it’s about two very different
communities coming together to build a
robot yes a robot but we all know how
our stories go it’s gonna have to start
all Lee before it becomes beautiful all
right so there’s three main characters I
want you guys to focus on all right the
well-meaning white guy duh minorities me
hate this thing
all right and me so me and this
well-meaning white guy we’ve been
friends for quite some time since the
robotics team had started so but the
minorities and other white people on the
team refused to become best friends with
each other due to no stereotypical
beliefs of what the other race is yada
yada yada so let’s fast forward two
months now we’re at a holiday in a hotel
in Pittsburgh for our first competition
me in this white guy we’re playing on
how to take our opponent for the next
competition that next day so we had to
be you know ready for in the mindset so
then the minorities walk into the room
other students walk into the room and
now it’s time to turn up for those
who’ve you guys are behind the
generation party so as the music started
to kick as the music started get louder
and a voices started to carry the
well-meaning white guy and I could not
think we can proper we couldn’t think of
the situation that was going on at hand
so myself I just gave up we stopped
talking yeah the world meeting why guy
didn’t he um he told me to take your
you people you surely don’t mean black
people do you how what we were supposed
to think my community did not know what
to do nor do we know what to say
everyone the minorities left the room
pissed now I did and before some of you
guys say now what the hell were you
thinking not going with show people or
what the heck were you thinking of
staying in that environment let’s take a
step back let’s analyze my life growing
up I grew up in two different worlds I
knew it was like to be double that kid
and France don’t let you guys know just
not me this is just a random picture
okay um but I also knew it was like to
be a black kid so living do these two
different lifestyles I knew what it
meant to be different you see growing up
I didn’t play sports I didn’t play
basketball nor do I play football son
did not touch my skin if I was to play
any of if I was to go outside and some
was to touch my skin it was because my
mom was telling me to take out the trash
so I am a nerd in a commitment of being
a nerd one must do not like things so I
took apart computers I played video
games oh yeah
and I program robots see my career in
being the little robotic engineer that
could start only when I was 14 years old
so I had a lot to learn so like I said I
know it’s like to be the black kid my
sister and I tend to go to LA some
summers for a film and acting camp um
there best believe we were to only black
kids on that backlot um I created a film
surrounding love issues around LGBT um
my director the person in charge of
class he was angry with me because I
didn’t bring it to his attention now the
surprisingly enough the white people in
the room me being the only black kid
came up and was like but why did he I
mean we didn’t have to tell you Hank I
was talking about killing Jesus so like
I don’t see why he had to and in that
moment it was actually a comfort to see
over all that some white people had
rhythm
that some of them actually aren’t stuck
up and someone actually has the same
goal as me diversity and inclusion now
like I said also no one likes to be a
black kid now growing up in the city of
Dayton in the inner city of day in the
high schools typically in that area run
off a transportation transport system
called the RTA are we familiar with the
RTA system so um just this past recently
they went on strike and for and for a
lot of us debatable reasons was a good
reason to go on strike no issues there
however urban minorities people in this
area relied on this system so we have to
figure out a way well how are we going
to still go to work and get paid for it
or go to school and get an education for
it
so those are the type of things that
being led like it being most of
everybody in this community we had to
think about so having the experience of
being a black kid and the black kid
taught me how to take a part of a
robotics team where being weird robot
well what we actually did was better
than creating the robot in itself so
first first is more than robots is kids
come I’m sorry first is more a robot so
robots is a vehicle for students to come
in and learn important life skills kids
coming often not knowing what they
expect of the program nor of themselves
they leave even after the first season
with a vision with confidence in a sense
that they concrete their own future
bonds bringing opportunities near day
and students this is a light this is a
tag named drill community based team
with the tagline license to drill you
know like license to kill but the PG
version yeah I know
corny but think about this the
demographics of Beverly Hills LA coming
together with the demographics of
Compton LA it’s crazy like it’s
hilarious I actually think about but
Wednesday in Oakwood came together to
build a community so our city does not
continue to look like look like this
black people over here and white people
over here
but that actually looks like this a
community of different cultures coming
together to work together in the same
community so when you ask me let’s go
back to the story when you asked me why
I didn’t leave two reasons because I
didn’t want to respond a negative angry
black guy connotation but also because
if I was to leave I wouldn’t be creating
a bond I’ll be breaking I mean I
wouldn’t be breaking about I won’t be
creating a bond I will be breaking it so
bonds is a diverse group of high school
students come together to build a robot
having those questions having those
count having those conversations that
people are afraid to have so and we do
this in the through a unique way do the
arts of stem see right now the majority
of the stone fill is filled with white
males where little do people know that
the stem area is waiting for different
minorities different people of color
different and many and much more women
so the simple of the truth in the matter
is why people will say stupid things
black people will say stupid things and
Hispanic people will say stupid things
so I’m gonna let you guys in on a little
secret and I’m sorry I don’t know if you
guys know this or not but we’re all
human and we’re going to say and do
things that we don’t mean all the time
in the first organization there is a
program called FR c FR c stands for
FIRST Robotics Competition and in FRC
there’s a six-week build season meaning
that we have to basically work day and
night if you want to produce a robot
about the end of that six weeks so
through that and our team if we’re going
to spend that much time together we
better be working together there better
be no arguments and we better be one big
happy family thank you [Applause]