- The cell phone has done
more for African American
than any legislation or any bill
that could have ever been passed.
Because now for the rest of the world,
we're not just complaining.
We've got evidence, we've got footage
of how we're living every single day.
- We're not just taken for our word.
We have to literally say,
"We have this on video.
"Do you believe us now?"
- George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man,
was killed on May 25th
after Minneapolis police
officers arrested him
for allegedly trying to pass
off a counterfeit $20 bill.
Video that emerged showed
a white police officer,
Derek Chauvin pressing
his knee on Floyd's neck
for nearly nine minutes
as Floyd was handcuffed,
pinned to the ground and repeated
that he couldn't breathe.
The killing of Floyd in
police custody sparked
nationwide protests, fueled by calls
to end the police brutality
and systemic racism.
The Wall Street Journal assembled
a group of professionals
from around the country,
a psychiatry resident,
a Ferguson, Missouri restaurant
owner, a school principal,
an entrepreneur, and a
diversity and inclusion manager,
who is also the niece of Christian Cooper,
a Central Park birdwatcher
who asked a white woman
to leash her dog, only
to have her called 911
to say an African American
man was threatening her.
We sat down with the group virtually
to discuss the continued
challenges they face
in their personal and professional lives
as black Americans, and
the changes they want
to see in this country.
In one word, can you describe
what these past two weeks have
been like for you personally?
- They have to be overwhelming.
I've been in this situation
before with the rioting
with the Mike Brown, with
my a restaurant being a
few doors down from the
Ferguson Police Department.
But I was totally taken
by surprise this time.
I had a heads up when it was 2014
that this could possibly happen.
And I was at work the day that the riots
and the looting happened this time.
And I left work about 6:00 p.m.
I waved to the protesters, it
was definitely 100% peaceful.
I was in total support, you know?
And had no idea that it was going to go
from one extreme to the other.
- I would say tiring.
I feel like, yeah, it's
been two weeks since
that came up.
Before that there was Breonna
Taylor, there's Ahmaud Arbery,
there was the whole thing that happened
with Mr. Cooper in New York City,
like this has been an ongoing thing.
I feel like what happened
with George Floyd was kind
of the climax of that entire rise
of just like black massacre
for lack of a better word.
- Dilan, what do you think?
- I would say draining, a
lot of people reaching out,
asking questions about what
they can and should be doing
and this tug and pull
between wanting to be there
and respond, as well as recognizing
that there's probably a greater necessity
for self-care now more than
other in our community.
And when you take all
of those things in one,
and there's the competing interest,
which one do you address first?
It takes energy, so draining.
- I struggle with that one word,
because I feel like my emotions
really just go up and down.
So I would say more like ever changing.
I think I'd go from this
place of frustration
to this place of just exhaustion.
I'm in Houston, Texas, and so we had
about 60,000 people show up
downtown and I was down there,
and you know, I was able
to see just the magnitude
and the beauty of the
people just coming together
to rally around this.
And 2020 has not been
playing games with us.
- We've all gotten this a lot,
the how are you questions.
How have you been answering it?
And does your answer differ
depending on the race
of the person you're talking to?
- I know people have been
asking me on a personal level
how I am after viewing
the video in Central Park
with Amy Cooper and my uncle Chris Cooper.
That's definitely taken
a toll on me personally,
on our family.
The incident with my uncle
Chris happened in the morning
and George Floyd was killed that evening.
Within 24 hours we had
two national examples
of what's going on.
- You're talking about three or four days
after the incident with
George Floyd, where there was
like this sense of, the white
world was just going on.
I probably talked to about
six different black males
that day, and everybody
had the same frustration.
And they're like, "Why hasn't
anybody said anything?"
And then it almost seemed
like something switched,
and then saying something
became the thing to do.
Well one, so thank you for acknowledging,
this is my everyday life
and this is how we live
and how we had to adjust to America.
But then two, we need you to
speak up on a regular basis.
We need you to be addressing
this all the time.
I think that particularly
for the black professional,
who in many spaces is the only black face.
It just adds this additional
burden of being an educator.
Now when I'm talking to a white person,
I don't know that I
can always be as honest
or share my frustration,
particularly in a
professional environment.
I don't want that to impact my work life.
I don't want that to,
we can't always trust
that that's gonna be a safe space,
- A lot of the agendas and suggestions
and different statements
that a lot of companies
and corporations are making and a lot
of their diversity measures
that they're now undertaking.
These are things us in the D&I space
have been saying forever.
And it's kind of interesting
that it took a massive shake
of the world to really get
people to pay attention.
At the same time I think
that really mirrors the black
experience in this country.
We have been saying for 400
years, "This is happening to us.
"This is bad , this is
what we're experiencing."
- As you were working your
way up professionally,
did you ever feel like you weren't able
to be yourself in your
professional environment?
Did you feel that you needed
to basically keep some
of yourself hidden from
colleagues in order
to better appeal to them?
Jasmine, why don't we start with you?
- I think that being a black woman,
being a young black woman,
looking even younger than I actually am.
I am definitely aware of
how I'm received in corporate spaces.
I think that what works
against me most more
than racial bias is,
is perceived age bias.
Another thing that I have
challenges with are kind
of stereotypical ideas about black people.
I am very careful with
my emails, with my tone,
with the way I speak, my inflection,
the look on my face
even, it's very difficult
to constantly look at
yourself in the mirror
while trying to live.
Sometimes I might have a short response
or not respond as well as I
should, but I know that if
that happens, I'll be angry forever.
I'll be categorized as
difficult to deal with
- Jamie, I saw you nodding
your head a lot there.
- Oh yeah,. I mean, I think
that ultimately the way
that I show up in work, I have to,
I got about be a thousand every time.
There are days where I leave work,
and I have to literally
call a black person,
my parents, my sister, my
friends, And we literally talk
about all the white stuff
that happened to us throughout the day.
All the things people said
to us, all the frustrations
that we had that we couldn't share,
or we couldn't say in the
way that we wanted to,
or how we had to restrain ourselves
when somebody put their hands in our hair
and wanted to know why
it looked like that.
You almost have to be a
completely different person.
My work self, you're not
talking to the real Jamie Downs,
you're talking to the work Jamie Downs,
and he has to be articulate.
He has to be prepared.
He has to make sure that
everything is together,
because people are watching.
And you know, and that's
the only way to get noticed.
'Cause if you're mediocre,
you won't stand out.
But the way to promotions,
the way to leadership is,
you have to be excellent all the time.
- It's an interesting
thinking about the stereotype
of the Wall Streeter even now,
and back when I started
on the trading floor.
And it really hasn't changed.
Like there's a typical
person that you think of,
and it's probably not a
voice of a Nigerian woman.
So I just remember starting
and looking out into this sea
of hundreds of people.
And if you remove the
administrative assistants,
seeing only a handful of people
that really looked like me.
So if I were thinking back to like
how I approached my career,
it was very much so that
it wasn't just thinking,
"Oh, that's the Nigerian
girl on the trading floor.
"or the black girl on the trading floor."
That's like, "Oh, that's the girl
"that actually knows
algorithms really well."
Or, "That's the girl that is excellent
"in financial literacy,
and she made a great video
"that's on our global platform."
Or, "That's the woman that
spoke at the CEO's offsite."
And having my authentic self be that,
you view me as someone who is excellent,
not just notice the fact that I stand out
because of my skin skin color.
But you notice that I am
somebody that performs.
- What can businesses do
to help change things?
- It's been great to have,
see these letters from a CEO.
It's been great to see
people's social media messages,
but what's the next step?
Companies need to first look internally
and examine their own corporate policies
and ensure that their values
reflect what they're saying
to their employees.
And that has buy in from
the bottom up as well
as the top down.
And then consumers can
also hold their companies
to task by saying, "If
you're not reflective
"and you're not following through,
"our business very well
can go to the multitude
"of competitors that do."
- And a lot of times people
look at the riots and everything
that is happening, and
they're trying to say,
"How could they destroy
their own community?"
And the truth is, we
don't own our community,
but if we are given the opportunity
to buy those buildings, or even help,
if they want to help,
then put ownership in the black community.
I'll promise you, when you own something,
you take a different pride in it.
I saw these big companies
like Netflix and Hulu
and Amazon standing
behind Black Lives Matter.
And I can remember when they were looking
at Black Lives Matter like
it was a terrorist group.
Can you remember that in 2014?
Now the tone has totally
changed with all this footage
of African Americans
being killed at the hands
of officers innocently.
Allow us to own what's in our community,
allow us to be grocery store holders.
But we're gonna need their help,
we're gonna need their funds,
we're gonna need their
training, their information.
It is a lot of things that we don't know
because we haven't grown
up like them in America,
that it's been passed down from generation
to generation to generation.
If they really want to make a change
and do something different, invest in us.
- To check Kathy's point,
when I shared my story
about my uncle on LinkedIn,
I definitely hesitated.
LinkedIn is a professional
networking space.
I was cautious about
sharing a personal story,
and I was cautious about sharing the story
that could be polarizing.
And when I was writing
my post and deciding
what hashtags to use,
I did not use the Black
Lives Matter hashtag.
I know it can be divisive.
I wasn't courageous enough
to put Black Lives Matter on a post.
Now, not even a week later,
we're seeing major companies
and corporations parting their lips
or writing on paper, Black Lives Matter.
I think that things have
significantly changed
and companies are paying attention.
I think they are starting
to make an effort
to put their money where their mouths are,
supporting different causes,
like support civil rights
and social justice.
I think they're taking a good hard look
at their own internal practices in terms
of diversity and
advancement and inclusion.
Because again, no one wants
to be the next headline.
No one wants to be the next hashtag.
No one wants to fumble this opportunity.
- Just give us a specific
conversation that you had
with somebody, could be a
colleague, a parent, child,
just during this whole time
that really impacted you.
- Yeah, I would say it was with my wife,
she's a black woman also from Kansas City.
We drive to the Midwest all the time.
And like, we had to come together
at some point during this time
and literally discuss like a safety plan.
Like what are we gonna
do if we're pulled over?
Who has a camera?
Who's is it that is going
to talk to the officer,
if something goes left, what
is it that we're going to do?
And then having the
furthermore conversation of,
"Man, how messed up is it that we have
"to literally come up
with a plan on driving
"to go see my in-laws,
they're her parents."
- And the first person that popped
to mind is the conversations
that I've been having
with my sister.
And it's been because of
this backdrop of COVID,
for context, she's an epidemiologist,
but also someone who is
very passionate and fierce
and typically wants to
be out there protesting.
And she's actually been
attending the protest in her car.
We have these events and it's
like, well, how do you win?
Because it's not a pandemic it's some kind
of other brutality and like,
how do you make an impact?
Is it stay home or go out?
We're like a tag team duo
about like, what are the things
that we can do,
that we can keep pushing
forward on multiple fronts?
- So I think about a conversation
I had at the protest.
I saw much of my students
there, and kid looks at me,
he's like, "You know, Mr. Downs, I just,
"I don't know what it is.
"It's just every time
I walk past an officer,
"my heart starts beating fast."
And I'm like, "Man, you
know," I'm like, "We're good.
"We're out here, we're doing this."
He was like, "I know, but
you know, what's stopping him
"from doing it?
"The tear gas or setting
us up, or provoking us
"from doing whatever,
it's just crazy out here."
And so I think when I
think about that, right,
this is a young man who is
trying to do the right thing.
He's trying to exercise his
right as an American citizen.
And still he's surrounded by 60,000 people
that are aligned with
him, that are rooting
for the cause that he's rooting for.
He's not doing anything wrong.
And he's still surrounded
by, to be honest with you,
a bunch of black people.
He's still aware that he's a
young black man in America.
He's still aware that he could potentially
be in danger because this
society is not for him.
I just think about the
work that we have to do
to make our kids feel safe,
to make them feel like they belong,
to make them feel like
they truly have a part
of this country.
And even in that powerful moment,
this young black man is
still afraid for his life.
He's still afraid that
something could happen,
and that's not okay.
- Kathy, what specific
conversations have you had
with your son about
not just this incident,
but just about racism in general?
- We talk to my son every
day about being a black man
and being out.
We tell him not play his music too loud
when he's in his car driving.
Just have him make sure his
driver's license is accessible,
that he does not have to reach for it.
He doesn't have to open anything.
So they can't say he's
reaching for a weapon
or a gun or a knife.
Do you ever get stopped by
the police, you make sure both
of your hands are on the steering wheel.
And then you ask the officer
what are you being stopped for,
and you just put both
hands up exactly like this.
And you reach like this for
your license to grab it,
because you have it assessable.
You don't have to go inside to get it.
And the great thing is
because they are so aware
because of social media, it's not a fight.
They wanna live just as much
as you want them to live.
- How have you been talking
to kids about all this?
Jamie, you work in a
school, I'll start with you.
- I had to really decide
what I was gonna say.
What I'd found to be true is the more
that I elevate my voice
and I empower my students
to elevate their voice,
the better response we get.
We have to do better in
terms of the opportunities
that we provide.
And I'm saying that as a
black school leader, you know,
that there's more that we have to do
and that we can't continue the status quo,
because we're in many ways
perpetuating the cycle
that's leading to the
school to prison pipeline.
That's leading to our students
not having the best
relationship or being able
to have opportunities
outside of the school.
You know, we have an election coming up.
I need these students to understand that,
yes, we're going to protest.
Yes, we're going to advocate for change.
But one of the biggest ways
you do that is by going
to the booth and voting.
- It starts with how you talk to children
about what they can do.
What does it say to tell
someone at the age of 10,
"Yeah, you could be a
private equity investor,
"or you should be somebody
that should consider running
"for election, or you should
be the voice of change."
- I work in a school that's in
a low income area in Houston.
So when you're talking about,
not only do we need people
to get in front of students to tell them,
"Yes, you can be an investment banker.
"Yeah, you can be a politician,
you can do these things."
But they need to also be
people that look like them.
They need to get back, they
need to be a bridge builder.
We have to take more ownership
in terms of making sure
that we're doing things
that are connecting students
to opportunities and to
people who look like us.
- The thing that I think
about our pipeline programs,
like especially within getting
people into the sciences
and within medicine, has
been one of the things
that which we've been
trying to give back to,
because of the fact that
seeing a black doctor,
or a black lawyer or something else
like that is so unheard of.
When I walk into a room with
a patient who looks like me,
they're practically relieved.
Like, "Oh, thank God, I can actually talk
"about what's going on and not feel
"as though I'm being judged."
Off of like, "Oh, well,
do you have diabetes?
"Do you have hypertension?
"And I haven't even, I
was coming in for a cold,
"why are you asking me
all these questions?"
- My son's graduation was
Sunday, the day after the riots.
And at that graduation out of,
I don't think I've ever
been to a graduation
that was so tearful.
Those kids had just come out
of those riots that night
and they had to graduate,
walk across the stage
and they all have on a mask.
Everyone on the stage has on mask.
And if you could have heard the speeches
that these children were giving,
they were heart-wrenching.
What I've realized from my
own children be in a home born
to this, they're watching more news,
not the way that we use to,
because they're younger.
Of course all social media,
but the conversation is
constant about what's happening.
And not just looking at clothes
and how to do your eyebrows
and all this anymore.
They are so focused on what
is happening in the world.
My husband and I, we were
talking about Colin Kaepernick.
He had the most--
- Who's done a tough job
by the way."
- Yeah, yeah, he's taken a knee.
He did the most silent protest
that anyone could ever, ever do.
And he had all the worst
things in the world happened
to him and all that man
did was take a knee.
And so you got the young
people that are watching him,
and they feel like, this happened to him,
this silent protest and this
man lost everything he had.
So I think this new generation
is gonna find a way.
And what I love about it,
these demonstrations have
been white and black together,
because this is their generation,
and I believe they are
gonna make a change.
They're gonna force a change to happen.
- Terrell, you were talking about
how racism is a public
health crisis, explain it.
- And there's a robust
amount of literature
that looks at the effects of
stress and trauma on the body.
I think one of the things
that we don't necessarily talk
about is how African
Americans for example,
and others, have to deal with this stress
of walking around a
racialized environment.
How many of us have gone
through our education
and educational programs,
having to be singled out
because of their color.
I remember in eighth grade, I
was literally sold as a slave,
as a means of teaching
everyone else in that class
about what slavery was.
And like, you know, that
was traumatic to me.
Or in how many of us, like as
we're driving our car around,
our heart rate increases
when a cop is behind us.
These are traumas that we may pass on
to our children genetically,
not even on some,
not even how we socialize our kids,
but just basically how we
internalize and carry our trauma.
This is like a Russian nesting doll
of like the various different times,
the various different ways of which
that we experience racism,
whether it's individual,
whether it's systemic,
whether it's institutional.
And all of those things all
come together as a means
of being very challenging for
black people to kind of ascend
and to generate wealth
and to self-determine
for the most part and
do that without having
to feel as though in some
way they're being held back.
- I just can't help but
wonder like the trauma
of kind of doing the black
math that people have
to do in today, which is, "If I wear this,
"then will I be okay?"
Or, "This person used a
racial slur towards me
"and what, is it statistically safe
"for me to engage or not?"
Or, "If I get stopped by somebody
and if I do these actions,
"put my hands where they're
supposed to and wait
"to ask if it's okay
to reach for something,
"will I be okay?"
And I have an older
brother who is autistic.
So when these events
happen, the first thing
that I start thinking about is him.
And the fact that one,
he's existing while being
a black man, period.
Secondly, goodness forbid,
somebody misinterprets his disability,
besides just being a black
man as a cause for danger.
And like, I can totally
admit that there's times
that I've been totally
paralyzed, called my parents,
made sure that he knows what
to do in all these scenarios,
that he's been quizzed,
that he knows the "right"
equation of things to do
that will hopefully keep
him as safe as possible.
- Raise your hand if you
think this time is different,
that there will be meaningful change.
- I do, I do.
- Can I stick it halfway up?
- Yeah, I have it halfway.
- Explain.
- I don't think this--
- If a halfway is allowed,
can it be like a here, here and here?
- That's the problem though, I think that
because we're so hesitant, right?
Because, and it's also
because we don't wanna
disappoint ourselves, right?
We're trying to protect
our hope in the world,
in this country, right?
I was also hopeful that
that election wasn't true,
but it was, I can no longer
be like, "You know what,
"I'm too frustrated to
have this conversation."
And so I think that I have to be hopeful
that it's gonna change, but
I'm also going to give my all
to making sure that it changes.
I think our leaders fail to act
because we don't do
everything in our power
to hold them accountable.
- I'm a mother to a preteen.
I know as black and brown
people we've been talking
to our children about their place
in the world since they've been born,
since they've been able to talk.
I know that there are certain
conversations that parents
of black boys have that are
very difficult conversations.
My daughter has been out
of school since mid-March
because of COVID.
Normally my daughter would
know what was going on,
kind of in the news and in the world,
because they would discuss
it in their classrooms.
Our students are missing these
educational opportunities
and are relying on us as
parents or as caregivers
to let them know what's
going on in the world,
to have these conversations
and heighten their awareness.
And I think the teenagers, the students
that are in college right now, the people
that are coming behind us,
I see a lot of passion.
I see a lot of hunger,
and I see though a desire
for better.
- The strange positive
externality of COVID is the fact
that there's a lot more
people online, scrolling,
consuming the news to be
awoken to what's happening
and what's been happening.
And you know, this crave for education,
this crave for consumption, has made it
so that way it's a lot more
people than just black voices
also wanting to push for something more.
The reason why it's half way
is because it doesn't just stop
with a week.
It actually is that
accountability factor that says.
"We're not stopping tomorrow.
"We're not stopping next week.
"We're thinking about both the short-term
"and the long-term impact
that it's going to take,
"and expecting accountability
along the way."
- I think that the dynamic
that I'll be remissed
if we didn't address though is,
ultimately we all went to college.
We all have opportunities.
We all are connected to networks
that we are going to drive
because of our privilege
and our experiences
that have allowed us to do that.
There are tons of black
kids that go to schools,
that live in communities
that are underfunded.
under resourced, and so as a society,
we have to press pause
and take a hard look.
If we truly want the United
States to be a country
that is equal opportunity for all,
then we gotta provide equal access.
- People are saying, "What do you want
"from these companies?
"What do you want from these leaders?"
Tell them, we have an opportunity now
where we can put
on the table what it is we're asking for.
- From my own experience with
myself and with my children,
it is normally the students that get
that money are the cream
of the top of the students.
They are the kids that's
already doing the things
that they should be doing.
They are the kids that
show up for everything.
These are the kids who're
probably gonna make it regardless,
without all the other stuff,
because of the parenting behind them.
But I think in the system
it has to be a change.
How do we change the life of a C student?
- I agree, but at the
same time, also the people
who were at the cream
of the crop are there
despite substantial challenges.
I agree that there are a lot
of different opportunities
for businesses to come in
and other places to try
to generate wealth within
the black community.
But I also think that
there's a huge barrier there
in regards to how black
children, black adolescents,
black adults are treated as
though they're second class citizens,
or at the very least as
though that like you have
to damn near prove your exception.
The part that requires more work is trying
to tease out this aspect of like,
when I see a young black
male with a hoodie on,
why am I afraid seeing
them come down the street?
Why do I think that this
person is going to hurt me?
If I see a kid that's struggling with a C,
how do I, instead of
saying, "You know what,
"this is all that this kid couldn't do."
How can I encourage this
young black kid to do better?
And so when it comes
to white people asking,
"What I can do and what I can do to help?"
It's like, "One, I need you to address
"these underlying biases that you have,
"I need you to come at
it from a place of like,
"how can I elevate you?"
(upbeat music)
