February 17, 2021

2021 U.S. Department of Commerce African American History Month, “Inclusion is on US” Special Presentation: “The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity"

00:02

good afternoon and thank you all for

00:03

standing by

00:04

for the duration of today's conference

00:06

all participants lines are in listen

00:08

only mode

00:09

today's conference is being recorded if

00:11

you have any objections you may

00:12

disconnect at this time

00:14

it is my pleasure to turn the call over

00:15

to your host for today miss monique

00:17

disney

00:18

thank you ma'am you may begin all right

00:21

thank you so much holly

00:22

well welcome everyone to our 2021

00:26

african american

00:27

history black history month event the

00:30

theme of this month is the black family

00:31

representation

00:32

identity and diversity before we get

00:35

started i'd like to

00:36

bring a couple of matters to your

00:38

attention one if you are

00:41

dialing in to this event you will be

00:44

placed on you

00:45

and so we will won't have an opportunity

00:48

there won't be noise going back and

00:49

forth

00:50

so you are mute throughout the entire

00:52

event however

00:53

at the very end of the event we will

00:55

have an opportunity

00:57

for audience questions so if you have a

01:00

question

01:00

you like to ask of our panelists

01:02

throughout the event we ask you to

01:03

please put that question

01:05

in the chat function that chat function

01:07

is over to the right

01:08

on your computer screen so please feel

01:10

free throughout the event to put your

01:12

questions there and

01:13

when we have a few minutes at the end we

01:15

will uh open the

01:17

the session up to questions we also

01:21

have captions available so again if

01:22

you're looking for the captions

01:24

feature please go to chat there's a link

01:27

there

01:27

you can click on the link and it'll take

01:29

you into the

01:31

captions finally

01:35

if you uh thank you for joining us today

01:37

we will begin our program

01:39

in just a second and i'd like to turn

01:41

this over

01:42

to our opening

01:46

turn it over for opening remarks to the

01:49

office of civil rights acting director

01:52

mr

01:53

larry l beat

01:58

thank you monique good morning for some

02:01

of you good afternoon to everybody on

02:03

behalf of the department of commerce

02:06

office of civil rights i want to thank

02:07

you for joining us today

02:10

my name is larry beat i'm the acting

02:13

director for the office of civil rights

02:14

as monique

02:15

just said it is my pleasure to join you

02:18

this afternoon for this special event

02:21

in honor of african-american history

02:23

month which runs

02:24

throughout the entire month of february

02:27

this year's theme

02:28

as monique just mentioned is the black

02:31

family

02:31

representation identity and diversity

02:34

this is just a wonderful theme

02:37

it really presents us with an

02:38

opportunity to explore and reflect on

02:40

the many meanings of the word

02:42

family through the historic lens of the

02:44

african-american family

02:47

the concept of family stands at the

02:49

heart of all human relationships

02:52

and they represent the tie the ties that

02:54

bind people together

02:55

by race blood social affinity

02:59

national heritage and religious

03:01

conviction

03:03

concept of the black family often

03:05

includes not

03:06

only parents and children brothers and

03:09

sisters

03:10

and descendants of ancestors but also

03:13

those

03:13

victims can or pretend aunties

03:17

uncles and cousins not actually related

03:20

by blood

03:21

as well as the cherished sisterhood

03:24

and brotherhood of sororities and

03:26

fraternal organizations

03:29

the black family theme provides a window

03:31

into the african-american experience

03:33

over generations family stories

03:37

stories images and traditions have long

03:40

inspired and mobilized african americans

03:43

in their quest for racial equality

03:45

social justice and self-determination

03:49

the march of time has proven that the

03:51

black family represents the perseverance

03:53

and the resilience that has brought

03:55

african americans through centuries of

03:57

enslavement

03:58

jim crow laws and glaring racial

04:00

inequalities

04:01

and dangers that linger into our time

04:04

hey we bring together a group of

04:06

panelists who will share their story

04:08

as it relates to this beautiful theme of

04:10

family

04:12

our panelists are a diverse group of

04:14

dedicated

04:15

employees of the us department of

04:17

commerce and they are

04:19

they are our colleagues their poignant

04:22

stories

04:22

will enlighten and inspire while

04:25

providing insight

04:26

and appreciation of this theme the black

04:29

family

04:30

representation identity and diversity

04:34

once again thank you for joining us for

04:36

today's event

04:38

and i will now turn the program over to

04:40

mr derek small

04:42

will serve as the moderator for today's

04:44

program

04:45

derek is a communication specialist with

04:48

the u.s

04:48

international trade administration the

04:51

u.s commercial service

04:53

derek it's all yours welcome pages

04:57

thank you very much thank you i

04:59

appreciate it um

05:00

just just a little bit about me i have

05:02

about

05:03

18 years plus of government service

05:06

which includes eight years service

05:08

in the marine corps uh currently i'm a

05:10

communication specialist with the u.s

05:12

commercial service

05:13

and i also serve as a member of be bold

05:16

which is black's building opportunities

05:18

to leverage diversity

05:19

um i'm excited and honored to take part

05:22

in this event and to

05:23

talk to the diverse group of ladies that

05:26

we have

05:27

this event to me is very important

05:29

especially because of all the events

05:31

that have happened last year that remind

05:34

us

05:35

of past struggles in this country

05:38

especially for the black community

05:40

and at the time that this event sort of

05:44

was coming about i had written a

05:47

few verses to a poem that that

05:50

goes pretty much like this and i'm only

05:51

going to deliver the first few lines

05:54

slave from africa born in america

05:57

parents from panama grandma granddad

06:00

jamaica trinidad haiti maybe

06:03

native likely i don't know i guess you

06:06

can't track

06:07

past a graveyard of slaves and because

06:10

of the importance of

06:11

family i believe that having a knowledge

06:15

of our

06:16

legacy is very important but not only

06:19

because of our legacy i think it's also

06:22

important

06:22

in shaping our future as you'll see in

06:25

the various stories from our panelists

06:27

today

06:28

so i'm happy to have with us carrie ann

06:31

turner

06:32

a communication specialist with the

06:33

national marine fisheries services

06:35

office of international trade and

06:37

seafood inspection

06:39

michelle robinson an economist with the

06:42

bureau of economic analysis

06:44

cecilia kaiser director of the office of

06:47

financial internal control

06:49

travel and travel management division

06:53

jacqueline deschamps a business

06:54

specialist with miss

06:56

balbridge performance excellence program

06:59

and just a reminder to everyone if you

07:02

have questions please feel free to put

07:04

them

07:05

in the chat and we'll get to them later

07:07

it's such a privilege to speak to you

07:09

ladies

07:09

especially during black history month

07:12

and hopefully

07:13

uh you know these events that go on

07:15

throughout department of commerce

07:16

throughout the year and that we continue

07:18

to use

07:19

and to employ diversity throughout all

07:22

of our categories

07:23

that we see we'd like to get started

07:26

with kerry

07:28

thank you uh i'm happy to have you here

07:31

today happy to speak with you

07:33

um maybe you could start by telling us a

07:35

little bit about what you do with the

07:37

department of commerce

07:40

hi everyone um again my name is carrie

07:43

anne turner

07:44

i go by kerry i am a communications

07:48

specialist

07:49

within noaa fisheries office of

07:51

international affairs and seafood

07:53

inspections

07:55

part of my function within the office is

07:59

to

07:59

help develop implement

08:03

and coordinate various communication

08:06

strategies

08:08

for office in terms of international

08:11

fisheries priorities

08:13

um so a lot of the work that i do is

08:16

um assisting our policy teams and

08:19

various

08:20

uh stakeholder engagement uh

08:24

for programs uh like the import

08:26

provisions

08:27

for the mmpa the marine mammal

08:29

protection act and also

08:32

trade monitoring programs like uh the

08:34

u.s seafood import modern program known

08:36

as simp

08:39

in terms of uh department of commerce i

08:41

have been a federal employee for about

08:44

uh we're over a year i've been a federal

08:47

contractor within

08:48

the national marine fisheries service

08:50

who are about five years old together

08:54

wonderful thank you happy to have you

08:56

here so tell us a little bit about your

08:58

upbringing and maybe share a story of an

09:00

experience

09:01

achievement accomplishment or something

09:03

that someone you know

09:04

had tell us something about you

09:08

well i come from a large family

09:12

[Music]

09:13

including myself five kids my mom and my

09:16

dad

09:16

and um i am part of the

09:20

uh what what is considered the african

09:22

uh diaspora

09:24

um and that is um the

09:27

uh um uh descendants uh

09:31

from the uh african uh descendants that

09:34

were

09:35

moved around um through the slave trade

09:39

uh through their various parts of the

09:41

world um

09:42

my family can be trait backed um our

09:44

slave

09:45

descendants were traced back to west

09:47

africa and so they came to the caribbean

09:50

and um so i uh

09:53

immigrated from the island of jamaica to

09:56

the united states when i was about

09:58

six years old um and we landed

10:02

in brooklyn new york

10:05

it's various challenges growing up

10:11

but quite a few achievements my

10:14

family my parents worked incredibly hard

10:17

to ensure that we had a good life

10:21

it was a bit of a change coming from

10:24

jamaica to new york city but

10:28

and that assimilation process but uh

10:32

their greatest achievement uh for us

10:35

that they were able to see

10:37

uh both my mom and my dad that all of

10:39

their five children went to college and

10:41

graduated with honor

10:43

and so uh for them that was um

10:47

quite an achievement um i think

10:50

they're they were more excited about the

10:54

um the fact that we're all quite

10:56

involved in various causes

10:58

in civil um public service all my

11:01

siblings

11:02

whether it's federal city law

11:05

enforcement

11:05

community we are all working within

11:08

some form of public service so that

11:12

aspect of really starting over and

11:15

being able to um integrate into the

11:18

american fabric that was quite important

11:22

for them and they were quite proud of it

11:25

right that's a great story i'm i'm a

11:27

brooklyn night myself

11:28

so you know i've have a lot of

11:31

experience growing up around caribbean

11:33

people especially

11:34

uh jamaican people trinidadian people

11:36

and

11:37

you know i can tell that there was some

11:40

struggles

11:40

assimilating could you talk about that a

11:43

little bit even though you know

11:45

i'm certain that you honor and know that

11:48

you're obviously a part of the black

11:49

community there is sort of a slight

11:51

difference right

11:52

then what what do you think about that

11:56

i mean uh i guess when we originally

12:00

came

12:01

it was quite um

12:03

[Music]

12:07

you know there was a lot of issues that

12:09

we had

12:10

my siblings and i in school and being

12:12

accepted

12:14

and so my parents particularly

12:18

my mother took a different approach

12:19

which she really

12:21

wanted us to survive and thrive and you

12:24

know as a as a mother

12:26

having seen her children come home each

12:28

day with

12:30

um really just stories of being isolated

12:33

uh

12:34

you know the approach was to really

12:36

scrub a lot of

12:38

those connections mainly linguistically

12:41

just to for us to assimilate easier

12:45

and for me most of my students were able

12:48

to reconnect

12:50

quickly i did not i it has taken me

12:54

quite a while uh to be able to reconnect

12:58

to those roots because i as you know

13:00

when you come in at six

13:02

it's it's all you you know the country

13:04

that you grew up is all you know

13:06

um and so i didn't really

13:09

once you know we we learned quickly how

13:12

to

13:12

um assimilate into the culture

13:16

uh i did not have any issues moving on

13:19

from

13:20

then i mean you know i'm i'm

13:23

black so when you see me you don't

13:25

really think

13:26

what type you just think that's congress

13:29

that's a representation

13:31

of a black american and so um

13:34

aside from the assimilation portion and

13:37

just being able to

13:38

um connect there were so many

13:40

similarities in tradition and food i

13:43

i didn't really have that issue i think

13:45

as an adult

13:46

i had more of an issue in trying to

13:49

reconnect

13:50

to my caribbean roots because i was

13:52

seeing so much

13:54

um from those that part of my my black

13:56

caribbean family is too americanized

13:59

and so that was something that i had to

14:03

learn to do and

14:04

as an adult um and but i've learned to

14:07

do that through

14:08

being involved in organizations within

14:10

my community there's a strong

14:13

african diaspora community within um

14:16

montgomery county where i am in maryland

14:18

and and so

14:20

that has been incredibly helpful in

14:22

reconnecting to those roots

14:24

um and being part of a larger family

14:27

and maybe you could talk some about

14:29

about your traditions or customs that

14:31

you have as part of your family and

14:33

cultural identity

14:35

we we are um

14:39

and i have to really think about this

14:41

because certain things are so

14:43

it's so part of it for the back of your

14:45

brain i

14:46

i we sing at every event we're all

14:49

novice singers musicians writers

14:52

uh some professional singers in my

14:54

family um

14:55

but there is not an event that i can

14:58

think of

14:58

where we don't sing where we don't

15:02

um you know we communicate

15:05

our our emotions if we ever have a

15:07

conversation where it gets very intense

15:10

someone will break out in song and i

15:13

don't

15:13

i don't know where that started from um

15:16

but it's something that we do all the

15:19

time

15:20

it does help that my parents

15:23

have the full spectrum with five uh kids

15:26

we have sopranos uh uh alto which i

15:30

am a tenor and two bass and so we have a

15:34

really good spectrum

15:35

of a choir all on our own um

15:38

so that's a lot of the things that we do

15:41

it's it's cultural songs it's lingual

15:43

spirituals it's

15:44

old hymns it's everything that we sing

15:47

but if there is an emotion

15:48

we sing and then we start the harmony um

15:51

so that's something that's

15:52

really um fun that we do um

15:56

and just how we communicate particularly

15:58

harsh emotions

15:59

when we're going through or to uplift

16:01

each other um

16:02

happy birthdays um voicemails that i get

16:05

from my family

16:06

always end up in a song so

16:09

um yeah that's pretty that's pretty um

16:13

integrated into our interaction with

16:15

each other

16:17

and you know before we move to michelle

16:19

i did want to give you a chance because

16:20

i know that

16:21

you and your family uh have a lot of

16:24

government

16:24

service and what what what types of

16:28

organizations are you

16:29

involved in are you involved in

16:31

organizations outside

16:33

of the government yes um

16:36

so again that is something that we

16:40

we when we move and and that was a

16:42

really lesson from my parents

16:44

when you move into a community you

16:46

become part of what

16:48

enriches it what protects it what makes

16:50

it grow and so

16:51

i've been in part uh in montgomery

16:54

county

16:54

they have various committees um so i'm

16:57

involved in a committee against um

16:59

hate violence uh so i work with the

17:02

community on issues like that

17:04

doing a lot of outreach to

17:07

to the area on those issues i also am a

17:10

part of a group called my sister's

17:12

keeper united and that works with issues

17:16

that women of color deal with in terms

17:20

of health

17:21

access in terms of

17:24

mental health those are some of the

17:26

issues that we work on

17:28

and also involves a lot of things within

17:31

the community in terms

17:32

of um black representation

17:35

so that's something that has continued

17:38

to be a threat in my life

17:40

and connects me my larger black family

17:45

thank you carrie um and i want to remind

17:47

everyone if you have questions

17:48

please feel free to uh put them in the

17:51

chat especially for kerry so that we can

17:53

ask for those questions

17:55

um when we come close to the end

17:57

michelle hi

17:58

um thank you for being here as well

18:01

um i loved reading your story i want you

18:04

to tell us about a little bit about what

18:06

you do

18:07

with the department of commerce

18:10

so good morning well good afternoon at

18:12

this point good morning to some though

18:14

thank you so much for allowing me to

18:16

participate in this

18:18

event today so i am a federal economist

18:22

um with the bureau of economic analysis

18:25

um i have been um a federal employee

18:29

i think i have like 35 years of service

18:31

coming up um

18:33

and 27 of those uh this year will be

18:35

with

18:36

the bureau of economic analysis as an

18:38

economist

18:39

at the agency responsible for producing

18:43

gross domestic product and various other

18:45

economic statistics

18:47

i like to explain what we do to people

18:50

who are unfamiliar

18:51

that if the u.s government were a

18:54

company a private corporation would be

18:56

like their accounting firm

18:57

so we keep track of um

19:01

financial transactions and flows within

19:03

the u.s economy

19:05

and inform our users of

19:08

the health or lack thereof of our

19:11

economy

19:12

um i'm a product of hbcu a proud

19:16

graduate of howard university

19:18

so wrapping up the hbcus and

19:21

have been involved in our diversity

19:24

efforts at bea

19:26

so initially when i first started bea

19:29

had

19:29

a lot of diversity

19:32

initiatives based on ronald brown who

19:35

was secretary of commerce at the time

19:37

so i was involved in those efforts and

19:39

also participated in the department of

19:42

commerce's diversity council that was

19:44

stood up at that time

19:45

and we've kind of come full circle bea

19:48

recently revamped our diversity efforts

19:51

and i serve now as co-chair of our

19:53

diversity and inclusion council

19:55

and i'm very happy to kind of

19:58

come back full circle to the work that i

20:00

began as a young

20:03

economist at bea

20:07

you know i was curious about what

20:09

prompted uh

20:10

the creation of the diversity and

20:12

inclusion

20:13

committees um

20:17

honestly i'm not exactly sure what

20:19

prompted it to come back

20:21

initially when we first um started those

20:23

efforts back in the late 90s it was due

20:26

to a mandate

20:27

from um at the time secretary ron brown

20:31

who um kind of mandated all of the

20:34

agencies and bureaus within department

20:35

of commerce

20:37

uh to uh work on diversity efforts based

20:40

on seven tenets that he put out

20:42

i don't have them all memorized but if

20:44

you go to

20:46

bea.gov or actually you probably can

20:48

google it and find out what those seven

20:50

tenets were

20:51

but i believe just recently there's been

20:53

more conversation

20:54

about diversity and inclusion um efforts

20:58

um

20:58

within the department and i think dea

21:00

just kind of took up the mantle and and

21:02

picked up our efforts once again so our

21:06

recently revamped diversity and

21:07

inclusion council

21:09

was stood up i want to say it was a call

21:11

for volunteers maybe in the fall of 2018

21:15

um so we've gone through a full two-year

21:18

cycle which is the term

21:19

terms of most of our members and it's

21:22

been a great experience

21:23

being able to be involved in this work

21:25

and

21:27

try to make our workplace a more

21:29

inclusive environment for all

21:33

okay do you uh what what drew you to

21:36

federal service

21:39

um honestly it's not it's a funny story

21:43

and i say it often

21:44

but uh i grew up in the washington dc

21:47

area and as you know federal government

21:49

is a major employer

21:50

um for people in the general area and i

21:53

have

21:54

a history of family members who uh have

21:57

been federal employees i had a sister

21:59

who worked for the postal service

22:01

i had two sisters who worked at hhs

22:04

my uncle who raised me um worked for the

22:06

government printing office

22:08

and so my mom used to always say

22:11

girl get you a good government job and

22:14

you can't go wrong with that and i don't

22:16

know if that kind of subconsciously

22:18

stuck with me all of those years

22:20

but when i was in high school i um took

22:23

the civil service test like many of my

22:25

my friends and peers and started out in

22:28

government as a clerk typist because

22:30

back then you know you took typing as a

22:33

class in school

22:34

and so i had speed with it and was able

22:37

to get a job and that's how i actually

22:39

initially

22:40

got my foot in the door of federal

22:42

service for the first time although

22:44

prior to that as a resident of

22:45

washington dc

22:47

um starting at the age of 14 i

22:50

participated in mayor berry's summer

22:51

youth employment program

22:53

and just so fortunately i always had

22:55

office jobs each summer

22:57

so um i don't know i guess it kind of

23:01

just stuck with me

23:02

and i continued in uh government service

23:05

kind of ever since

23:08

okay tell us a little bit about your

23:10

family

23:12

well um my my direct family as a as a

23:16

grown adult

23:16

i'm the mother of four wonderful boys

23:19

even when they drive me crazy

23:22

and part of my um wanting to be a part

23:25

of this

23:26

event today was to share what is kind of

23:29

an unusual story

23:30

um as the life of a hockey mom so

23:34

my son uh my second oldest son

23:37

decided i want to say well okay

23:41

let me talk a little bit he's the most

23:43

naturally athletic out of all of my boys

23:45

so he's the kid that wanted to try

23:47

everything and as a mother of four boys

23:50

you know that's not always financially

23:52

possible

23:53

so luckily we i live in pg county and we

23:56

have a very robust parks and planning

23:58

program

23:59

that offers all types of activities um

24:02

sports related and otherwise so anytime

24:04

he would say oh mommy i want to do this

24:07

we would quickly look at pgparks.com to

24:09

see if they offered a class or a session

24:11

or something

24:12

so he's done everything from flag

24:14

football to playing enter

24:17

mural basketball with our local

24:19

community center

24:20

but then when he said hockey i was just

24:22

like oh lord but

24:24

we're gonna do that and funny story we

24:27

literally

24:28

lived like five to ten minutes from an

24:30

ice rink but because it was never on

24:32

my radar like i didn't grow up ice

24:33

skating not even really roller skating

24:35

for that

24:36

matter um so i never really knew like

24:39

where we would find hockey so it just so

24:41

happens

24:43

again me looking on pgparks.com our

24:45

local ice rink the tucker road ice rink

24:48

located in fort washington maryland

24:50

was having an open house so we went down

24:52

to the open house

24:53

and um he had an opportunity to get on

24:55

some skates at the time i think we had

24:57

ice bumper cars i don't know what you

24:59

call them but they were like little

25:00

bumper cars that you

25:01

on the ice and it was a great experience

25:03

the figure skating team there put on a

25:07

performance and we got to escape for

25:09

free around the ice rink for like an

25:11

hour and it was a great experience

25:13

and as we were leaving i saw a flyer

25:15

that said learn to play hockey and i was

25:17

like boom

25:18

there you go drew there's your hockey so

25:20

we ended up signing up for the class

25:22

i want to say it started maybe in march

25:25

of that year

25:26

and by that fall maybe september or so

25:29

the ice rink decided to put together a

25:32

developmental youth hockey program

25:34

and so that's how we started in hockey

25:37

he's a founding member

25:39

of the tucker road ducks youth ice

25:41

hockey program

25:42

and i'm proud to say he's the sole

25:45

remaining

25:46

founding member that is still with the

25:47

team our rank

25:49

in 2017 suffered a devastating fire

25:53

that shut down our rink but fortunately

25:56

because of the partnership we have with

25:58

our park and planning staff

26:00

and outreach from the community we were

26:02

able to

26:03

keep the team going um using ice time

26:06

from other ranks

26:08

as as needed because obviously our rank

26:11

was unavailable

26:12

but i'm also happy to say that um we

26:15

helped to advocate for the rebuild of

26:17

our ice rink

26:18

and we should be opening in uh summer of

26:21

this year

26:22

so i invite you all to come out and

26:23

check out the new and improved tucker

26:26

road ice rink home of your tucker road

26:28

ducks

26:30

and then my last question for you that's

26:32

really an amazing story

26:33

like you know i i imagine that

26:36

maybe i could be wrong maybe you had a

26:38

lot of tough conversations

26:40

with your kids you know about hockey

26:43

and you know maybe the implications of

26:46

being one of

26:47

you within that sport but then also

26:49

maybe you could also talk to us about

26:51

you know you mentioned

26:53

uh in in some of your writing the

26:55

importance of building communities and

26:57

networks could you

26:58

maybe talk to us about how those fed

27:00

into each other

27:02

well yes i can initially when he started

27:05

playing hockey

27:06

i'm not sure if it was because of the

27:08

location of the rink and the

27:10

community surrounding the rink but the

27:13

majority of

27:14

our players were either of

27:16

african-american descent or mixed race

27:18

and actually our coaching staff at the

27:20

time was also uh

27:22

african-american so we were kind of like

27:24

an anomaly on the ice

27:26

but we didn't necessarily see ourselves

27:28

as that way

27:29

because that's all we kind of knew and

27:32

honestly the program is open to any

27:34

youth so any youth

27:35

in the county from ages 4 to 18

27:38

regardless of ability

27:40

as far as learning how to skate and all

27:41

of that we're invited to be a part of

27:43

our program and it was just

27:45

awesome to be you know for him to find

27:48

this village

27:49

and like being in pg county you know

27:52

most

27:52

youth tend to gravitate to basketball

27:56

and football

27:57

so when he first said hockey i was just

27:59

like jeez because literally i had only

28:01

been to one hockey game in my life and

28:02

had no idea what i was watching most of

28:04

the time

28:05

i mean it was fun but i didn't

28:06

understand much i still don't understand

28:08

much of it to be honest

28:10

but um the fact that he chose to be a

28:13

part of a sport where

28:15

we are sorely underrepresented you know

28:18

as a parent

28:19

particularly of a parent of four black

28:21

young men

28:22

i'm always concerned about how they're

28:24

perceived in the world

28:26

how um they navigate you know some of

28:29

these

28:30

sometimes difficult situations so i was

28:33

a little hesitant and nervous

28:34

but honestly we have had an enormously

28:38

amazing experience being part of the

28:40

hockey community when we had the fire

28:42

so many programs both locally and

28:45

nationally

28:46

reached out to our kids to make sure

28:48

they were okay

28:49

um we've had so much support from the

28:52

washington capitals and monumental

28:54

sports we have partnerships with

28:57

leveling the playing field and so many

28:59

others and i'm remiss to not mention

29:01

them all and i apologize

29:03

but we have had such an amazing

29:05

experience

29:06

and even though i was hesitant and a lot

29:09

of his friends would say

29:10

oh you play hockey kind of like that's a

29:13

white sport

29:14

but little did they know hockey um

29:16

started with

29:17

black people in nova scotia so we

29:20

actually started the sport of hockey

29:21

when you see

29:23

goalies go down into that butterfly

29:24

position down on their knees or you see

29:27

a player hit that slap shot

29:30

that emanated from black players in nova

29:32

scotia in the late 1800s

29:35

the fact that we don't participate at

29:37

that level now

29:38

is unfortunate but the nhl and usa

29:41

hockey and i think canadian hockey as

29:43

well

29:44

are making you know strides towards uh

29:47

their hashtag hockey is for everyone and

29:50

i appreciate the fact that we have

29:52

grassroots teams like the tucker road

29:54

ducks and the

29:55

fort dupont cannons which is the longest

29:58

serving historically

30:00

minority based hockey program that's

30:02

based right out of southeast dc

30:04

at fort dupont ice rink grassroots

30:07

programs like

30:08

that there's hockey in harlem there's a

30:10

hockey program in flint michigan

30:13

um that's trying to expose uh

30:16

minority players to the sport trying to

30:19

minimize the barriers to entry because

30:21

hockey can be very expensive

30:24

um but i'm really proud of the fact that

30:26

you know my son

30:27

and and the kids that play with us on

30:29

the ducks program we change the face of

30:31

hockey every time we step on the ice

30:33

the year that we had the fire we

30:35

actually went to york pennsylvania to

30:37

participate in an in-house rep

30:38

tournament

30:39

with a lot of other teams and we came

30:42

away

30:43

as the winners of that tournament and it

30:45

was an

30:46

amazing experience for our kids to have

30:49

you know knowing that

30:50

they they don't look like all the other

30:52

players but at the end of the day once

30:53

you step on the

30:54

ice it's the hockey that's important no

30:56

one really really cares and we were

30:58

fortunate that we haven't really

31:00

you know encountered personally any type

31:02

of racial slurs or anything but i know

31:05

that it happens and we have friends that

31:06

has happened to

31:08

but we we've really been fortunate that

31:10

we've kind of been isolated from a lot

31:12

of that

31:12

but i appreciate the opportunities and

31:15

the experiences that being a hockey

31:17

family

31:18

um has exposed us to it and i wouldn't

31:20

trade it for nothing so i'm so grateful

31:22

that he actually

31:23

chose this sport and and it became a

31:25

passion for him

31:27

thank you michelle thank you for sharing

31:29

i really appreciate that

31:31

yes it's very eye-opening especially

31:32

about hockey i think there's a lot of

31:34

misperceptions about that

31:36

so thank you for being so eye-opening uh

31:39

cecilia

31:40

thank you very much for joining us as

31:42

well um

31:44

you know if you could tell us about what

31:46

drew you to federal service

31:48

and i understand that you're you're also

31:50

a veteran and

31:51

so maybe you could tackle that as well

31:54

uh but first begin by telling us a

31:55

little bit about what you do for us of

31:58

course

32:00

well i am the director of travel

32:02

management division

32:04

and that's of course part of the osm

32:06

family so i'm so grateful that i've had

32:08

an opportunity

32:09

since uh 2014 to join the dlc family

32:15

and so you were asking go ahead

32:19

what drew you to federal service

32:22

what drew me to federal service was

32:24

first of all i wanted to serve my

32:26

country because my father

32:28

was in the army and so i i started off

32:31

in the army

32:32

and then from there i said okay

32:36

i have to transition now

32:39

i think i want to work for the federal

32:42

government

32:43

and then i started doing my research and

32:45

i found that they had internship

32:47

programs they had various special

32:49

emphasis

32:50

programs and i started looking around

32:53

in those internship programs and so the

32:56

one that piqued my interest the most

32:58

was the department of navy and so once i

33:01

graduated from

33:02

college guess who's out there um

33:05

recruiting it was the department of navy

33:08

and they were interviewing people for

33:10

their internship program

33:12

i didn't remember but i didn't think i

33:14

was gonna get selected because

33:17

it just seemed like the questions were

33:18

so hard but

33:20

in the end um they selected me and i was

33:23

very

33:24

appreciative that they did because it

33:26

helped me

33:27

to realize that the federal government

33:30

because

33:31

well i didn't know that the federal

33:32

government had various programs in the

33:34

first place because my parents worked

33:35

for general motors

33:37

and also xena so everything that i was

33:39

around was dealing with commercial so

33:42

dln actually helped me learn that the

33:44

federal government

33:45

had various options for us

33:49

wonderful um you know tell us a little

33:52

bit about your upbringing

33:55

wow wow that's

33:59

a good question my upbringing i actually

34:02

grew up

34:03

in a neighborhood that started off as a

34:07

multi-racial

34:08

neighborhood but by the time i was 10

34:12

it was an inner city ghetto and so

34:16

i transitioned from being in a

34:19

multicultural

34:21

a neighborhood to an inner city that had

34:23

problems with gangs and violence and

34:25

things of that sort

34:27

and so some of the things that i dealt

34:29

with

34:30

most people didn't or the ones that i've

34:33

talked to have it

34:35

um i actually had to fight to go to

34:39

school

34:40

i didn't just walk to school i had to

34:42

actually

34:43

fight to go to school a physical

34:44

altercation

34:46

in order to get to school and back from

34:49

school

34:52

and you know there's um there's more to

34:54

your story too

34:55

you know if you could share a little bit

34:58

as i understand you are your relative uh

35:01

maybe talk a little bit about your

35:03

relatives

35:05

oh yes um my cousin is immaterial

35:09

my grandmother and his mother uh rather

35:13

great grandmother were actually um

35:16

sisters

35:17

and so one of the things that we often

35:20

heard

35:21

at our family reunions was how emmett

35:24

hill died

35:26

and how our family had to be careful

35:30

with allowing our family members to go

35:33

and save the summer or the holidays

35:36

with other family members so in

35:39

actuality

35:40

in order for us to spend the night with

35:42

the relatives

35:43

you had to earn that trust

35:46

and that respect from that family member

35:49

but so did your neighborhood

35:51

so if your neighborhood was a

35:53

neighborhood that was known

35:54

for gangs of violence or even

35:58

racism or things of that sort our

36:00

families would actually

36:01

take us there so if my cousin wanted me

36:05

to come visit her

36:06

and she would have been in money

36:08

mississippi which i

36:09

wouldn't have been able to go in the

36:10

first place but say that i did my mother

36:13

would have taken me there

36:15

and she would have stayed there with me

36:17

um if

36:19

someone wanted me to visit them in

36:20

toledo or a different place

36:22

my father would have taken me there and

36:25

he would have spent the night

36:27

so as people um

36:30

learned about uh emmett hill

36:33

because the material was on our mother's

36:35

side they understood on our father's

36:37

side it wasn't my mother being funny

36:40

acting it was actually her being

36:42

protective of us

36:43

she was very protective of us because of

36:45

what happened to emmett hill

36:47

because remember when emmett till died

36:49

he had only been

36:50

14 for a month so he was born in july

36:55

but when he

36:56

was lynched that was in august and so he

36:59

had only been

37:00

uh like i said 14 four months so that

37:02

meant that now

37:04

at the family reunions that we have

37:06

which we have those

37:07

every year is usually the second

37:08

saturday and sunday

37:10

of the same month every year

37:13

that's uh that's some of the things

37:14

we'll talk about we'll talk about

37:16

historically how

37:17

um emmett hill died and how his mother

37:20

mamie

37:22

that i need for his casket to be open

37:25

because i need for the public to see

37:26

what was done to my baby

37:28

not just uh a black young man but a

37:32

teenager

37:33

and she wanted everyone to see it and

37:35

that's why in chicago now they have a

37:36

park

37:38

in remembrance of him i love and i mean

37:41

i really love

37:42

how the african-american museum actually

37:44

has a memorial to him

37:46

when i went there it was so emotional

37:49

for me

37:51

until i kept going in and out

37:55

to look at the various things because

37:58

all i could think of was this not only

38:01

as a relative but this was a 14 year

38:04

old young man who encountered

38:07

the very things that my father

38:09

encountered which caused him to join the

38:11

military my father actually had to leave

38:13

mississippi because of the

38:15

hatred and the racism that he was

38:18

dealing with

38:19

and so as we were taught this

38:22

when i went away to college one of the

38:24

things that amazed me was how

38:27

even in chicago they were still known

38:30

for having their problems with

38:33

the various hate crimes so i grew up

38:37

with that

38:38

being something that was always taught

38:40

to me be careful be careful

38:42

but then i had the inner city things

38:43

that i had to be careful for as well

38:48

you know obviously there's a lot to uh

38:50

hack there

38:51

um but you know i also want to uh you

38:54

know

38:55

hopefully you know some of our audience

38:56

members have questions for you

38:58

um but i also want to talk you mentioned

39:01

that you

39:02

served in the military right what was

39:04

that experience uh especially as a black

39:06

woman in service

39:08

and you know during the time that you

39:09

served

39:13

wow that was very interesting i actually

39:16

had a lot of duty assignments i went to

39:19

germany

39:19

korea colorado various different places

39:24

but i still had to deal with um

39:28

what they were calling leadership

39:32

issues that were sometimes a racist for

39:35

instance

39:36

when i went away to the war zone i dealt

39:39

with so much

39:40

racism in this one particular um

39:43

company that i was with that they had to

39:46

move me

39:47

now one of the things that i would like

39:49

to bring up that happened during that

39:51

time was

39:52

my mother called me in the war zone

39:56

people had never heard of that my mother

39:59

found a way because she felt in her

40:01

spirit that there was something wrong

40:03

she didn't know what was wrong but she

40:05

said i'm going to call

40:06

my daughter so i was on the

40:09

walkie-talkie

40:10

like um phone and she was on her phone

40:13

at the house and she was asking me

40:15

what's wrong

40:17

and i told her what was wrong and the

40:20

people that were responsible for

40:22

diversity of things in the military they

40:24

actually

40:25

checked into it and they saw that it was

40:27

genuine what i was dealing with

40:29

and then they moved me to another uh

40:32

company and i didn't have that same

40:34

issue but i can truly say that i did

40:37

deal with that

40:38

as a woman and i did deal with that as a

40:40

black loving

40:41

but what it did was it did not make me

40:45

want to do things

40:46

less it actually provoked me into

40:49

being an overcomer i was like you know

40:52

i'm going to get past this

40:53

i'm going to get past this oh no you're

40:55

not going to stop me

40:56

and i will find ways to

41:00

get motivated to get past whatever that

41:02

struggle was

41:04

or whatever that hinders and i'm still

41:07

that same way

41:09

cecilia thank you so much for sharing

41:11

your story i truly appreciate it

41:14

jacqueline hi um

41:17

very happy to talk to you today and

41:19

maybe you can tell us about yourself and

41:21

what you do

41:23

hi thank you so much derek it's a

41:25

pleasure to be here

41:26

uh today i am a business specialist

41:29

at the national institute of standards

41:31

and technology for a program called the

41:33

baldrige performance

41:35

excellence program and i get the

41:38

esteem opportunity to educate

41:40

organizations

41:41

on performance excellence management

41:44

using the baldrige framework

41:46

a lot of folks associate the

41:49

baldrige program with the malcolm

41:51

baldrige national

41:52

quality award which because we

41:54

administer that

41:56

and it is the highest presidential

41:58

recognition that any us-based

42:00

organization can achieve for

42:02

demonstrating role model practices

42:05

in their organization and any

42:06

organization any sector

42:09

i have been with that program

42:12

and at mist for 22 years so all of my

42:16

federal service has been

42:17

with myths and the baldrige program

42:22

so tell us a little bit about your

42:23

upbringing maybe share something about

42:25

your family

42:27

okay sure for these purposes here

42:31

uh like carrie i come from a family of

42:34

singers

42:35

uh in fact in my family we say you can't

42:37

sing you better be able to sing

42:39

there is a difference gary knows what

42:41

i'm talking about so

42:42

there is a difference you better be able

42:44

to sing and so

42:46

in uh singing in our culture has always

42:50

been

42:50

important um as we know you know singing

42:53

is a tradition

42:54

not just for entertainment it was also

42:57

used as a means of communication

42:59

uh with slaves and also singing provides

43:02

us

43:03

with you know a sustained us or faith

43:06

you know makes you think of a song or

43:08

melody and you just

43:09

you know you're up against the wall and

43:11

it just gives you this reassurance that

43:13

you can just go through anything

43:15

so on slave ships the slaves

43:19

they used to seem to try to identify if

43:21

there were other people from their

43:23

tribes

43:24

on the slave ship so they would sing out

43:26

in their tongue and if they got a

43:28

response back they knew there was

43:29

someone from their tribe that was there

43:31

harriet tubman used song and and singing

43:34

when you know uh having people on the

43:37

underground railroad

43:38

to convey messages so if you got a

43:41

message

43:42

uh you know that you know slow slaves

43:45

you know

43:46

uh what are they called the slave patrol

43:48

and their dogs were coming after you

43:50

you might hear a song um that

43:53

[Music]

43:56

[Applause]

43:56

[Music]

44:04

that meant that they were on your trail

44:06

okay and so head to the water head to

44:07

the river

44:08

so that the dogs could lose their scent

44:11

or

44:11

you could hear a song like swing long

44:14

sweet chariots coming for to carry me

44:18

home

44:20

swing low

44:23

coming forth to carry me home that was a

44:26

message that someone was about to escape

44:29

from the plantation

44:30

so while the slave owners thought that

44:32

we were entertaining them

44:34

or just trying to get through the days

44:36

plowing and working in the fields we

44:38

were actually sending

44:39

messages but as it pertains to my family

44:43

uh the singing started with my maternal

44:45

grandmother and both of my parents thing

44:47

and my grandmother had this

44:48

extraordinary singing voice

44:51

and she would always and she loved to

44:53

sing she's saying every

44:55

waking moment so going to my grandma's

44:57

house you just knew

44:59

you were going to hear her sing and

45:00

after a while you know

45:02

you get used to it you know it's just

45:04

the way things are

45:05

and my grandmother had a saying she said

45:08

she loves singing

45:09

so much that she'd rather sing

45:12

than eat and you know she was i mean she

45:16

was phenomenal

45:17

she was known in southwestern

45:19

pennsylvania

45:20

for her singing and that's where my

45:22

family

45:23

comes from she was invited to sing in

45:25

just about every church in southwestern

45:27

pennsylvania

45:28

and although she was not as famous as

45:30

say her contemporaries

45:32

of mahalia jackson rose thor dela reese

45:36

none of them but in that small area she

45:39

was the mahelia jackson she was the

45:41

delaries

45:42

she was the rosetta force um and people

45:44

would come to

45:45

hear her sing and you know we'd be going

45:47

with her uh

45:48

and people would come to hear her sing

45:50

and she would pack out the church

45:51

i mean just pack them out and it got to

45:54

the point where they had to put her

45:56

on the program's lap because after

45:59

people would hear her sing they would

46:01

leave

46:02

and so it wasn't fair to the other you

46:04

know performers you know that were there

46:07

um and so you know singing was just

46:10

something that's

46:10

always in our family every opportunity

46:13

whether it's a

46:14

family dinner reunion funeral whatever

46:17

it is

46:18

we you're going to hear songs in

46:22

my family my mother staying in the choir

46:24

in my family would say if you can't sing

46:26

there's no way you can be related to us

46:28

so that's what we say and my

46:31

father my mother singing the choir and

46:33

my father

46:34

uh came from the south and so he was

46:38

there's another story behind that um and

46:40

in the south there were quartet singers

46:42

but when he came to pennsylvania

46:44

there were no quartets not that style of

46:46

singing

46:47

and so my father was used to hearing you

46:50

know quartets from

46:51

groups like the dixie hummingbirds and

46:53

the sensational nightingales and

46:56

the five blind boys and so what he did

46:58

is that he formed

46:59

his own quartet and taught the gentleman

47:02

how to sing there's a certain sound

47:05

because quartets

47:06

have a certain sound and his acapella so

47:08

you gotta get that thing right

47:10

okay in order for it to sound right so

47:13

singing is

47:13

huge uh in my family one of the greatest

47:17

um in fact the greatest compliment i

47:19

ever got was when

47:20

a woman heard me sing a song my

47:22

grandmother used to sing

47:24

and she walked up to me afterwards and

47:26

said you know i've never heard that song

47:27

song like that since i was a little girl

47:29

and she went on to talk you know and she

47:31

was describing

47:32

this and i said well the woman you're

47:34

talking about you know

47:36

was my grandmother and she looked at me

47:38

and she paused and she said

47:40

of course you are you know and that was

47:44

the greatest compliment i have ever ever

47:47

received because

47:48

again my grandmother just gave back

47:50

through her singing and it just made

47:52

such a difference in people's lives

47:56

that's such a wonderful story um very

47:59

you know but you also have something

48:00

about your father that

48:02

that you could discuss and i know you

48:04

want to sing a song right as well is

48:06

that true you're going to sing something

48:07

for us or did we just receive those

48:10

songs um not really it's just going to

48:12

be just a line at the end so we're not

48:15

okay no

48:18

but um the story of my father and we're

48:21

talking about

48:22

one of the questions is towers

48:24

challenges as we've asked the other

48:25

panelists

48:26

and uh for my father he grew up at the

48:28

jim crow south in north carolina

48:31

he uh only has a sixth grade education

48:34

uh because he was forced to leave school

48:36

to help his family uh you know sustain

48:39

his family and work in the fields and

48:40

whatnot

48:41

but my father was falsely accused of

48:43

kissing a white woman

48:45

and you know that was a death sentence

48:48

back then

48:48

and so my uh paternal grandmother sent

48:51

him away

48:52

and for you know can't get into all the

48:54

details but he ended up in pennsylvania

48:57

in a place where he didn't know one

48:58

he had very little money and um

49:02

just you know very limited education

49:06

my father took on any

49:09

work that he could find which would be

49:13

whether it was mowing people's lawns or

49:16

you know washing cars whatever because

49:18

he had to survive

49:20

and he learned the skill and indeed

49:22

there is a skill

49:23

walking walls and scrubbing floors and

49:26

what he did

49:28

was he would go to wealthy communities

49:32

and he would do this perform the service

49:34

in their homes

49:35

and my father had a great personality

49:37

and

49:38

you know he did his job exceptionally

49:40

well my father always did whatever he

49:42

did exceptionally well

49:44

and so they would you know tell their

49:45

friends and he would get more work and

49:47

so on and so forth

49:48

well he befriended one of the business

49:51

um owners in the town who

49:54

knew someone who's needed uh stores

49:57

there

49:58

it's like big box stores we call big box

50:00

boards now

50:01

an appliance chain of stores and they

50:03

needed their floors

50:05

um you know maintained and so he asked

50:08

my father you know would he be

50:09

interested my father of course said yes

50:11

he went in he performed his work and he

50:14

did it very well and so

50:16

he got one store then the next door to

50:18

the next door and

50:20

before he knew it over time my father

50:23

was able to contrast for 17

50:26

of these 30 stores and these stores were

50:30

in

50:30

pennsylvania west virginia and ohio

50:33

and you know he's not bad for a man with

50:36

a sixth grade education he built a very

50:38

successful business doing

50:40

this uh and it was something to sustain

50:43

our family

50:44

my mother was also an entrepreneur she

50:47

was a

50:48

beautician a licensed beautician and she

50:50

said do hair as you say

50:52

do hair and uh both of my parents always

50:55

gave back into community that was

50:57

huge and that was something that they

50:58

always instilled in us

51:01

wonderful thank you jacqueline i really

51:03

appreciate your story

51:04

we're running a tad bit behind for my

51:07

fault but

51:10

do you have anything else you want to

51:11

add before you go before we go um

51:13

i just want to say that you know family

51:15

is

51:16

so important particularly now with coded

51:19

and so many of us can't be with our

51:20

families

51:21

and we really learned or nothing else

51:23

how important family

51:24

is um you know to us um you know and

51:28

family can be whatever you want it to be

51:30

like larry said it could be whoever or

51:31

whatever you want it to be whether it's

51:33

biological or not

51:35

but um i am just pleased with my

51:37

particular family to see our traditions

51:39

carry on to our next generation

51:42

and um just so very thankful for the

51:45

gift of song

51:46

that my grandmother gave to all of us

51:49

and to the generations to come

51:51

and wanted to say a line and one of her

51:53

favorite songs that she used to sing

51:55

um is why should i feel discouraged

52:00

why the shadow falls

52:03

should my heart feel lonely

52:06

and long for heaven and home

52:10

and then it was i sing because i'm happy

52:14

i sing because i hurry

52:18

and that's what my family means to me

52:21

thank you

52:22

thank you jacqueline very beautiful

52:25

voice thank you so much

52:27

um laura do we still have time for a

52:30

question or two

52:32

if there's i don't know if there's any

52:33

um before we get the closing remarks

52:37

hi derek this is monique and yes we do

52:40

have like about two minutes

52:42

so i can quickly we have about two

52:44

questions that we're going to ask

52:46

and again because it's so short when i

52:47

ask the question please

52:49

just give us the concise answers in one

52:51

minute or less and we can get them in

52:53

okay so we have one question for

52:56

michelle

52:57

michelle first of all everybody i want

52:59

to tell you great presentations you got

53:01

phenomenal comments in the pan over

53:03

there in the chat so definitely check

53:05

your chat

53:06

great presentation people keep saying

53:07

that left and right we're very fortunate

53:09

to have this diversity and the stories

53:11

and the respected experiences

53:13

representing the department so again

53:16

thank you so much so one of the

53:17

questions

53:18

um was for michelle and then and the

53:21

person said

53:22

did your son or his team face any type

53:24

of mistreatment

53:26

with hockey being uh being that they

53:28

have uh majority

53:30

uh a minority players of color how do

53:33

you

53:33

how did you get over the fear you have

53:36

for your son so basically two part

53:37

questions

53:38

um two different questions so that's for

53:40

michelle

53:42

got you um fortunately um the ducks

53:45

program

53:46

in and of itself we've never really

53:48

encountered

53:49

uh much talk about that type of stuff we

53:53

haven't really had racial slurs uh

53:56

hurled at us fortunately and that was

53:59

always a concern and actually when we

54:01

went to york pennsylvania

54:02

our coaching team um kind of gave us the

54:05

warning you may experience some of these

54:07

things as we didn't really experience

54:09

them here

54:10

but we do have friends who play with

54:12

other teams who have

54:14

you know encountered that type of

54:15

treatment um

54:17

and it's unfortunate that in in this day

54:19

and time there's still people who feel

54:21

they're the gatekeepers to where black

54:23

people should

54:24

and should not be but um we've we've

54:27

fortunately encountered so many positive

54:30

experiences

54:31

from all walks of life as i said hockey

54:34

is a very expensive sport

54:36

so most people who most people who play

54:39

hockey have a little bit of money y'all

54:40

know i'm a government employee so we

54:42

don't have a whole lot of money

54:43

so i've been grateful to be a part of a

54:45

program where

54:46

you know to make the support the sport

54:48

accessible to those who may not be able

54:50

to afford it

54:52

and i'll tell you two quick stories one

54:53

of the great things that has happened to

54:55

our program now i wouldn't wish a fire

54:57

on anyone

54:58

but one of the great things that

54:59

happened as a result of the fire

55:02

is um we got connected with the nhl

55:04

players association through

55:06

uh now retired capital brooks orpik who

55:09

i call friend of the ducks

55:11

so i'm the facebook administrator for

55:12

the ducks page and he

55:14

uh liked something or commented on

55:17

something i was like that can't be the

55:18

real books or pic

55:19

surely someone's trolling and i reached

55:22

out and said thank you and then he

55:24

responded i reached out in the in the

55:26

instant message or the dms as the kids

55:28

say

55:28

and i was like you know thank you so

55:30

much for thinking of my program i can't

55:31

wait to tell the kids that you know the

55:33

capitals

55:34

have them on their radar and he reached

55:37

back and was trying to figure out ways

55:38

that he could help

55:39

you know our program so he connected us

55:41

with the nhl players association

55:44

and we applied for a grant under their

55:45

goals and dreams program

55:47

and received um 25 full sets of

55:50

equipment

55:51

that we are using as a loaner program to

55:54

help eliminate the barriers so that

55:56

people

55:57

who may not be able to afford the

55:58

equipment their their kids can still

56:00

learn how to play

56:01

and then the best i want to say of all

56:03

time hockey moment that i've ever had in

56:06

addition to that

56:07

and winning that um trophy at that

56:09

tournament was

56:10

drew and i and some of our other ducks

56:12

family

56:14

were invited by capital's youth hockey

56:16

pro development program

56:18

to attend a private screening of a

56:20

documentary called willie

56:22

which follows um the first black nhl

56:25

player willie o'ree

56:26

in his run up to uh being inducted into

56:29

the hockey hall

56:30

of fame and it followed following the

56:33

screening of the film

56:35

there was a panel discussion and willie

56:36

o'reilly himself was there so

56:39

we actually had a chance to meet willie

56:41

to thank him

56:42

you know it's not often you get to thank

56:44

the people upon whose shoulders you

56:46

stand

56:47

so to have that moment with myself i'm

56:48

getting emotional just thinking about it

56:50

but to have that moment with my son

56:52

to be able to thank someone who's opened

56:54

the doors

56:55

for so many players of color and the

56:57

fact that at 85 years old he is still

57:00

involved as a nhl diversity ambassador

57:03

and making the program accessible to

57:06

other

57:07

children of color and normalizing our

57:10

our

57:10

presence in the sport has just been

57:13

amazing and drew's had the opportunity

57:15

to be

57:15

a hockey coach he'll be going this

57:17

summer to work with sports international

57:19

hockey academy

57:21

all across the northeast so he'll be

57:23

going to pennsylvania um

57:27

new hampshire upstate new york as a

57:30

hockey coach for

57:31

summer camp sessions and so he's

57:33

normalizing his

57:34

appearance you know normalizing the fact

57:36

that you know we're there it helps

57:38

people of color but it also helps

57:40

people that are not of color to realize

57:43

that

57:44

you know it's normal for a player of

57:46

color to be there so i'm so appreciative

57:48

of the experience and been fortunate

57:49

that we haven't had any problems

57:51

thankfully oh thank you so much and we

57:55

and we hate to have to cut you short

57:56

you guys have told such wonderful

57:58

stories and unfortunately because of the

58:00

time and we have to give

58:02

make sure we have time for uh for our

58:05

acting debt sect to be able to um speak

58:07

we

58:08

we're gonna have to cut this short and

58:10

we we really would love to have another

58:12

hour i think we could take another hour

58:13

and hear so much more

58:15

you guys have been so awesome but look i

58:18

guarantee you will be getting email

58:20

messages again we've gotten so many

58:22

comments um in the chat people are just

58:25

really appreciative of your story

58:27

cecilia

58:28

they wanted to tell you thank you um

58:30

they're surprised

58:31

uh that a member of emmett till's family

58:34

is on his panel

58:35

they're happy to learn about the museum

58:37

the space dedicated to emmett till

58:40

um and so there are others who have had

58:42

similar experiences someone

58:44

mentioned that they their son was killed

58:46

in a car accident

58:47

he was only 16 so they know the

58:49

heartbreak of your family

58:51

and they wanted to know about you know

58:53

how you deal with the emotional trauma

58:54

but again because of the time we're

58:56

going to have to cut it short but again

58:58

please feel free to reach out to the

59:00

panelists this is just a small

59:02

representation of our department

59:04

reach out to them individually hear

59:06

their stories talk to us i'm sure

59:07

they'll be glad to share with you these

59:09

amazing

59:10

amazing stories so i'm going to without

59:12

further ado

59:13

turn this over to our acting depth set

59:17

miss wynn coggins and

59:20

uh with when are you on the line i am

59:23

can you hear me

59:24

i sure can thank you so much for being

59:27

here this afternoon

59:28

and i'm going to turn this over to you

59:30

for closing remarks thank you well

59:32

well thank you very much and i want to

59:34

personally thank the panelists

59:35

jacqueline deschamps cecilia kaiser

59:37

michelle robinson carrie ann turner and

59:39

moderator derek small

59:41

just for your amazing amazing

59:43

participation in today's events and for

59:45

sharing your personal and inspirational

59:47

stories with us today it was incredible

59:48

and listening to you saying it was just

59:50

it was amazing it just uh it just it

59:54

it was incredible to hear you um all of

59:57

you on the panel today provided

59:59

us with such important and thoughtful

60:00

opportunity to really explore

60:03

and reflect on the many meanings of the

60:04

world family you know through your

60:06

perspectives your experiences

60:08

and the histories of your families and i

60:10

just i can't thank you enough for

60:12

trusting us with your stories

60:14

i also want to thank the department

60:15

supervisors and bureau leadership for

60:17

supporting this event and for

60:18

encouraging all of your employees to

60:20

participate

60:21

and a very special thank you to each one

60:24

of you in the audience today

60:26

for taking time out of your busy this

60:28

very busy schedule

60:29

to be here with us and for supporting

60:31

your colleagues in recognition of

60:32

african-american history law

60:34

and lastly this event could not have

60:36

been made possible

60:37

without the vision and dedication of the

60:39

office of civil rights acting director

60:41

jerry beat

60:42

and without all the amazing hard work

60:44

and creativity creativity from the

60:45

entire office of civil rights i want to

60:47

thank you all personally i i so

60:49

appreciate all the

60:50

all the efforts time and dedication that

60:52

went into this event today

60:54

and just know that the department of

60:55

commerce is dedicated to creating a

60:58

welcoming inclusive and engaged work

60:59

environment where everyone feels valued

61:01

and plays a critical and important role

61:03

and it's events like today that

61:04

really that really expand on that and

61:07

and really bring that home

61:09

and today's event was really designed to

61:10

promote these values by educating and

61:12

raising awareness of the achievements

61:14

the sacrifices and the challenges of our

61:16

african-american colleagues

61:18

jerry asked me to mention that next

61:19

month the department will celebrate and

61:21

reflect upon the remarkable role of

61:22

women in our nation's history during

61:24

national women's history month

61:26

and that that theme for the department

61:28

uh for 2021 is 100 years later women

61:31

shattering the glass ceilings which i

61:32

think you know we heard a little bit

61:33

about that today as well

61:35

and this theme was chosen to highlight

61:36

and honor those who fought for the

61:38

woman's right to vote and to spotlight

61:40

those who today embrace and embody those

61:42

principles

61:42

blazing a path and breaking down

61:44

barriers for others coming behind them i

61:45

hope you can join us again

61:47

thank you everyone for for the

61:49

incredible panel today

61:50

and this event has just been so

61:52

impactful and i i can't i can't

61:54

tell you how much i appreciate it thank

61:56

you all back to you

61:59

well thank you so much lynn and thank

62:02

you

62:02

again everyone for your participation

62:04

and for staying with us even a couple of

62:06

minutes over i know you could have

62:07

stayed all day and listened to these

62:08

stories but

62:09

again we want to wrap this up and and

62:11

thank you so much and this will

62:13

end our webex thank you and have a great

62:16

rest of your

62:19

and this day today's conference thank

62:21

you for participating you may disconnect

62:22

at this time

62:23

speakers please stand by

64:20

you

Office of
Civil Rights

February 17, 2021

Explore

Know Your Rights

Get in Touch

Breadcrumb

February 17, 2021