this starts at the home. I have been an employer for years. I owned several businesses. I have had the ability to mentor kids and help kids develop their career paths. The only way you can do that is if you establish a Foundation Early on in our children. Our fatherlessness issue is our number one crisis as black people. We just do not have enough male Authority Figures in these young black mens lives. When you look at our gaps, you start seeing 65 of our kids in singleparent homes are africanamerican. We should all have a problem with that. The chances of that child being able to go on and be a member of society that goes on to pursue a real, prosperous career, is dramatically decreased just because they do not have that foundation at home. They are five times more likely to be in poverty. My parents, my dad could not teach me economics. The only way i learned economics was because god blessed me with the ability to go to college and play football. It should not just be listening to what the culture tells them about how to make money and what money means. We need to start discussing wealth again to our young black men and boys. The second thing, as i move on would really be culturally. How do we change our conversations when we talk about the culture of being prepared for work . How do we make it acceptable to put on a suit and tie and look people in the eye . How do we encourage our communities to stop embracing our little Walking Around with their pants falling off . How do we change our culture to actually have pride in yourself and your community, service to one another . We do not hear that enough in our culture and society. It is up to us as leaders to start to talk this way. We must demand we talk about issues of police all the time. It does not matter if it is a police officer, teacher, any grown person, you look them in the eye and say yes, sir. Whether you like what they say or not. That is how we are going to change this nation for our young black men and teach them how to be actual productive members of society that someone wants to hire. It is about respect again. We all know this. We look out and see what our community is doing. I drive through all the time and pick up kids, bring them to my house and set them at the table. Many have never ate dinner at the table. We expect them to be employable . Many have never been taught how to have manners or how to do things that basic, employable humans know how to do. That should upset us all because i know my generation, that was the case. Many of you could agree with me. We have a cultural issue and god has put us in a position where we can Start Talking truth again. We can get to some of these root causes. I will end by saying this, we have to restore policies that promote Economic Growth and prosperity for this population. What i mean by that is we have to actually incentivize corporate america. We cant just beat them down. Many of these corporations dont understand how to communicate with our kids. Lets teach them. When you look at the tax benefits and incentives that are given out to corporations across our country, they should be incentivized to have job Training Programs. They should be able to get major tax benefits if they are willing to open up centers of work experience, centers of excellence, so that we can start teaching our kids programs. I run programs in prisons across america. About 90 of my population are fatherless themselves. Most of them have kids they have left to be fatherless. Across our country, we have almost one million fatherless black kids with parents in jail. Think about that. Whats the chances of those children going out and succeeding, being a member of the workforce, a taxpayer . It is very unlikely. The way we fix that is we incentivize corporations to take these populations and train them. Weve got businesses like amazon , businesses that need programmers, they need truck drivers, Transportation Industry , construction industry, culinary, hospitality. We have a workforce of about 11 million 11 million short of being fulfilled. I believe our untapped market is our black men in america. The only way we are going to bridge that gap is to change the way we speak and start putting in some accountability. There has to be accountability. Accountability to the corporation, but more importantly, accountability to our own black boys. They have got to start acting right. We have to hold them accountable in our schools and our schools need to stop being so easy on these kids. When these kids get in trouble, they need to be spoken to directly. If they dont have daddies at home, those schools need to be identifying those children at addressing that rehabilitation by going out and inviting black men to partner with these schools to mentor these kids. That is the only way we are going to fill this gap. The schools do not have the capacity to do with themselves. They need blackman to start volunteering their time, not talking about it, but actually volunteering their time to help raise these young boys. The bible teaches us to defend the fatherless. To serve the fatherless and the widowed in their troubles. Everywhere across the board, god has said he will curse our land if we do not take care of our fatherless kids. Black men in america right now, we are of this nation, but we can heal it. The only way we do it is through our hands, not through divisive speech. I tell everyone of my boys when you see a police officer, tell them thank you. If you do that and they disrespect you, shame on them. We got i do not want to highlight what other folks do to us so hard that we forget about ourselves. I appreciate the time. I think god for being on this commission. Congressman wilson, you know how much i have respect for you in your unwavering work trying to heal one of the longest lasting disparities in this nation. God bless you all. Thank you. For your observations, which are especially timely today. There is a lot of focus on the economy, the bureau of labor statistics released new data today on unemployment, which is Holding Steady at 3. 6 . We know we sills we still see disparities when it comes to black men. So, this is a key focal point today. I think your focus on the need for job Training Programs is a nice segue to our next panelist, dr. Robert simmons. We need job Training Programs that focus on every sector of our economy, particularly the sciences and technology. Dr. Simmons is someone who began his career as a middle school stem teacher in detroit Public Schools and has extensive experience in this area. I am looking forward to hearing his insights. Dr. Simmons, as you are aware from a social scientists have pointed out a growing concern for educational systems in providing access to science careers for black men, especially in urban areas. We also know access to stem programs is critical to identifying our nations future scientists and finding a pathway for young black men to pursue their dreams. We are focusing on Prevention Strategies today and we would love to hear your thoughts and observations on ways that our educational system can be reformed to promote wider access to stem programs for young black men and we would love to also hear your thoughts on National Programs that might be a model toward creating more balance and equity in the educational system for black men and boys. Thank you for having me. I want to think representative wilson for her work on this issue, and others. I want to give her a special shout out for her role model work, something that she and her team have talked about in the past when i worked with sean dove at the campaign for black male achievement. We also want to honor the ancestors and the shoulders of those who came before us to take on this work. In terms of Workforce Development, there are models out there that are doing well and have done well for quite some time. I dont want to go too far in the weeds on statistics, but i will say that for black men, the problem is not that black men do not do stem, the problem is black kids do not see them. There is a narrative out there that has to be adjusted that is using an asset framing as opposed to a deficit framing in the ways in which black men show up not just in stem, but in society. As a trained social scientist and a tenured professor at loyola university, and a trained researcher, it is important to keep in mind that when we think about stem, the narrative of how we talk about how we show up in these spaces is important. Similarly, we can talk about a narrative around black fathers and using data to guide our thought process and based on everything we know, black fathers are actually the most involved group with their children than any other racial group in america. It is based on research from the urban institute. The point is we can apply the same type of conversation and dialogue to stem as models. One of the things we must do from both a policy and practice standpoint is really support out of School Time Programs that are going to support the progress that is being made in so many amazing schools. Shout out to my brother dr. Hutchins for his work in alexandria and throughout his career. There is progress being made in many schools, but we also have to understand we need to support Research Based out of school programs. We need to have conversations with the federal government about increasing funding for out of School Time Programs that will partner with School Districts. The other thing that is important as we think about stem in the workforce, we need to make sure that in the world of teacher training, that we are diversifying the percentage of black men who are going into classrooms, but also make sure we are upscale Elementary School teacher possibilities to teach stem. They spend a lot of time on literacy, rightfully so. We also need to upscale and make sure we are training the next generation of teachers to be scholars and leaders around stem pedagogys that are both culturally relevant as well as sustainable. The third piece i want to highlight is the meyerhoff Stem Scholars Program at u. N. Bc. You nbc we need to think across the country about what it looks like to do those types of things. I think there is a path forward. When we think about black male teachers, it is important to keep in mind there is a National Conversation around recruiting more black male teachers. It is not a new conversation. It is generations old. The thing about it is that when we recruit black male teachers, when we think about the department of ed and others, we need to hold folks accountable not for simply recruiting like teachers, but where you place them early in their career. If you place a black male teacher in a school where they are going to be by themselves, data tells us they are more likely to leave. Not just education, but the profession. They are coming into a very isolated situation. Part of it is how do we incentivize cluster placing and creating cohorts of male teachers in our School Districts, as opposed to sprinkling them all over the place. Under another thing i want to highlight, universal prek. Prek should be a free human right in the United States of america, if we are serious about elevating our progress. Part of the challenge is that in the workforce, people will say we need to increase the diversity of engineers at macron. That is true. Macron has been committed to that. The point i want to make is that you have to go further upstream. We cant start education in ninth grade or 10th grade, you have to start in prek. We have to invest resources to ensure that prek is free in our Public School system for young folks that we know have the ability, brilliance and genius to xl. I want to highlight three particular things. The hidden genius project focuses on black boys out of oakland, california. I want to highlight them because they do amazing work. We need to make sure that as a community, we are highlighting these amazing projects. I want to put that accountability on philanthropy to come to the table and highlight some of the organizations that we are funding. The Benjamin Banneker association is another example. They are launching for the first time a Mathematics Program to basically elevate the skills and knowledge of young black boys in mathematics. And then there was the changing expectations space that took place in texas. This was last year or two years ago, that is super important to remember. Lastly, it is important to work with colleges and universities to ensure that we are getting more black men in to these stem programs. From 2001 until about 2015, the percentage of black folks in general, regardless of general, has not increased. From two thousand 12016, its about 9 . The solutions should not come from the university, but we have to go further upstream and work in close concert with those who are experts in case well education. Lastly, we need support the Initiative Led by dr. Bernard harris, the first africanamerican to conduct a spacewalk. They work deeply with hbcus to increase the number of black stem educators and organizations like are critically important. From an out of school time perspective, we need to make sure we are investing in those particular programs. The last thing i want to say is that we need to make sure we are supporting experts in the field. I say this, there are people in our Field Community who are experts in understanding what works when it comes to black men and boys in education, stem, etc. We need to make sure that we are having them, ensuring that they have a seat at the table because we have some of the most Brilliant Minds in the world who can help solve these problems. I always say, just because you are passionate about black men does not mean you are an expert. It just means you are a passionate. You can be passionate about kids, but that does not mean you should teach children. Right . There are other ways in which you can support young people. I want to encourage folks to look at these out of school programs, most are nonprofit. We need to make sure we are investing our resources in those particular spaces. Thank you for Holding Space for this particular conversation. And really want to make sure people understand that black men and boys are not a problem. We need to stop problem at huizinga black men and boys but understand they are critical scholars and intellectuals in the world. Thank you. Thank you for that. I want to especially thank you for calling out the model program. Things that are working that we are replicating across communities. The Benjamin Banneker program, changing expectations. Thank you for your work. As we segue to our next panelist. I want to share a statistic from 2017, so it may be dated. One study indicated blacks made up 7 of the tech sector, but 65 of the we are going to hear next from troy vincent, Vice President of operations for the nfl. I think this is an important layer to add to this conversation today. Social scientists are increasingly starting to look at and explore the nfl in its unique influence among black men. I think it is fair to say the nfl, and many of our professional leagues, play a major role in our society. A number of studies are starting to focus on how black men are perceived in professional sports. To see if there is a larger issue at play. It is no secret that millions of black boys across the country dream of playing in the nfl and other professional sports leagues. But the reality is that many of them will not end up in those roles. To promote those aspirations, i would like to ask mr. Vincent about preventative strategies that you believe the nfl could advance and employ to help level the Playing Field for millions of black men and boys who will never play professional foot wall, but are nonetheless wellpositioned to become significant contributors to society. Commissioner clark, thank you for allowing me to be part of this discussion today. Congresswoman wilson, thank you for allowing me to be part. This is a fascinating discussion. I want to be upfront with the three things i believe that we, as the National Football league, we understand that this is our issue. Each of our issues and we share the responsibility. We always talk about internally, what is our role in this . Congresswoman wilson had asked about participating and listening to the discussion as an entertainment property, it is important that our young people thats what we are, a media and entertainment property. We have to continue to partner with organizations, academic institutions that are doing the work. And it has been acknowledged the institutions that are actually doing the work. The messaging. As an institution, that is what we do best. We bring people together and can facilitate conversation, but we can push out a message. Hearing what i am hearing today, these are things that we can share in on what is actually working. Mr. Simmons said this and i wanted to note this, we are not experts in this field. We are experts in preparing young men that our student to play ball. Those three things, continuing to partner with local organizations and academic institutions, the messaging that comes out of the commission, the work that is coming from this group allows us to help amplify and supporting experts. I would also like to just reference, you talked about the number and most of the young men i was once one of those young men, there are about one million young men playing High School Football every year. 67,000 will play at the collegiate level. 5000 will actually, we will say scouted, to play professional. A little less than 500 will be invited to the combine. Of that one million, 133 will play three or more years in the National Football league or National Football league. That is a fact. That number has not changed. We have continued to share that with young men, parents and coaches. We do not want to be dream killers but the probability of you playing, youve got a better chance of being struck by lightning. What we are not sharing is the other opportunities that exist. A career in sports. Engineering, journalism, analytics, lawyers, the medical profession. We are not sharing that with our young men. Mr. Simmons said, i know i i know what i can be by what i see. I grew up on that principle. We have to continue to message and put images of what Career Opportunities look like. The National Football league offers those in our partnerships with hbcus and 42 institutions. Internships, experience. Giving young men and women an opportunity to see and experience you were a journalism major . That applies to the nfl. Science and engineering . That applies to the nfl. We want to be part of telling this story and the great work from the commission, but the chances of playing in the National Football league are great. 133 from every High School Year will play three or more years in the National Football league. That is an experience, not a career. I thank you for allowing the National Football league to be a part in driving the message and concerned so many have. We share in the responsibility of changing the perception of who black men are and our responsibility of leading to the future. Thank you for your work. I think we are just scratching the surface on this issue. The statistics you shared are sobering, but it is heartening and encouraging to hear about some of the work being undertaken to make sure we are channeling our young people into careers and other off the field opportunities. We are going to come back to you, but i want to move to our next panelist. And bring into this discussion a focus on Law Enforcement. This is an issue that keeps me up at night, thinking about Law Enforcement accountability on one hand and the need to address the problems of misconduct in the use of deadly and excessive force. The other side of that coin is changing the culture of policing and confronting the reality that black people are very much underrepresented in policing at many levels. I want to bring you into this discussion and talk about your experience, your experience as a Law Enforcement executive. Your summative who is deeply familiar with the law and history of disparity in policing when it comes to black men and boys. While we cannot escape or shed our history, i want to nonetheless ask you today to talk a little about strategies you see Police Departments being situated to undertake to create an atmosphere of trust and respect among black men and boys. Where there is no trust, we know we do not have effective policing. Talk a little about how these strategies might help reduce some of the incidents and interactions between Police Officers and the community. Where we have incidents and interactions that are necessary that can have tragic outcomes. That are unnecessary that can have tragic outcomes. Thank you. I would definitely like to thank commissioner wilson for this opportunity. We talk about disparities, i was one of those who still do go through disparities because of who i am. I have been in Law Enforcement for 30 years and have had the opportunity to move up the ranks. My purpose for getting into Law Enforcement was because i saw a lot of disparities as a young mans, starting at seven years old. I saw Police Treating young black males the wrong way. I decided that for myself, i wanted to be a change agent. Not only that is what needs to become part of the profession. We have been treated and respected. I want to be a change agent for that. What i look at is, what was in play when i came to school . What is in play now for those white men and white boys compared to what lachman and black boys get whether they are at school, work. A lot of things are not given to us. I believe we need to start at the very beginning. Very beginning his preschool. Talking to these young black males as they grow. Putting it in their mind that we do mentorship through fatherhood, commercials, ads. Things we are not seeing for ourselves as far as those promising opportunities for us. Until we are told by men part of a mentor group and we get older. In Elementary School to senior high school. We need to start in preschool. To put this in the young boy said that they can be somebody. Ive been talking to thousands of young men, pushing them to college where we give thousands of scholarships out each year. Now the program has spread throughout miamidade county, do fall county, and now detroit. Giving these opportunities to other young men across the nation. Theres other programs that are positive that are driving young men to be successful and build those relationships with community, but we have so many out there we do not get the opportunity to talk to. It is very important we get the opportunity to talk to those young men who have joined gangs. Bringing our numbers down as far as living bodies of good black men. Intelligent black man i see every day in school, but now they are committing crimes. How do we fix that . We started preschool and Start Building positive relationships. We as the fathers commit get out there and build these relationships. When we see men standing on the corner, pull up and have a conversation with them. Just say one or two words to make them think about what they are doing or getting ready to do. Just like i tell the young men when i speak to them, our path is and a lot of times in our life, we get disrupted or distracted. Only a few of us get the opportunity to be Strong Enough to jump back on the path and keep moving and keep it going. Many of us get stuck and become statistics. Whether they go to jail or drop out of school or get strung out on drugs, or just become a bad issue. For the nation. Because they are causing problems. All of these things can be addressed and they can be addressed through positive programs like the 5000 role models. 5000 role models, just to talk about that, has many men from many different professions. When we stand before those young men in those ties and shirts and tell them they are all entrepreneurs, they are all the businesspeople of the next generation to lead the nation. We want to make sure we help you. We want to make sure we bring in in front of you to let you know that you have the opportunity to be anyone of us because all of us up here have our story to tell. All of us up here dealt with disparities and continue to deal with them in certain places. 5000 role models was very important because it gives us the opportunity to have these young men look at us and have somebody to believe in. And to make them believe that in themselves. Shake hands, look a person in the eye, say excuse me, open the door for women. If someone steps on your shoe, say excuse me. Just to let them know, we are somebody and xm they step on somebodys shoe, they say excuse me. Those are very important, reaching out and making contact. I have made contact with thousands of young men. Some have become Police Officers. I was a School Resource officer. Some of them have become good citizens. When they see me, they show me they have done something. Who does that make feel good . The parents. We have mentors to make us feel good, to show that these young men that we spoke to have the courage to be a good father, husband, cousin or brother. We see them progress to be somebody of success. We can look back and say thank you, you did a great job. You continue to do a great job. We have to continue giving our young men that positive feedback, that recognition that sometimes we do not get. We have to be the ones that these companies and Police Agencies in the schools to pull a young man in or a group of men into the room, sit down with them after school or during school, at work, after work and advise them and tell them say hey, this is what you need to do. We dont get enough of that. I have addressed that. At the agency i worked at previously, i say we dont get the opportunity to be pulled in the room and get advised, to get told how to move up and move on. Only a few of us get the opportunity to do that. When i was in Elementary School, they were always asking what we wanted to be in life. I do not think now that they are asking. I tell young men to make five or six goals for themselves. Every time you make success in one goal, you want to try something else. That is what it was for me becoming a police officer. [indiscernible] to make sure i could straighten things out. Not knowing i wanted to be a sergeant, lieutenant, major, but thats the way we are. We grow as people to want more metoo do better, to make sure we lift up the ones behind us to do better and who do great in life. The programs, you talk about what programs will make a difference. Right now and i have been part of many programs. Whether was where there was programs in schools were turned schools or churches, leading youth programs. It has been one of the greatest projects i have been a part of. I had my opportunity as a black man to meet other black professionals who boost me up, who made me who i am. On top of that, like i tell the young men, i do not care how old you are, i anybody. Anybody that can help me move forward. I share that with those young men. Making sure they are successful through school, life, college, the next career, entrepreneurship that is what we need from a lot of black men. My hats off to every black male on this call and on this commission who is looking to make a change, to make sure our young black males do not get in trouble with the police, dont go to jail, dont make bad decisions. Look to lead and not follow. You may follow for a short period of time, but follow to be a leader. Once you get there, you need people respectfully. Not being a bad leader, a drug dealer or gang member, out there robbing and stealing, just killing anybody. Youre killing our own who are trying to do better in life. Trying to be successful, doing the things we are trying to get all of us to do and be. Those things are very important. In the Police Department, as far as building relationships, we get to do that. We have Police Officers from all across date county, Broward County to come out and speak to young men. Its not just one role model standing before these young men, you have five or six at a session. Some are from different professions. Doctors, attorneys, postal workers, they are all there giving young men the opportunity and telling their story. Letting the young men know that it were it was not a cakewalk. We had struggles and pitfalls. We had people knock us off our path. We had to get back to running. Though stories are told to those young men and it built a relationship between the police and those young men who then go off and be successful. They graduate. I get scholarships and go to college. A lot of them if they do not get focused on current careers, they give back. They either come back to the program or they come speak to the young men and say hey, this is what i went through and this is what you will need to do. Us as men in this mission, we need to make sure we start before Elementary School. Start in preschool. Start with the fathers. Start with the responsible parties. You go to a family, when we see families we shake hands. We do things for them that would make them change their minds, change their character, change their heart. To want to do better in life. If the parents do not know what they need to know to make their young son be successful and respectful, be the loving and grateful one they look at when they are in Elementary School, hoping they do not change in middle school, if they do not know the information to do that, we are going to keep going through this thing in a circle over and over again. I say we need to reach out, and make sure we reach out to these young boys when they are really young. And when their fathers drop them off at preschool, shake their fathers hand and tell them they did a good job. That advert starts. That is when the kid starts working hard making little fingerprints on paper. The parents say, i love it and it puts a smile on their face. When they bring home that grade, that a and the parents say, i am happy for you. Puts a great big smile and the kids face. Now you have to go through that moment of middle school where the challenges start. Now you are around multiple kids that are not getting that same discipline from their parents, from their household because they do not know. We have to now make sure we put something in place. Whether it be on billboards, commercials, i look at commercials and see how happy everybody else is with mom and dad and son, and i do not see enough of us in those positions, showing our young men that this is how it can be and this is how it should be. Happy, smiling, doing things. Tv, movies, they have to show us as criminals. We are stereotyped just as that. If i am in plain clothes i walk across the street im going to get a door locked on me just like any other regular blackmail. Does that bother me . Of course. Should it be . It should not. We have to put things out that are positives that are going to address our black boys and black men, especially the ones who are in the household. We need to build things that are going to from the onset. When that child comes out, they are spending time in teaching. Whether they have custody or not, they need to be there because it makes a difference. If they cannot be there, one of us as mentors needs to step into play. Whether it is the Police Department, speaking to young male spirit i tell officers all the time, do not ride around with your windows rolled up. Who are you benefiting . Speak to people. Speak to the young men. Get out and shake hands. Spend a couple seconds out there. It makes a difference. Instead of them going there to hang out on the corner to sell drugs, breaking into something or putting in a position where and when i say some of controlling their life, when we run from the police come in the police, whether they are nervous, afraid, dont mind getting judged, they pull out their guns and pulled the trigger. They pulled her sugar multiple times just because. Just because. We have to make sure in the Police Department that we do something there. Make sure we are the ones that are going to be serious about our young men. Being School Resource officers, so they are not just there sitting outside of their car doing nothing, waiting for somebody to get into trouble. We would like to see them in the schools, having to build relationships for kids. That is what i did as a School Resource officer. Thousands of kids can tell you, they know me. They will call me. Or they will call me to speak to their kids. How many around the nation . We have plenty, but not enough. We have men in suits, but not enough. We have men in uniform, but not enough. We have some in the schools, but definitely not enough. I spent time as a schoolteacher and they took me into schools all over town in miami, florida, they were grateful to get me, another black male teacher to communicate with our black students. Whether it was male or female. When we get in those jobs, we have to take it seriously so they really believe what we are saying. So they feel the genuineness so they can follow those footsteps and be willing to move forward in life and be successful. And if they cannot be successful because they are not educated enough, we have all been given a gift. I can tell you, i am i am not that intelligent, but i have been given a gift to be persevering in what i do and what i want. I that direction. As i move, i bring my character, respect and dignity. I bring my passion to each person i talked to, whether male or female. Fathers out there need to do the same. Do it they do best. We can start bettering up our black males and boys to be successful young men and not getting in trouble. Not pulling the trigger on themselves. [indiscernible] we have some bad apples. We have a set [indiscernible] the 5000 Role Models Program is the greatest program i have been part of and the best program to build that relationship between young black males and boys. Thank you. I want to thank you for your work. Your advocacy, your leadership and for highlighting a program that might be a model and might be one worth replicating in other communities across the country. I also want to thank you to helping bring this conversation full circle. We talked about the need for more representation. We want to see more black men serving as teachers and superintendents. More black men and boys represented in stem fields. We are closing out by talking about the need for representation in Law Enforcement. I firmly believe that if we talk about the need for constitutional policing, as we talk about Racial Disparities that affect our criminal Justice System, we talk about police misconduct, a lot of these issues are tied to whether or not weve got Law Enforcement agencies that represent the diversity of the communities that they serve. This i think is part of a larger conversation about how we can effective policing in our country and it is getting more diversity into the rankandfile Police Departments. Just as we wrap this discussion, i want to share some statistics from a recent New York Times article that looked at diversity in Police Departments. This is from eight 2020 article, which Police Departments are as their communities. Of 467 local Police Departments with at least 100 officers that reported data for both 2007 and 2016, more than two thirds became whiter relative to their communities between those years, based on their analysis of the data. Weve got work to do here and our nation would be better served, our communities would be better served by having more diversity in Law Enforcement. Commissioner wilson, our panelists have concluded and i would like to open the floor for the commissioners and others to participate in a dialogue and reaction. I would like to defer to you as to whether or not we take a break before doing that. Proceed with your questions. Excellent. I thought this was a fascinating discussion and i would like now to open the floor for commissioners to react and share their responses to the discussion that we have been participating in. Is it ok if i Say Something . Absolutely. I want to think congresswoman wilson for setting up this very important commission. I want to thank President Donald Trump for suggesting i be part of it. I appreciate all of the remarks that have been made by all of the commissioners. I want to say that we are all here because we are people of some degree of high achievement. We have all had different backgrounds and different struggles but we are here because we persevere despite the obstacles. Fredrick douglass says it is easier to build strong children then to repair broken men. Regarding the social status of black men and black boys, fatherlessness. I have been on radio for 30 years. I grew up with a mother and father who were married for 54 years. My dad never knew his biological father. I invited a lot of people on my radio channel over the years, one of them was president of the naacp. Before that, in member of now a member of congress again. The first question i asked was, in the presence of white racism or the absence of black fathers, which poses they bigger threat to black committees . He said the absence of black fathers. Percent is it just that there is no way you can tell me america is more races today than it was in 1965. What happened in the mid1960s was Lyndon Johnson launched the socalled war on poverty. It incentivized the women to marry the government and incentivized men to abandon to their responsibility. Weve got where 0 of the kids, 13 public high schools 0 of the kids are math proficient. Another six in baltimore where only 1 r. That is almost half of the Public Schools in baltimore were either 0 or 1 of the kids were math proficient. Most of these were in the inner cities. The problem is not the amount of money we need to spend. We are spending more money than virtually any other country in the world. I think the only one that spends more is luxembourg. We are getting awful results. I am in california, 75 of black thirdgraders in california cannot read at state levels and those levels are low because they keep lowering them. Math scores are not much better. We need to have school choice. I cannot agree more when the commissioner says we have a spiritual problem. I do not believe we are helping kids telling them there is systemic racism holding you back. Freddie gray died in Police Custody in baltimore. Baltimore had a black mayor. The number one and number two running the Police Department were black. Three of the six Police Officers charged were black. The city council is all democrat, majority black. At the time, the attorney general of America Loretta Lynch was black. You have black people running the entire system from top to bottom and we are talking about systemic racism. Youre not helping people by telling them anything other than despite your circumstances, life ultimately is a series of choices. A poor black kid raised by two parents we ought to be talking about what is causing so many kids to be brought into the World Without fathers. We are at the situation we are at, what can we do about it . The answer is more and more mentoring through many programs. One of which cover the 5000 role model program. There are many in l. A. And across the country that have one thing in common. Causing people to look themselves in the mirror and say you are responsible for your behavior. You are not responsible for your circumstances, but responsible for your behavior. Every child needs mentors and that is the job of a parent. If you do not have a parent, that person needs to have somebody he or she can look up to for the guidance that is necessary. We are not doing kids a positive service by telling them that they are victims, that the system is going to suck you in a matter what. You have a moral obligation to pick up those cards and play them to the best of your ability. When you do that, people will see that you are struggling and they will help. Thank you commissioner elder. Commissioner marshall . Thank you. Can you hear me . Yes. Just a few observations i want to thank the panel who touched on all of my buttons. One of those out of school nonprofits i have worked with young people pretty much all of my adult life. Just a few observations i have heard from young people, and i was a teacher, so i got the teacher thing. I am a father. I just want to say, i built my career on having young people from young men be successful. As early as the third grade, and i hear this consistently through the 12th grade, when i ask young people as they begin, you go to a kindergarten class you cant shut them up. By the time they get to the fourth grade, it is a most like the academic pilot light has been turned off. Heres what they tell me in the third grade, when they start off with they tell me three things. Basically, they do not like us. Somehow they sense that early on. That this system does not like us. The second thing they say is they do not think we can do it. Somewhere along the line, they get this idea that you really cant be successful in this academic world. This is the message that they pick up. The third thing is manage expectations. The biggest predictor of academic achievement is expectations. The third thing is they do not anything about themselves. Those are three things i always hear from young people. At the same time, they are getting messages from popular culture, friends and all these other things. I have to combat all of that and i know that if young people get the wrong information early, turning that around is difficult. I build everything on the successes i had the people i see have with black males is those three things, that they believe in them and they do see things about themselves. I hooked i am a big believer i told a young man if you knew what i believe a lot of young black males colluding their own oppression because they dont know the full story. I cant tell you how many times young black men have said, we dont have these conversations in school, like we have, we have in your program. So i think all of those things are necessary. Certainly fathers who is going to argue against fathers . However, i will say this just to this little conversation, the marriages are not gonna work out, you can still be a father whether youre in the home or not. You have to be because mom is gonna be mom, whether she shes always gonna be mom. I think there are obstacles that our young men face because theyre not in the home, but that doesnt mean there cant be a dad. You can be a dad, your obligation. And i know a lot of men who are dead are dad and not in the home. Being a father is important just as important as to be a mother. So dealing with men and helping them be fathers whether they are not with the mother or not, because thats not always gonna work, but they can be and are going to be and will be fathers. And thats the most important thing. So you mentioned programs at work, i heard you talking about hitting genius, great, great, great, great program, Brandon Nicholson would like that, you said that. Ill tell him that. Ive been on the radio for years up here probably saying something a little different and id love to come on the show and talk about it. But the biggest thing that i hear is the positivity that young people have gotten to me. Theyve never met me, but they say the message you put out about being positive about history, about culture, about doing the right thing, about believing yourself. Those messages are key. And the problem is one of the issues is they dont get those messages from popular culture, they dont get it from television. They dont get it from anywhere else. The only way theyre gonna get it is from People Like Us who are willing to go in and invest their time and their energy in these young people because theres somebody in their era in their ear all the time, somebodys in there all the time, whether it be somebody from the streets or the music they listen to. And ive got to say this, social media is a huge problem for these young people right now. Because it has taken it has taken things to the next level. So everything youre saying is great. All this works. Im a Firm Believer in teams. Some of us do things better than others. I think i know what im good at. I think each one of us can pick the center field, the right field, the point guard or whatever you want to play on this team and invest in all of that. So all of this is great. All of this is wonderful. I just think we need to harness it, put it into position and keep things moving. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner marshall. Others . Ive got a quick comment. If i may. Yes. My apologies for going off screen for a little bit. I dont have any black boys at home, but i had a a little girl whos about four months who needed me to put her down for her nap. So my apologies were stepping away for a second, but i just want to comment two things. One, i appreciate everybody who able to offer their perspective about the importance of this issue. There certainly is a wide range of thoughts. I particularly like the idea of lifting up Community Organizations that are doing this well. Obviously we are a national group, we are a federal commission, so our charge ought to be focused on what the federal government can do. Part of that i think is uplifting local organizations and local groups that are doing this well, not necessarily to receive government funds, but to receive, as the speaker put, dollars from philanthropy. Local business leaders, local governments potentially who are really invested in this, folks who understand it on the ground. I think thats incredibly important what we are doing. From the federal perspective, i think what we can do is try to incentivize different grants and different federal agencies to provide resources in a way that will uplift those particular organizations and encourage other organizations to behave that way. So again, its not necessarily going out or creating some new federal bureaucracy. I wouldnt prefer the bigger the government. Id prefer the smaller one. But what we can do with those particular dollars is with grants. Obviously, i think many of us have heard of a success sequence. Thats the idea that you finish high school first, then you get a full time job after high school before you get married and have children. As somebody put it, thats not always going to be the perfect instance. But i think if it was possible, what we could do is begin to to incentivize organizations based on how grants are written at the federal level through administrative regs and so on so that then they begin to fashion themselves as an organization on the ground that promotes that type of behavior. So as an example, if an organization is working with black boys, they can say that their focus is to get those boys to finish high school and find a career path. It could be college, it could be a job, it could be the military, but to do so explicitly with a culture that suggests that do that without having children. Again, we know that this isnt owing to be a perfect lever or a tool. But if you promote that and it becomes a part of again the culture, a part of the local organizations because there is an incentive from federal funding, then that can begin to create this groundswell of a lot of the things that were talking about. I agree black men and black boys are not the problem. It is also the fact that we are problemitized. And i think that if you can do a few things, one as the brother put earlier, uplift the local organizations who are doing this well, but then to shift the culture and the way that the federal government could help shift the culture is to incentivize that success sequence which focuses on graduating high school, getting a good job and then getting married and having kids in that order. Whatever stage that an organization is in. If it could do those things, i think we would be better off. Those are my comments. And again, i appreciate you all. I mentioned earlier that im gonna have to leave early, but i really applaud what you just now said. Youre right about the millennial success sequence finish high school, dont have a kid until you get married, get married, avoid the criminal Justice System, get a job, any job, keep that job. Dont quit that job till you get another job. Thats the path towards leaving poverty and going at least to the middle class. God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you. Others . I wanted to quickly add a comment based off what my brother said earlier. When we look at these issues, i think sometimes, you know, ive been in a unique situation. Ive been able to work in prisons and jails and juveniles for for well over a decade. My programs touched tens of thousands of black men across america, africa, haiti. And theres one thing that ive noticed, you cannot approach every part of our demographic the same. So for us to sit here and not really separate each individual category were talking about our juvenile Justice System. We cant approach that the same way as we approach just our general Public School kids. These kids have different issues. These kids need a different approach. It requires deeper thought than just coming with this blanket approach to black men and boys. I think it also comes with the need for truth. I mean as a black man for me to sit here and say that we have a population of our black kids that are not a problem to our nation is a lie. We know that. I go into these juveniles and talk to these kids who have been abused have their lives and havent had a support system. They need our help. But we can help them if we dont add it we have a problem dont admit we have a problem. In 2020, 7000 juveniles arrested. 41 of juveniles in prison are black boys. Think about that number. When we are 6 of the population. I am not talking about all black people. I have a couple of black voice in my house that are amazing young men and i have some poor black boys down the street that are amazing young men. That doesnt take away from the problem we have, in the fact that i dont know if any of you have been in juvenile lately, but the last three to four years, ive seen such a spike in home breakins, armed robberies and burglaries. It is becoming a culture to that demographic. I encourage us, if we want to get to the root cause of these problems, lets look at every demographic in its own silo. Get to the root cause of how we can service those individuals that need our help and support. We cant solve it all through education, some of them need rehabilitation. When you see that 71 of every High School Dropout is fatherless, that is a big number. We know that is a problem because we have over 1. 2 million dropouts every year in america. I think in 2018, 2019, we had one million. Those are big numbers of populations we are putting out there that need specialized treatment and rehabilitation. I will end by saying this, when you look at our prisons, i think the budget was 8 billion in 2020. Less than 2 went to rehabilitation programs. The vast majority of those in prison are fatherless, a big majority are fatherless. So we are not doing anything to reintegrate them into society or doing programs to help them become father figures and mentors or enter the workforce. We have to spend our money better. If we are spending that type of money, we should hold our institutions accountable to go in and treat the most vulnerable. My passion pours out of me, but i tell you what, the works of my hands big for themselves and i think we are on the right page, we just need to identify each individual category and find some solutions. God bless you all. Commissioner brewer, if i could just amplify what you are saying. If you look at it like medicine, for example, thats a phrase i use. Preventive medicine that doesnt mean people arent gonna get sick. You have to do it all. You have to do prevention. You have to do intervention. You have to do rehabilitation. Im lucky because i get to do it all. Youre you gotta do all free. All theres no way if we only three. Did Preventive Medicine and we didnt, you know, operator in the emergency room, that helps. So, and i think we can do that. I think we just got to say that all important because thats what medicine said. However, this was about prevention today, this was about prevention. And i think there are things you can do so that young people dont get off on the right track on the wrong track in the 1st place. And at there are things you can do for those people who got off on the wrong track to get them back so that they will not re offend and come out and and be contributors to society. So i agree you have to do it all. Thats why these conversations are taking place. I want to say this, i always marvel at how athletes, young people really get into athletics. I have young people that are looked upon i mean, i was never really good as a basketball player, but i had coaches look at me because i was 63 and said i can make you good, i can make you good, i can make you good. And the attitude that athletics have towards young black men is an entirely different attitude. It is like, they believe in you probably because theyre gonna get a return on their investment, im gonna win. We dont have that same attitude when it comes to other areas of life. And if we can develop that same attitude toward academics and working with Everything Else with young black men. And its not just young black men believe they can succeed in academics gonna get rewarded for it. Is that academics get something out of them . I mean, absolutely, athletics get something out of them. We need that same attitude when it comes to every other phase of young black mans life. The celebrities, athletes and entertainers, because they see them as somebody that thats a great thing to be. If we had that same attitude when it came to academics and Everything Else, our young men would benefit. So my return on investment, we gotta have our own ri for these young people. So that you are successful no matter what. Weve got to take that fame across all spectrums, not just in athletics. Thank you. I know that commissioner caesar wanted to come into the conversation. Yes, thank you so much. And thank you, commissioner clark, for moderating this great discussion. Thank you, congresswoman wilson for bringing us together. Thank you to my fellow commissioners for your great comments today. This is a really critical discussion. I want to emphasize kind of the question that commissioner clark asked about strategies to close the employment gaps for black men and boys and i think that is a critical solution to advancing conditions for black men and boys in this country. And something that in my work at the department of labor and in the administration, we are really focused on doing just that. As i am sure many of you are, in your various lines of work, but i wanted to just share that at the department and administration, through president biden, Vice President harris, its a major priority. As you may recall on day one of president bidens administration, he released an executive order advancing Racial Equity in the federal government. So at the department of labor we are looking and at all the federal agencies, we are really really looking at ways to advance conditions for communities that have been underrepresented in the past. So black men and boys certainly a major priority in the work that we do. And so really in all of our programs at the department, from Workforce Development to Labor Participation i know commissioner clark mentioned that the today is jobs day and the labor numbers where you see black men have twice the Unemployment Rate continually of white men in america. I think were laser focused on what we can do in this moment, right . Where weve gone through a pandemic where weve seen the the economic disparities exacerbated and exposed even further, what can we do to right those wrongs . And so thats something that were laser focused on. I think there are a few, you know, specific things in the workforce and labor realm that we can do. And its been touched on in some of the comments. One obviously is investing in the public workforce system and in, you know, those partnerships that are needed to get people and specifically black men and boys into Career Pathways as commissioner brewer mentioned. Definitely not just jobs, but Career Pathways. And i want to thank, you know, my colleagues, some of whom are on this call, in the house such as congresswoman wilson and congresswoman mcbath under the leadership of chairman scott in the house and in labor for passing a reauthorization that invests billions of dollars into the public workforce system where its a real opportunity to serve black men and boys across this country and other populations, but definitely black men and boys and kind of increase Career Opportunities, training opportunities that will most definitely advance a lot of conditions. I think number two, we need to continue, all of us in our different career paths, to improve wages and opportunity for good jobs. All too often black men and boys are overrepresented in low wage careers, low jobs. We saw during the pandemic, you know, retail and hospitality, we saw those jobs disappear. We saw folks also leaving those jobs and saying, hey, those arent the jobs that are stable and they cannot provide for my family. And so we as leaders have to find a way to increase those wages and support good jobs by engaging employers, Community Partners and advancing, you know, wage policies and practices that are going to promote those opportunities to help, you know, increase the wages. When someone has a good job, obviously as we all know, it provides a lot of dignity, provides a sense of purpose. And we need to kind of do our part to to advance those. I think number three, i think starting with youth as has been said, commissioner simmons called for some investments in stem programs from the federal government, i think thats something were very focused on. If we start young in schools, i think theres a lot of opportunity there and and we can seize that opportunity. Commissioner, commissioner brewer, you mentioned that that black men and boys are the untapped labor market, right . And i couldnt agree more with that comment. I think as you see from the federal government, all these investments coming in infrastructure, 1. 2 trillion infrastructure package was passed. You have Massive Energy and Climate Investments forthcoming in states and localities across the country. You have, you know, growing healthcare industry, you have a growing tech industry. I think those are all opportunities for us to find Career Pathways, promote the, you know, promote opportunities for young men, young black men and boys to get into those Career Pathways where there are abundant Job Opportunities forthcoming in the next several years. And where frankly there arent enough people to fill a lot of those Job Opportunities. So we really need to think about how we can create an environment ecosystem in cities, towns, states to really push folks into those Job Opportunities through investments in Community Based organizations that do that work on the ground. Through investments in Community Colleges, through investments in other kind of partnerships that are gonna help those black men and boys and other communities get into those Career Pathways. And along with those investments, investments and Supportive Services, right . Because we know sometimes and helping communities and helping our black men and boys is gonna take a little bit more than just investment in job training. Its going to need Supportive Services for transportation, to buy suits. To take care of childcare needs, as weve seen to the pandemic. So i think we need to take a holistic approach and definitely invest in pathways and and a good quality job as a solution advancing conditions for black men and boys. Thank you for your observations, thoughts and for your service at the department of labor. Were coming to the end of this conversation but weve got two other commissioners in the queue. Thank you chairwoman wilson and commissioner clark for facilitating such an outstanding conversation today and to our panelists for continuing to bring such relevant and thought provoking information to this commission as we look to achieve our mission. This is a question any one of , the panelists, please feel free to to answer this. One of the threads that i thought about as i heard each of these presentations is that, you know, when a Persons Health impacts their level of educational attainment, a Persons Health impacts their ability, their economic ability or mobility a Persons Health is , impacted and or impacts their connection to the criminal Justice System. Their health is a thread across these Different Things that we talked about today. One of the things someone had mentioned, about not necessarily always focusing on whats wrong, but what we are doing right and in the health sphere, my question to any one of the panelists is, from your perspective that you presented today, what are we doing that is working to promote health in young black men and boys in the educational sphere or in the economic sphere, what are we doing thats working . Because once health plays a major role in all of these different areas. Id be happy to hear from any commissioner on that. Thank you. Madame commissioner, this is congresswoman wilson. I just want to say that the Congressional Black Caucus has poured billions of dollars into Community Health centers. And especially all of that was increased during the pandemic and cares one, cares two into the American Rescue plan. I personally have built two in my community, one in little haiti and one in the inner city of my community. So that children can walk to these centers. They dont even have to catch public transportation. We also put in the American Rescue plan monies for School Districts to hire a nurse in every school. The problem is we dont have enough nurses to hire. So we have to build up that infrastructure to hire these nurses. We also, if you heard me at the beginning, of what we needed to do as prevention is to make sure that every black boy has a personal examination, so to speak, every year. Every summer before School Starts we have to make sure that , they have that. And then we must incentivize our black boys. And im going to give you all permission to talk about black men and boys. So you dont have to say black and brown boys, you dont have to say blacks, and sometimes girls were sometimes women. We are just talking about black boys. And this is what we need to do. We need to incentivize them to take the covid vaccine, to incentivize them. How you incentivize them depends on the local community. And while were talking about health care, i want to talk a little bit about poor black women who will be saddled with so many unwanted children because of the assault on a womans right to choose. So were talking about the whole realm of this conference has been about fatherless children, the father absent. Were gonna exacerbate that with what were doing. So i actually am writing a bill for contraception for black men. And im not gonna say all men because this is the commission on the social status of black men and boys and i think that we that if we had a contraception available, it doesnt have to be appealed, it could be other things, im not talking about vasectomies. I dont know what it should be, but thats something that needs to be studied so that we can help. But we must make sure that all of our little children have every vaccination and their series of shots, well baby care and everything. And thats why we invest so much money in these Family Health centers. Thank you. If i may say one thing i havent heard. Mr. Marshall, my apologies, but i want to bring commissioner dr. Foster, who has been patient. She asked about health. So i was just gonna mention another aspect that you hear from more and more from young men is Mental Health. I hear this more more than ive ever heard before. Askmen i ask young men, how was my Mental Health . I just wanted to throw that in, not just physical health but Mental Health that young men are talking about over and over again today. Thank you. Commissioner foster . Good afternoon fellow commissioners. Chair wilson, thank you for your tremendous vision. I think you said it best, commissioner clark, at the beginning when you said 21st century policy approaches in 21st century ways of looking at our issues. There is a saying that says those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. We have to remind ourselves that we are, most of us, on this commission and most of us people of color, black men and boys in this nation, are from descendants of slaves and descendants of the civil rights jim crow issues. So if we dont remember that, that means we are an oppressed minority in a nation that is the most powerful nation in the history of humankind. So we have a history of being oppressed people and were still not approaching that we still have a fight to finish, a race to go. We havent reached the Promised Land yet. I heard once someone mentioned the war on poverty. The war on property was matched by the war on crime. And so what did what happened after the war on crime . The war on crime lead to disproportionate numbers of black men going into the criminal Justice System right after civil rights. Does anyone think that is a coincidence, coming from a nation with the history of enslavement of black people . So when we think about that, it is disparities. We have to think about what are the civil Rights Violations that led to these mass incarceration of blechman . Black men . This is at the same time, correlates to the missing black men in the home. 10, 70 plus like we said, 70 plus percent of black men were in the home and two parent homes prior to that. Now look at what happened after that. Look where were at now. Now its reversed, 70 something percent of black babies are born into single homes. So when we talk about approaches, we have to look at the totality of where we are at, not forget our history. Because we ask ourselves, like i said, you can change the law, Martin Luther king said, but you cant change somebodys heart. So why do we have private prisons in the United States . What good does a private prisons serve . To have a private prison you , have to have some type of agreement to make a profit. How are you going to make a profit . You gotta fill those beds. Who are those people filling those beds . Statistics tells us who those those are. So we need to look at these things from a wide, wide policy approach and continue, continue looking at this as a struggle of a minority people who have been oppressed historically. That explains a lot of the interest, the interconnected things we are speaking of, nor education levels, family and household dynamics. So we must not forget that. I have to stress this. There are civil Rights Violations that must be occurring. We talk about racial profiling, stop and frisk, those things like that. Healthy fill how they fill these mass incarceration phenomenon with with black men and black boys. Its not a moral issue per se because theres no statistics out there showing you that black men have done drugs more than any other demographic in this nation. So the black men are doing drugs equally within this nation, were why are the penitentiary right now not filled with meth addicts . Theres a drug war. Why is it not filled with heroin addicts . That is not happening. Crime was received as a Public Safety issue. Now, today, the drug problem is perceived as a health issue. We have to examine those things that were gonna fix. If were gonna fix the issues we have in our community, we cant put a band aid on that. We have to still hold the Justice System accountable. Look at what its doing, address it properly so we can get to these issues where we are today. Like i said, there is this misinformation out there, disinformation that black men are involved in the lives of their children. That is a lie. The cdc tells us were more involved than anyone of any demographic out here. So how is this information allowed this narrative allowed to persist. And and with that being said since the black household has changed, its usually led by Single Parents and not only just a single mother, theres lots of black single fathers out here holding it down. So how can we provide support systems for this new dynamic, this new characteristic of households. So thats just what i wanted to say. I could talk forever. I just wanted to lay that out in laymans term as best i could. We must not forget that we are historically oppressed. And if you dont agree, i want someone to give me the date when we became all of a sudden we reached the Promised Land. If not, we should approach this as a people who have been historically oppressed and a minority class and and we should continue with that mindset, that approach going forward. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner foster. As you said, we could probably speak forever. I think weve had a really spirited discussion this afternoon and thats no small part because of our panelists who come from many different sectors and brought a range of important perspectives to our discussion today. I think were continuing to lay important groundwork and really starting to build a road map to help identify those 21st Century Strategies to help us tackle the problems gripping black men and boys in our country today. Madam chair wilson, we certainly could continue this conversation, but in the interest of time, i want to respectfully turn the floor back over to you. Thank you to everyone for your participation today. Thank you so much, commissioner clark. And to all of the panelists, this has been just fantastic. I am so proud of this commission. I just wanted to add one editorial note. I dont think we mentioned attorney benjamin crump, who came on at the last roundtable we had to speak to us about police brutality. So lets add that into the record. And uh, i think that many of us, lets keep in mind that this particular forum was about prevention. Before mr. Troy vincent left, i did want to bring up to him because ive had this , conversation with him before, that one of the reasons that we have a lot of crime in our communities believe it or not, its sneakers. Sneakers. For black boys. So i have approached him and im going to approach the nba about providing every black boy in america every beginning of every school year, a pair of sneakers, all alike. We had a congressman, representative danny davis out of chicago, whose son was killed in his house by a young boy who wanted his sneakers. He actually came to his house and shot him dead in the living room because he wanted his sneakers. And that happens more than we know because that didnt make the national news. Im sure it made the chicago news, but this happens every day. So thats something that were going to talk about. And were gonna also list all of what you have indicated today, like private prisons, which every state legislature has tried to stop and we cant do it. And youre right, they have to be, they have to meet a certain percentage of occupancy or the state has to pay them for empty beds, which is like 50 a day. So even if they are not filled, they have to still pay them. So the goal of Law Enforcement is to fill the prisons so that they can get reimbursement from the state legislature to pay these private prisons. Its a gimmick, its a game. And another thing when were talking about prevention, i want you to know that 70 of hbcus, they are all 70 female. Just let that soak in. The only hbcu that is not 70 female is howard, which is 60 female. And morehouse, of course, which is 100 female. The rest of them, trust me, 70 female. I serve as chair of education and i speak with the president s of our hbcus on a daily basis. And we are trying as hard as we can to recruit black boys to go to college, and so many instances free. So if you know a black boy with at least a 3. 5 gpa who you feel would want to go to college, please call me and let me know. They are begging for black boys to go to college. Also, our Community Colleges , we are incentivizing them to institute something we call rising black scholars. These are for young boys who have a 2. 50 average who can go to a Community College without paying any money. These are all preventative strategies, and youve got to help me put pressure on congress to make universal prek the law of the land. Because by the time our children get to first grade without universal prek, without k, they are thousands and thousands of words behind just in vocabulary. Just in vocabulary. So theyre already behind before they even get into school and they have no one at home to really help them. So weve got to catcking with an china and mexico