[Music]
welcome to Chicago we have an incredible
skyline when you consider the
architectural advances that we’ve seen
in this country you’ll want to move here
to when you look at the bustling
downtown urban center the number one
place for relocation for for Millennials
in the entire country when you think
about all that happens when you have
people who are willing to commit to
improving the business infrastructure
such that we’ve we’ve actually recruited
42 corporate headquarters since 2011
alone to come to Chicago and make this
its their home when we think about what
community means in Chicago we’re often
put in a position where we have to say
my goodness I love my neighbor I want to
treat my neighbor better and I want to
move to a city that respects and
understands the power of neighborliness
that understands that good schools and a
quality education that the ability to to
to connect with someone over a shared
meal at a local restaurant is exactly
why you should come to Chicago because
it is the city of opportunity one of the
fastest growing segregated cities in the
entire country when we consider what
neighborhoods are what children should
have how they should play and where they
should be playing who their friends
should be who their classmates are and
what they’re going to learn from these
incredible diverse experiences that
they’re gonna get in the fastest-growing
segregated city in the country
I say you should move to Chicago I say
you should consider what it means to be
in a place where proximity means you
you see my family came to this city
through a typical story for black people
here in Chicago
my great-grandfather Cleon yes when he
found out that he was to have my
grandmother Eudora Ramey he decided no
heir of mine she’ll be born in the state
of Louisiana you see he was he was
trying to survive coming up from his his
parents being slaves and share
Hopper’s and he was trying to understand
how he could make a better life for his
family in this country as many people do
so he said I have to leave and he left
the south and he did what many African
Americans did at that time he became
part of what’s now known as the great
migration in 1923 he came to Chicago
moved to the west side of Chicago he had
this beautiful woman she was born your
daughter Amy and I love this woman to
death because she she gave me so much
she taught me so much about life about
proximity about being close to people
about being loved
she taught me what it meant to endure
and to be courageous
she taught me what twice as much for
half as much means she taught me what it
meant to be resilient and I’m so
thankful for that because the decisions
that she made led to her buying a home
in a community called North Lawndale and
if you’re not familiar with North
Lawndale it’s a community on the west
side of Chicago it originally was a
bohemian community when it was first
annexed by the city of Chicago back
before the the turn of the 20th century
eventually became one of the largest
Jewish neighborhoods in the entire
country and to this day you can still
see the churches the synagogue’s were at
that time with the Stars of David
hanging up there not like Baptist
churches because now it’s a
predominantly black neighborhood but it
didn’t just happen in any sort of way
you see Eudora Raimi played a role in
that she decided to buy a house that
this is a typical decision that
Americans make you want to buy a house
and in fact when we look at what wealth
accumulation means in the city of
Chicago or even in the country we know
that a house is the number one basis of
wealth accumulation in the country and
so this is a pivotal decision a decision
that she has to make where do I live
well she lived where she could because
at the time she couldn’t live everywhere
in Chicago because of course we had
redlining we didn’t get segregated
overnight we certainly didn’t get there
without strong policy to create it and
so what she did was she looked at her
available options and then she made a
decision to move to 746 South Kilbourn
and that’s where my wonderful wonderful
father was born now Paul Ramey was an
incredible guy he’s a veteran from the
Vietnam War he he grew up here in the
city of Chicago we went to von Stuben
high school he came back here and he had
this I think incredible incredible son
incredible son
and what are the decisions that he made
is a very important decision as well you
see he decided where I was going to go
to school but this is a typical decision
that many parents have to make but the
question is under what circumstances are
you making your decisions right and so
his decision that he was confronted with
because I happen to be a bit of a smart
kid growing up and he was confronted
with well my son got into nearly every
gifted center in the city and that’s a
great thing that’s what we want we want
kids were smart to get into these better
schools but the reality is is he decided
not to let me go now the school I was
going to is my mother would always say
not only didn’t teach algebra it refused
to teach algebra and my father was the
head of local school council now what do
you do with that why would you not allow
your child to have a better opportunity
if opportunity is presented and he is
literally living in a house where he is
boiling his bathwater because he’s
growing up without heat where he is
cooking bread toasting it in the oven
and scraping off the mold where he is
growing up knowing when dad is happy
because he’s smiling and the grocery
carts are full and now we have food why
would you not allow your child to go to
a better school because he understood
that he had the decision to make that
his child wasn’t born in this time it
was born in time you see this is how the
brain drain happens he decided to opt
out he said to keep me out of these
gifted centers and that had a profound
impact on my life the impact that
actually had was my student loans are
higher because I flunked business calc
one four times now I eventually went on
I got a degree in economics from DePaul
University so you know I made it but the
reality is it had true cost there was
another man who moved in in North
Lawndale whose name was Michael trout
the Michael trout was a 20-something
year old and graduated from Wheaton
College and he and his wife got married
and terrible clothing it was the 90s
those the nine days you forgive people
for that but Michel trial with a full
head of hair decided I’m gonna move in
I’m gonna be a white man moving into a
black neighborhood not only a black
neighborhood I’m gonna move into a
neighborhood that has been called one of
the top 20 most dangerous communities in
the entire United States not only that
what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna move into
that neighborhood and then I’m gonna
start living there and I’m gonna bring
other people into it I’m gonna be in
proximate relationship with
african-american people in a drug
riddled gang riddled neighborhood for
him that was a risk for me that was just
life so it’s no risk to him the reality
of our decisions is that we’re
constantly evaluating our lives in the
terms of what’s presented to us not just
because we worked for it but because
history mandated that we be presented
with that opportunity and we alone
that’s how segregation works Chicago is
not just the fastest-growing city
because people are choosing a buy a
house and go somewhere and then and
build a nest egg it’s because they
insist on not moving into a neighborhood
and starting organizations like the
young men’s educational network where I
became a student because his wife became
my fifth grade teacher and then I met
him when he had a ponytail and and and
eventually I grew up to become a board
member in this organization and then the
the director development and Mike and I
we raised a couple million dollars we
opened up some facilities for
residential housing we created this big
sports court and then I left went to
Africa became a consultant came on back
got a great job as a program officer
managed couple million dollars in
philanthropic grants and then got my
butt kicked over to the University of
Chicago and I got to teach social
justice and in that I got in confronted
with the children of the elite and my
fear was how is it that they don’t
understand the relationships that they
have with me why am i waking them up to
what Chicago is why don’t they know the
stories that I know why don’t they know
about Lawndale and I realized then the
parents never told them they never told
them that when my grandmother bought a
house in Lawndale she bought it for
$25,000 which was twice what it costs
because the average home in Lawndale in
1947 was selling for about $12,000 but
this is 17 years before the Civil Rights
Act so she had no right to not have to
pay that and the people who sold the
house to her decided hey the law doesn’t
protect you and I won’t either
so this is now a market opportunity we
have to understand that when you come
from
imported people not an immigrant people
and imported people you always
understand life from the terms of the
commodity that you are and that’s a very
interesting way to experience America
and so for Chicago I think about all the
opportunities that we have I think about
the opportunities to form relationships
down the line through mentoring and
great programs and and investing in the
next generation I think about what it
means to grow old with somebody to know
somebody over time as as your gray hair
grows higher and their height does
alright I think about what it means when
we say I want to see the skyline – and I
don’t want the skyline to look like the
same skyline I don’t want the people
that come to my neighborhood to come
with badges I don’t want them to come
with guns I want them to come with
opportunities and a desire for for real
relationship I don’t want my workplace
the challenge of this is that the room
that you’re seeing right now is full of
Millennials think about it so when I
look at the future I say now how many of
them are going to go to bat for me how
many of them are going to go to bat for
my children to insist that the room be
different that when we demand a seat at
the table that you make space that if we
truly believe that the pie has to grow
higher that that means that some people
have to go a little lower
and that doesn’t mean in terms of their
opportunities it means that they submit
their privilege and that privilege has
to be extended and understood as it
relates through time not just in their
time you see privilege is just having
two good choices in a world we have to
fight for justice we have to indict the
fact that we don’t have to fight for
injustice it means that when you do
nothing you’re doing everything to be a
problem it means that that action is the
greatest thing you can do and the least
thing you can do is to say someone’s
life matters especially when it hasn’t
for centuries you see this is the best
time in American history
to be an african-american I’m still
afraid of the police with my mouth my
knowledge my intellect 100 years ago I’d
be hanging from a tree but now I’m the
CEO of my own company and that’s not to
say that that’s any thing that America
should be proud of because the blessings
that I have today I have to always
question I challenge you all to question
this as well this is what you have and
what we have because of you are in spite
of you we have to work together that
means we have to live together build
more proximate relationships with each
other
choose to live take on risk don’t just
share meals share risk say we matter
when you’re at work say we matter when
you’re at home say we matter in the
churches and the synagogues of the
country and then we will form a more
perfect union but for now we to me were
just a melting pot simmering with anger
and we have to bring these divides
together there are some incredible ways
to do that I challenge everyone to
consider how they can do that to
understand the privilege of two good
choices of what it means to double-down
and say the fact that I feel
uncomfortable is more important than the that you feel unsafe thank you