- 15 hours ago
Thasunda Brown Duckett is joined by Vice President Kamala Harris for a conversation about the Supreme Courts' decision on affirmative action.
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00:00Hello everyone so we have a very special moment these are challenging times but I choose to look
00:17at the opportunity not at the challenge the opportunity and today we look through that lens
00:26to find hope through fear the global black economic forum exists to identify opportunities
00:38and make them into realities the economic forum exists bringing people together and realizing
00:47our true potentials the global black economic forum exists because we're global black whether
00:55it we're in Dakar or Chicago and we're an economic forum because we need to make sure that we're
01:03treated equally on all fronts now we have a very very special conversation I'm honored that we're
01:14able to host this conversation with two titans two women you remember this morning we started our
01:23conversation with two titans madam president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the US ambassador to the United
01:32Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield and now as we close our program today and we get closer to our program
01:39we're going to be joined by two women again leaders the first Tashunda Brown Duckett
01:49a mother a wife and the CEO the president and the CEO of TIAA
02:06I got more to say about you take your time I gotta take my time go ahead
02:14the first black woman to run TIAA the first woman to run TIAA and by the way they managed more than a trillion dollars
02:32she's on so many boards I can't keep track but what I find so special about her is that she dreams
02:45but she don't doesn't only dream she attaches them to action and for that we're grateful
02:53and we're also joined by the very first woman to serve as the vice president of the United States of America
03:09Kamala Harris now I've known the vice president for a very long time
03:19and I have always been impressed with her ability to break through barriers she is a warrior she's
03:33always been a warrior and at this moment at this point in our history we need her vision we need her
03:40support we need her tenacity we need her grace more than ever before so please get up on your feet
03:49to welcome the vice president of the United States Kamala Harris
04:04to welcome the president of the United States Kamala Harris
04:15to welcome the president of the United States Kamala Harris
04:24Good afternoon, everyone.
04:42This is fantastic, and it is a moment.
04:46So before we start, I know there's something that you would like to say, so let me turn it over to you.
04:52I prepared to have a very long conversation with you about many other matters, and then the highest court in our land just made a decision today on affirmative action, and I feel compelled to speak about it.
05:08And I'm sure that I share the sentiment and the feeling of everyone in this room in terms of the deep disappointment.
05:22I encourage everyone, by the way, to read the dissenting opinion of Justice Gitanji Brown-Jackson.
05:30I encourage you to read it because she is a beautiful writer who is compelled by logic and a knowledge of history and a clarity of thinking about where we have been as a country and where we have the potential to go.
05:52And what she so rightly has articulated, as I take away from her writing and the way I feel about it, is the disappointment is because this is now a moment where the court has not fully understand the importance of equal opportunity for the people of our country.
06:17And it is in so very many ways a denial of opportunity and it is a complete misnomer to suggest this is about colorblind when in fact it is about being blind to history,
06:36being blind to data, being blind to empirical evidence about disparities, being blind to the strength that diversity brings to classrooms, to boardrooms.
06:52That's right.
06:54So, Tishana, I thank you for giving me this moment to just speak on that and I think that there is no question.
07:02We have so much work to do and the President spoke so eloquently earlier today about this.
07:10Our administration will use all the tools in our power to continue to applaud policies that understand the importance and the significance and the strength of diversity in all of those places.
07:24And one of the points that the President also made is the point of encouraging our educational institutions to now be very purposeful in thinking about how they will prioritize the importance of diversity,
07:38including looking at students' backgrounds in terms of access to financial strength and benefits, where they went to high school, where they grew up.
07:48And also, the President, I thought, was very clear about saying to corporate America that we would expect that this decision will not in any way cloud their judgment about the importance of diversity in the workplace.
08:03Absolutely.
08:04So, thank you.
08:08Well, thank you.
08:10I shared with you this morning was emotional.
08:13Yeah.
08:14But what I do know is that talent is created equally.
08:19Opportunity is not.
08:21That's right.
08:22And so, we will all do our part to make sure that every young talent know that they can achieve their full potential in this country.
08:32That's right.
08:33And we know we still have work to do, but joy comes in the morning.
08:37All right.
08:38That's right.
08:39Amen.
08:40Okay.
08:41Right.
08:42That's exactly right.
08:43And I do consider myself a joyful warrior.
08:45Yes, you do.
08:46She is a joyful warrior.
08:48Okay.
08:49So, speaking of talent, my father, Otis Brown, will always say to me, people see your glory, but they don't know your story.
09:02Mm-hmm.
09:03Vice President Harris, impact maker, always creating space for so many people.
09:13Can you take us back to your story?
09:17I know you've talked about how your parents met at Berkeley and were active in the civil rights movement.
09:24In fact, I think they took you along in a stroller, so I have a little vision here.
09:27Indeed.
09:28Indeed.
09:29Okay.
09:30But how has your past, growing up, impacted the arc of now being the vice president of the United States of America?
09:45In every way.
09:46I have the true privilege and blessing of being raised by a family, an extended family, and a community that was so abundant in its belief that we must nurture the children and give them a sense of how important they are.
10:14Mm-hmm.
10:15You know, I sometimes joke about it.
10:18You know, I was raised in a community and by parents in a community that they just told all of us we were special.
10:25That's right.
10:26That's right.
10:27We weren't particularly special, but we believed them when they told us that.
10:32That's right.
10:33Absolutely.
10:34And I grew up, yes, in the midst of this movement that was, you know, there are different regions of our country that had different levels of impact on the civil rights movement.
10:47But in Berkeley and Oakland, California, there was a very robust community that was fighting for civil rights.
10:56My parents were marching and shouting for justice every day.
11:00And the heroes of that movement included Thurgood Marshall.
11:03That's right.
11:04Charles Hamilton Houston, Constance Baker Motley, right?
11:06Absolutely.
11:07And that's why I wanted to become a lawyer.
11:09Mm-hmm.
11:10And probably one of the main reasons I decided to become a prosecutor, and this is not a favorite thing that I'd like to share, but it is very pivotal in why I made that decision, is growing up, my best friend in high school I learned was being abused by her stepfather.
11:31Mm-hmm.
11:32And when I realized it, I said to her, well, you have to come live with us.
11:40And I actually called my mother and I said, Mommy, this is happening.
11:43And she said, well, of course she has to come live with us.
11:45Right.
11:46And she did.
11:47And just the feeling of the need to make sure we protect.
11:53Right.
11:54And give people a sense of dignity and uplift them.
12:01And so the majority of my career as a prosecutor was spent focusing on crimes of violence against women and children.
12:09But the work that I've done has also been a function of this fight for justice, be it economic justice, which is one of the main areas of focus for this convening.
12:22The importance of giving people dignity, giving them opportunity, is something that has always guided me.
12:29When I was Attorney General, I know we have some people here who are bankers, but when I was Attorney General, I actually sued the big banks around the foreclosure crisis.
12:41That was impacting California in a pretty substantial way.
12:44I had some of the highest rates of foreclosure, and I felt the very strong need to be able to protect these homeowners, so many of whom were black, who were people of color, who deserve to be treated fairly.
12:57So that's in a nutshell some of the things that formed who I was and who I am at an early age.
13:03You sure are special.
13:05You are, too.
13:06And so is everyone here, right?
13:07You are, too.
13:08Everybody is.
13:09We are special.
13:10You know, I know, you know, I'm raised with my parents, Otis and Rosie Brown, and they grew up in the segregated South.
13:16Yeah.
13:17But even with that backdrop, they told me to reach for the moon.
13:20That's right.
13:21Because even if I missed, I would be among the stars.
13:24Madam Vice President, you continue to reach for the moon.
13:29So thank you.
13:31Thank you, Tisha.
13:32Thank you, Tisha.
13:33Now, I want to shift, because we are at the Black Forum.
13:36Our backdrop, since festival, where a million people span the next couple of days.
13:46Injustice.
13:48Yeah.
13:49We also know the black community is projected in 2024, $1.8 trillion of spending power.
13:56Yet, the net worth over the last several years have gone down to 14%.
14:03So we have to continue this dialogue in talking about the economy.
14:08So I would love to get your perspective broadly about the economy.
14:13And then secondly, your thoughts as it relates to black Americans, as we know that when there's volatility, many times we can have a disproportionate negative impact.
14:24Could you share your thoughts and the administration's thoughts?
14:26Sure.
14:27Well, I will tell you that we are very proud as an administration of our accomplishments as it relates to the economy.
14:36And I don't need to remind everyone that we came in to office during the height of the pandemic.
14:43And at a time when people, there was an extraordinary loss of life, of normalcy.
14:50People lost their homes, lost their jobs.
14:53And the work we had to do was to build back up.
14:58And during the course of the last two and a half, almost two and a half years now, the work that we have done has actually been historic in proportion.
15:07Not only have we recovered from the pandemic, which is why everybody's sitting so close together without masks, we have been able to recover in a pretty substantial way.
15:16Although there are still very real lingering effects from the pandemic, including a very real impact on mental health.
15:23Yes.
15:24Which I think is something we need to talk and deal with more.
15:28But for example, what we were able to do not only with the with the American Rescue Plan, which was to recover from the pandemic and help small businesses stay open and keep their doors open and keep their employees.
15:42But what we have done with the infrastructure law, you know, the previous administration kept talking about infrastructure week.
15:48And you will remember that never happened.
15:50We have now passed a bipartisan infrastructure law, which is in the process in real time of addressing the fact that America's infrastructure is over 150 years old and understand what that means.
16:06That means the creation of jobs that are both about construction and the actual building backup, but also manufacturing to supply the resources that are necessary for that building backup.
16:18It also is not only about the creation of jobs in that regard.
16:23It's also about understanding what that does in terms of everyday working people and the impact this will mean by that.
16:30I mean, think about the fact that if you and most Americans do live in a place where they cannot afford to live where they work.
16:40So they have a significant commute.
16:42And if you are driving every day over roads and bridges that are falling apart, you are getting flat tires, which your car insurance does not pay for.
16:54And most Americans are a $400 unexpected expense away from bankruptcy.
16:59So there are very real residual benefits from this approach around infrastructure.
17:05I will add to that what we did with the Inflation Reduction Act.
17:08If you combine what we did with the infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act, by my estimate, we are dropping about $1 trillion on the streets of America to address infrastructure and to invest in a clean energy economy.
17:24And that is, again, about jobs, including something I'm very passionate about, which is thinking about small businesses and how we strengthen them.
17:33Here's why I say that.
17:35Do you know that over 75% of manufacturing firms in the United States, manufacturing companies, hire 20 or fewer employees?
17:49Mm-hmm.
17:50Those are small businesses.
17:51That's right.
17:52When you compound that with the fact that our administration has made a commitment to increase federal contracts for minority-owned businesses by 50%, and then you think about what that can do to address racial inequities in terms of wealth being around small businesses as an example.
18:12Mm-hmm.
18:13The residual impact to communities is profound, and one of the things I'm going to ask as part of the do-out of this convening is that we get to all of the leaders here all the information about how small businesses that you work with that you may run that are in your community know of the benefits that are available in real time.
18:34Mm-hmm.
18:35Because I really do think of it as being part of a pathway to accelerating and, in some ways, addressing what have been longstanding disparities because of inadequate access, no access to this kind of information.
18:51But those are just some of the examples.
18:53I love it.
18:54I love it.
18:55I love it.
18:56I love it.
18:57I love it.
18:58I love it.
18:59I love it.
19:00I love it.
19:01So, with the chips and science act, I have been traveling around the world.
19:02I have, as vice president, now met with over 100 world leaders.
19:04Presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, and kings.
19:07And one of the big issues that I've been talking with them about, whether I'm in the Indo-Pacific or meeting with our European allies, is the importance of addressing the supply chain issues that became highlighted during the pandemic and what we need to do around U.S.
19:23U.S. manufacturing so that we are not caught in that vice again of relying on essential
19:30products from foreign countries where they may not be available to us, but also thinking
19:35about it in terms of an investment in U.S. manufacturing around things like semiconductor
19:40chips.
19:42We are, as a result of the investment that we're making in a clean energy economy, doing
19:46a lot of investment in the innovations around electric vehicles, school buses, buses, large
19:53capacity vehicles.
19:57And again, thinking about what this means not only to strengthen our economy, to reduce reliance
20:02on foreign goods, but also then to invest in our workforce.
20:06And purposely, I think about all of this through many lens, including what we must do to address
20:14disparities based on race and the ability of folks to acquire and grow wealth for their
20:20families and for their communities.
20:22No, I love it.
20:23I love the connection between small business and recognizing how important it is.
20:28There's 61 plus million Americans.
20:31We know it's about 46% of the workforce comes through small business.
20:35We also know that corporate America plays a role because there's an opportunity for us
20:38to make sure we're doing our part when we think about business diversity.
20:42So it's a we thing for sure.
20:44And one of the things that you've talked a lot about and we've even talked about is the
20:48importance of private public partnership.
20:52That we cannot do it alone.
20:54It takes all of us to operate in a connected way.
20:57And you have been very vocal.
20:58I would love for you to share your thoughts about the importance of private public partnership,
21:03especially given that you're in the room with many leaders.
21:05Well, I will talk about public-private partnerships as a devout public servant.
21:16We need these partnerships because what I do know, and I have held local elected office, statewide
21:24office.
21:25I'm an United States Senator and obviously now Vice President.
21:28And I am acutely aware that the kind of work that we need to do to grow our economy and
21:35address some of the most longstanding issues and intractable issues will require that partnership
21:43for a number of reasons.
21:45Government uniquely has the ability to scale.
21:49But it is the private sector that can often, unburdened by bureaucracy, make a meaningful
21:55investment with the skill set and the culture that understands the importance of a return
22:01on investment.
22:03And so I think about that in a number of ways.
22:06And I'll give some examples of the most recent work I've done.
22:09As you know, I just came back from the continent.
22:11So I was, and I, it is as one of my goals as Vice President to redirect, reorder in some
22:21ways the relationship between the United States and the continent of Africa.
22:26And here's how I think about it.
22:28First of all, the median age on the continent of Africa is 19.
22:33By 2050, one in four people on Mother Earth will be on the continent of Africa.
22:43Also on the continent, we are looking at increasing food insecurity and energy insecurity.
22:49So what these numbers objectively tell us is that we're looking at either great opportunity
22:56or potentially great risk.
22:58Well, I like going with the opportunity, yes.
23:03Stay left.
23:04Exactly.
23:05Exactly.
23:06Understanding also increasingly, it's so obvious these days, how interconnected and interdependent
23:11nations are.
23:14And so I purposely curated that trip.
23:17So it was not going to be about hungry children and malaria.
23:23Not that those are not issues that should be addressed.
23:25But I purposely curated the trip so it was going to be about young entrepreneurs.
23:29Yes.
23:30It was going to be about, and it was, this is what the trip was about, young entrepreneurs,
23:34about digital inclusion, understanding the importance of FinTech and getting people into
23:39a structured banking system and what that does to empower individuals and therefore families
23:44and communities, in particular women.
23:46Because when you lift up the economic status of women, you lift up the economic status of families
23:50and the whole community.
23:51Absolutely.
23:52Absolutely.
23:53Yes.
23:54Absolutely.
23:55And so we basically pull together private partners, and I've got on the phone.
24:02You did.
24:03And I call folks.
24:04You know that.
24:05I do.
24:06You.
24:07And said, and call folks and said, look, this is what I'm up to.
24:14Join us.
24:15Let's do this together.
24:17Thus far, we have raised $8 billion, focused primarily on the digital inclusion piece,
24:24understanding the connection between that and agri-tech, right?
24:29Understanding the connection between, I'm also the head of the Space Council.
24:32I am a space geek.
24:33That will be a subject for another day.
24:34I love that.
24:35But how satellite technology, right, but you have to have access to the tech, helps determine
24:41and can help a farmer, a small farmer, determine what crops to grow, to seed, because they will
24:49have an accurate sense of what the season will bring.
24:52Right?
24:53So all of that.
24:54And that work focused on Africa was based on work I did when we first came in as an administration,
25:01when the president asked me to address the root causes of irregular migration from the
25:07northern part of Central America, in particular, Honduras and El Salvador and Guatemala.
25:11So there, then going back now about a year and a half, I pulled together a public-private partnership,
25:18focused on, in particular, the agricultural issue there.
25:21Right.
25:22And we raised $4.2 billion focused on those countries to do the work.
25:28And the partners were Microsoft, the partners were, we had friends who are not only in technology,
25:36but in MasterCard, Visa, all of these folks coming together.
25:41And the beauty of a public-private partnership is I'm acutely aware of my ability and power to convene.
25:49Right.
25:50And then bringing folks together to break through silos with a common objective.
25:56And so that's the work that we have done.
25:58And so both in the northern part of Central America and in Africa's two recent and, I think,
26:03very good examples, we have shown how the partnership actually benefits many more people than any of us could individually.
26:13Absolutely.
26:14Yeah.
26:15I love the fact that you've connected the dots in this conversation that didn't start and end here in our country,
26:24but this is a global black economic forum.
26:27Absolutely.
26:28And you brought in your work and your passion and the importance to America on making sure that we're connected in the work that you're doing in Africa
26:36and the importance of all of us working together.
26:40So I want to shift because you said this earlier, and I know you want to get to it because it's important to you,
26:47and that is the importance of mental health.
26:49Yeah.
26:50And we know that we're also in the backdrop of Essence where there's so many women here.
26:57Can you take a moment to talk about mental health and also to inspire women and really everyone,
27:07because it's impacting everyone, to hold on and have that joy that you talked about?
27:13Well, first of all, so back when I was actually DA of San Francisco, I started to look into the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder
27:26among children who are growing up in low-income communities, which not by coincidence also had high rates of violence.
27:34And we started to do the work, and I collaborated with a woman by the name of Nadine Burke Harris, no relation to me, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris.
27:45I encourage anyone who is interested in this topic to read her book, The Deepest Well.
27:50A black woman who started a clinic in Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco, which has a household annual income of $15,000 a year.
28:00In San Francisco.
28:01In San Francisco.
28:03And so we started to do the clinical work and bring it together.
28:07And basically what we were not surprised to find out is that so many children who are growing up in these circumstances,
28:16either in a home where there's violence, and by the way, that has nothing to do with socioeconomic status,
28:22or in a community where there are no opportunities, and let's also be clear that poverty is trauma-inducing, okay?
28:32We realized just the number of young people who are growing up who have trauma that's been undiagnosed and untreated.
28:41Interesting studies have been done on this, by the way.
28:45You know, forever folks would say, oh, black Americans genetically have high rates of high blood pressure and heart disease.
28:51And then studies were done, because, you know, for so many, you can kind of figure out the body type and figure out the original tribe, right?
29:00So the studies were done of the original people, right, on the continent, no such heart disease, no such high blood pressure.
29:09Oh, well what caused it then?
29:11Well, hundreds of years of slavery and all of the other things that we are looking at that are these unique stressors that are environmentally inherited, right?
29:23And so I say all this to say we have to understand the big picture of it, and then also understand the way the pandemic accelerated so many things.
29:37Some, interestingly enough, like adoption of technology was probably helpful, but nothing else really was, and including accelerating mental health crisis in America.
29:48And so I think the first thing that we have to do is agree that we should talk about it.
29:53The second point that I'll make is I've been convening also young men of color as entrepreneurs.
29:59I had a group who were so phenomenal who were, I mean, they've got businesses that are dealing with space and with climate and all this.
30:07And one of the things they raised with me when I said, what would you like me to highlight, in addition to access to capital, they said, please talk about mental health.
30:14Our young people are more willing to talk about mental health than I'll speak for myself and any of you who are part of this generation.
30:21They are so much more willing to talk about it to their credit.
30:26And the issue then becomes, do we have the resources and are we inviting the conversation and receiving it with the resources and the support that is needed?
30:37And I think we have more work to do in that regard.
30:41But you mentioned women and I'd like to talk about a specific issue that is a subset of this, which is the issue of postpartum care.
30:50Yeah.
30:51So I have been, for years, including when I was in the Senate, and my CBC sisters and I in particular were working on this, dealing with the issue of black maternal mortality.
31:05In America, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, we have one of the highest rates of maternal mortality.
31:12Black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than other women.
31:18And by the way, statistically, we know that it is not necessarily a function of her educational level or her socioeconomic level.
31:29It literally has to do with the fact that when she walks in a hospital or a clinic or an emergency room, she is not taking it seriously.
31:38The other thing that compounds the issue is the unique stressors that are all of the myriad of stressors that we know that black women in America face.
31:48And so one of the issues that I have been addressing then as a subset of my focus on maternal mortality has been the need to get postpartum care for women.
32:00And so I did a call to action in December of 21.
32:04And at the time, only three states in our country expanded Medicaid coverage to expand postpartum care from two months to 12 months.
32:12I did a call to action and basically put a lot of pressure on this and said all states need to extend postpartum care up to 12 months.
32:22And so far we have 35.
32:25So it is working.
32:26That's great.
32:27That's great.
32:28So it is working.
32:29That's great.
32:30Because again, for new mothers and for many who may have other children, we have to treat the whole person.
32:40And understand also that when we talk about health care, the body doesn't just start from the neck down.
32:47We also have to address health care from the neck up.
32:50But we, you know, also, you know, as black people in America need to deal with the fact that there are still stigmas associated with this.
33:00And so all of us as opinion leaders and having the resources that we do, I think it is very worthwhile in the energy that we expend in service to community and others to really highlight the importance of addressing this and understanding it's a strength to ask for help and not a weakness.
33:19Absolutely.
33:20It's a strength.
33:21Yeah.
33:22Absolutely.
33:23Okay.
33:24Now, one last question.
33:25Okay.
33:26You said joy earlier.
33:29You are a joy warrior.
33:31Caroline, CEO of Essence, has this space called Chief to Chief.
33:37And recognizing that as women, we are all chiefs.
33:40We're the CEOs of our home.
33:42We may be the CEO in the boardroom.
33:44We may be the CEO in our own domain, but we are all CEOs.
33:49Joy, optimism.
33:51We cannot get tired.
33:53We have a lot of work to do.
33:55Talk about your joy and leave us with some hope and some optimism because we are still here and we still have good trouble ahead of us.
34:10Well, give me a minute.
34:15Give her a minute.
34:18Joy.
34:19Joy.
34:20That in spite of the fact that a six to three court just undid affirmative action, that there is probably one of the most brilliant dissents that any justice of the United States Supreme Court has ever written and her name is Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
34:39Joy.
34:40Joy.
34:41Joy.
34:42Joy.
34:43Joy.
34:44Joy.
34:45That I look at our young leaders and I will say as a proud HBCU graduate and a.
34:56We knew that was going to get in.
34:58Somehow.
34:59She was going to work that in.
35:01Go ahead.
35:02Go ahead, Joy.
35:04And Joy falls.
35:05Joy falls.
35:06Joy falls.
35:07I look at our young leaders and I hope find time to just convene our young leaders.
35:15I'm telling you, they're so smart.
35:17Yeah.
35:18And, and this generation of young leaders, they are bold.
35:22Mm.
35:23They're not having it.
35:24They are, they are, they are saying whether it be on the issue of the climate crisis or, or just knowing how adept they are to understand technology in a way that some of us feel really small when we're around them.
35:36That's right.
35:37That's right.
35:38They're so good.
35:39And, you know, we were talking backstage and let's remember when we look at our young leaders that John Lewis was in his twenties.
35:46Yes.
35:47Diane Nash was in her twenties.
35:49Let me tell you.
35:50Let me tell you.
35:51Oh, I'll tell you another example of my point about the young leaders, the two Justins in Tennessee.
35:59Mm.
36:00So, you know, when they, when they were doing that, when that mess was happening in Tennessee and the, I'll just, I have to just go with this for a minute.
36:10These, there were three of them, the two Justins and, and Gloria, there were the Tennessee three.
36:17And I'm with my husband, we're watching the, the nightly news.
36:22Mm.
36:23And I see how they're trying to shut up these elected leaders.
36:29And I was so upset about it.
36:31I got on Air Force Two the next morning and went down to Tennessee.
36:34Because here's the thing.
36:37These young, these two young men in their twenties were there talking, they're elected in the chamber.
36:46They're during session, doing a session in a chamber that was designed, you know, I'm sure there are architects here.
36:55It was designed for debate.
36:57That's how these, these buildings in these rooms are designed for debate.
37:01And they wanted to debate the importance of addressing gun violence in America and how it is killing young black people every day.
37:10And the leaders of that legislature turned off their microphones.
37:17They are elected leaders in the chamber that was designed for debate during session to debate one of the biggest issues impacting our country.
37:25And they turned off their microphones.
37:28And here's why I love them.
37:29And I was really prompted to just go down there and tell them that.
37:32Yeah.
37:33They were like, okay, you turn off my microphone.
37:35Anybody got a bullhorn?
37:40And they organized and they organized young people.
37:45Oh, they were not giving up.
37:47They were not.
37:48They were not.
37:49They're not.
37:50So these are some of the things that gives me joy.
37:54What gives me joy?
37:55This convening.
37:56Yes.
37:57The fact that everyone is together under one roof.
38:00Yes.
38:01Reminding ourselves and each other that we're all in this together.
38:05Nobody's alone.
38:06Even though every day each of us or every other day walks into a room where we may be the only one who looks like us.
38:15Yes.
38:16Or has had our life experience.
38:18Mm-hmm.
38:19But yet we know that when we walk in those rooms, we're walking in with everyone.
38:25And with a responsibility then to be the voice that carries the voice of so many who are not in that room.
38:33And so many who have probably often never been in that room.
38:36Absolutely.
38:37And that gives me joy.
38:38I love it.
38:40I am joyful about the challenges because I know we can meet them.
38:44Yes.
38:45And I know we love our country.
38:47Absolutely.
38:48And that we are prepared to fight for its ideals.
38:52Mm.
38:53Understanding we've not yet achieved them.
38:55Right.
38:56But that the strength of our nation has been a commitment to the expansion of rights and freedoms.
39:05And I'm going to paraphrase Coretta Scott King because I do all the time and I just feel it's so apt.
39:11Absolutely.
39:12And she famously said, the fight for civil rights, the fight for equality, the fight for freedom, the fight for justice, the fight for civil rights must be fought in one with each generation.
39:23And I think she had two points there.
39:26The one is that it's the nature of these fights, that whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent.
39:34It's the nature of it.
39:37So if you understand it's the nature of it, the second point then, as an admonition, then do not despair.
39:45Do not tire.
39:48Do not throw up our hands when it's time to roll up our sleeves.
39:53And so that's part of it too.
39:56Let's not be tired.
39:58Let's not be overwhelmed.
40:01We know that we're fighting for something.
40:03That's right.
40:04Not against something, but for something.
40:05Absolutely.
40:06And we are strong.
40:09And we are strong.
40:11And we are on the right side of history.
40:13That's right.
40:14So I have to wrap this whole frame.
40:19We've talked about global economics.
40:23We've talked about small business.
40:25We've talked about the power of public-private partnership.
40:29We've talked about mental health.
40:32We've talked about the historic moment that will not tire us.
40:37We've talked about joy.
40:40So I will say, as the President and CEO of TIAA, having the privilege to be only one of three black women to ever lead a Fortune 500, I will say, Joy is sitting next to the Vice President of the United States, Joy.
41:02Joy is convening at the Global Black Economic Forum.
41:08Joy is understanding that we stand on the shoulders of giants.
41:13And when we widen the lens, even though today was hard, we cannot get tired because it was their resilience.
41:21It was the strength of our parents.
41:24It was the strength of the unsung heroes that created space for this history to exist.
41:30So the future will always be brighter because we refuse to tire.
41:36And the future will always be brighter because we are the ones raising the youth of today and of tomorrow.
41:43So, Essence Festival, Global Black Economic Forum, here with leaders, with the Vice President of the United States, Madam Kamala Harris.
41:55Thank you so very much.
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