0:02

for progress and how we can support black resilience on a journey to

0:08

equality we are so privileged to be fought in the coming hour by a noted

0:15

oral historian and educator Zahir Ali so in the chat I'm going to post a bio

0:21

highlighting teach our leads absolutely impressive credentials but I have to

0:27

call out two of them one is founding the Hutchins Institute for social justice at

0:33

Lawrenceville New Jersey's famed high school but also speaking as a

0:39

brooklynite the absolutely amazing Muslims in Brooklyn art and history

0:45

project that you did for the Brooklyn Historical Society so Mr Ali educator Ali is then going to

0:53

be joined in a discussion with our own resident expert in diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility Janiece

1:00

Aurora who is our department of commerce's Chief diversity officer so

1:06

like all of you I am here to learn from the two of them and with that I'll turn

1:12

it back over to you Amina

1:19

thank you so much thank you for those insightful remarks

1:25

um now I would like to take a moment to introduce our guest speaker

1:31

um before I I do that I wanted to take a moment to just say when we were planning

1:36

for this event and the theme was brought to our attention about

1:41

um black Brazilian and the um journey to equality I immediately thought about

1:47

that here and I was just like sayless I have the perfect speaker in mind so it

1:53

said I just wanted to give a brief introduction and um about our speaker today Zahir Ali is

2:00

an educator and oral historian with more than a decade of experience directing nationally recognized public history and

2:06

cultural heritage initiatives he is currently the inaugural executive director of the Hutchins Institute for

2:12

social justice at the Lawrenceville school as we mentioned which is an Innovative Secondary School initiative

2:17

supporting social justice teaching and practice through scholarship programming and experiential learning

2:24

in um 2020 he was senior fellow of the pillar spine Muslim narrative change

2:30

um cohort and a recipient of the open Society foundations for us equality Fellowship for his work on leveraging

2:36

the power of Storytelling and listening for social change formally he was the project manager of Columbia University's

2:43

Malcolm X tragic and his oral historic interviews informed the late Manning

2:48

Miracles Pulitzer prize-winning biography Malcolm X a life of reinvention

2:54

he serves on the National Council of the oral historic history Association the principal membership Organization for

3:00

oral history practitioners on the Advent 534 distinct a journal of film in visual

3:05

culture focused on black brown and Indigenous communities and on The Advisory board at the University of Georgia's history in the headline series

3:16

um he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Africa Afro-American studies from Harvard

3:21

University and master of arts in master of philosophy degrees in history from Columbia University there's more to read

3:28

in the chat and on his bio but without further Ado I introduce to you our guest speaker today Mr zair Ali

3:35

thank you so much Amina and thank you so much under secretary Largo for your

3:41

um welcome and introduction thank you to the members of bemold and the organizers

3:46

of this event I'm looking forward to our um conversation

3:52

um titled King's letter from Birmingham Jail let us be co-workers for Progress

3:57

before we start so this is going to be a little interactive and as a little

4:02

warm-up activity I wanted you all to engage in some polling so there are

4:08

various ways for you to do this to so we're going to do like a word cloud um for you to type in where you're

4:15

viewing from you can either to log on to the polling feature because there'll be several questions throughout this

4:20

presentation you can text my names I hear Ali to the number

4:26

37607 or you can go to your computer uh if you're on uh or on your browser at

4:33

pullev.com forward slash as I hear I Lee um and I'll bring that back to you or

4:39

you can use this QR code and so I'm going to leave the QR code up for a few seconds for those of you who can use

4:47

that with your phone of course direct your your phone's camera to the QR code which will automatically pull up the

4:54

link to the website where you can begin participating in the series of polls um

5:01

that will be part of this interactive uh presentation um so I'm gonna give you like another

5:07

few seconds and I'll go back to the poll and we'll see what um people's responses will be this is just sort of a warm-up

5:14

activity to make sure that people oh here we go y'all are y'all are doing it okay

5:20

um again if you didn't get the QR code you can access through um your browser or by texting

5:27

um and uh we're looking at like about 41 results so far let's see how far we can

5:33

go for uh another few seconds and then we'll we'll Dive Right into our

5:39

um conversation Washington is very well represented

5:46

um Silver Spring Maryland the DMV so I grew up in the DMV area so it's good to

5:52

see folks from the DMV um I saw Minneapolis I'm a huge Prince fan so always happy to see Minneapolis

6:00

represented um Alaska okay

6:05

um so this is great I'm so happy to be able to speak speak to all of you

6:11

um in all of your locations and I look forward to this conversation all right

6:19

so it looks like folks got the hang of it with the polling feature so now we're

6:24

going to move on to the next um slide which is letting you know what

6:30

the agenda is for this presentation I will provide a little bit of a historical context for King's letter

6:38

from Birmingham Jail we'll explore some of the main ideas and things teams found

6:43

in that letter which introduces a dialectical definition for co-workers for progress and also pose some

6:51

questions so let's start with this first one now

6:56

that you all have the hang of the polling who was Martin Luther King Jr what word comes to mind when you think

7:04

of Martin Luther King Jr and for the people just in case you need that QR code again here's the QR code I'll have

7:12

it up for a few seconds

7:18

all right let's see what you all are coming up with let's see leader Champion

7:24

Justice revolutionary Visionary Pioneer

7:31

um okay all right we're at like 50 60 results let's see how far we can get

7:38

disruptive okay courage Peacemaker powerful

7:44

a visionary freedom

7:50

Advocate activist Pioneer pastor all right let's get a few more in

8:00

spiration okay I love the interaction I love that

8:06

people are engaging that you're responding part of this call and

8:11

response tradition is hard when you're doing a virtual presentation for us to

8:17

not be in the same room that you can like hear and feel the audience so this

8:22

is the next best thing okay

8:28

um so these are great uh I'm gonna move on to the next slide but hopefully

8:33

you'll keep thinking about words that you would add on uh to this question of

8:39

like what word comes to mind one of the words that

8:45

um no one said was pool shark so this is one of my favorite pictures of Dr King

8:52

because I think so many of us have a very um limited dimensional view of him as an

9:00

icon as a leader and we often think of him in the context of a demonstration of

9:05

a protest of a speech and sometimes when we do that we make these leaders

9:12

somewhat superhuman and in doing that we sort of expect them to do all of the

9:18

work for us um and you know like they have it handled the other thing that I like

9:24

about this is that this reminds us that Dr King practiced joy as part of his

9:31

freedom work and so thinking about your theme of black resilience so often when

9:39

we think of black history we think of struggle and certainly struggle is part of it it but when we think of struggle

9:44

we should think of the joy and the community and the creativity and the

9:49

love that is very much part of the community building work that's needed

9:55

for um this this structure the structural engagement

10:01

um maybe some people said scholar uh this these are my two other favorites pictures of Dr King

10:07

um showing him as a a student as someone who is working with ideas who is a

10:15

philosopher we know him as an accomplished order and writer um but he is someone who thought deeply

10:22

about the ideas that informed the work that he did and those ideas show up in

10:28

the letter from Birmingham Jail another word is we could say a messy

10:34

um his desk definitely looks like mine when I'm in the midst of working on something and probably many of you as

10:40

well another thing that I think people sometimes don't think about is unpopular

10:47

uh because of time I think we have come to understand King's work and come to

10:53

appreciate his work but it's important to remember that contemporary to him

10:58

during his time he was not always um popularly received in fact in May

11:06

1963 just a month after he penned a letter from Birmingham Jail

11:11

um his favorable ratings were just slightly higher than his unfavorable ratings and so this is really important

11:18

for us to keep mindful of that you know

11:24

our reimagination of king and the Civil Rights Movement is sometimes where we

11:30

think it was something and he was someone who was embraced by all at the time but that was not always the case

11:36

and that brings us to the history that we're going to explore which is the

11:41

Birmingham campaign in 1963. uh in April on April 3rd

11:48

um organizers launched a desegregation campaign that included Mass meetings

11:53

direct actions Lunch Counter sit-ins marches and boycotts and the

12:00

um they were targeting the discriminate discriminatory practices by businesses

12:06

in downtown Birmingham uh and two days prior Alabama courts had issued an

12:11

injunction against the protests um on April 12th Good Friday King was

12:17

arrested and at the time members of at the day the day of his arrest members of

12:23

the white members of some of the clergy and Alabama issued a statement called a

12:30

call for Unity where in the local paper they said they were strongly urging our

12:36

own negro Community to withdraw support from these demonstrations while King

12:41

read these comments he began jotting down his response on the margins of the

12:48

newspaper and his aides as they visited him smuggled in paper so he could finish

12:54

his thoughts that would become the letter from Birmingham Jail the New York

12:59

Times declined to publish it and the Atlanta monthly did um I'm sorry the Atlantic Monthly did

13:05

publish it in August of that year under the title de negro is your brother

13:12

um and this of course August 1963 is the same month as the now historic March on

13:18

Washington the title from my talk comes from a passage in the letter where King says

13:25

human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability it comes through

13:31

the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God and without this

13:36

hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation so King

13:42

understood that this is not something we could just sit back and expect to happen it is not inevitable it requires

13:49

co-workers for Progress um you'll see that my presentation is

13:55

both textual and visual um it is designed to bring King's

14:01

um ideas into conversation with images from the demonstrations that we've seen

14:08

in the last few years primarily around

14:13

um police uh killings of of black men and women

14:19

um and so it is designed to see how King speaks to

14:24

um our moment but it's also understanding that King's letter was in response to a statement by the clergy

14:32

the clergy statement was 442 words um King's letter was 7 000 words and so

14:40

even with that balance or imbalance um King spoke very

14:47

um thoroughly uh to the issues that the clergy raised and so we were going to

14:53

explore some of the statements of the clergy and we'll explore what King's response was the clergy and setting up

14:59

this dialectic and in the backdrop you'll see images of

15:05

um recent protests so we're going to go back to the polling the first question

15:10

is what defines our vision of Justice and this is forcing a binary I know

15:18

people want to say both but I want you to if you were forced to choose one

15:23

which one would you choose what defines our vision of justice and our can be

15:29

your personally our society or how whoever you want to conceive our to be

15:35

what defines our vision of Justice

15:42

so I'm going to give a few more seconds thank you for those who are responding I love the interactivity

15:50

um and it looks like a good body a good distribution of answers are coming through

16:01

I'll give a few more seconds

16:07

okay so let's let's see what the clergy thought of this question in their

16:13

statement king um in their statement to King the clergy

16:19

said we expressed understanding that on his convictions and racial matters could be properly pursued in the court so they

16:25

they landed on the legal uh codes King's response was one has the

16:33

moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws of course he is powerfully drawing

16:40

on the notion of inalienable rights and the social contract outlined in the

16:46

Declaration of Independence he frames a reminder that laws are not the source

16:53

but the codification of a shared moral commitment to Justice and so

17:00

um he wanted to say that by confining our scope of our vision for justice

17:05

exclusively to questions of legality as as his um as the clergy did we were missing a

17:12

whole range of ways that racial Injustice plays out in extra legal practices through policies through

17:20

culture through customs through standards and through norms and so this

17:25

is the first dialectical framework that King introduces to us in his letter and

17:31

that is over the scope of Vision on the one end legal code on the other end

17:36

moral imagination and this um now brings us to the second so we got

17:44

a second question for you um our work advances Justice on an

17:50

individual or a systemic level

18:09

I'm going to say we get to like 60 or 70 before we move on

18:19

okay here's what the clergy said we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations

18:26

by some of our negro citizens directed and led in part by Outsiders so this was

18:33

a very common charge made against civil rights organizers that during King's

18:38

time and during our time that these protests originate out of the work of

18:44

outside agitators they sought to undermine the legitimacy and representativeness of the demonstrations

18:51

that were happening in Birmingham and they emphasized that the protests were

18:57

directed and led in part by Outsiders this atomization of the social justice

19:04

movement that seeks to disconnect it from people throughout different locations and communities obscures

19:12

patterns of Injustice that revealed a deep systemic and structural causes of

19:18

these inequities and so King in one of his most famous passages says Injustice

19:25

anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere we are caught in an escapable

19:31

network of mutuality tied in a single garment King response says he's like I

19:38

am going to be whoever Injustice is and this is true today whether in Birmingham

19:44

or Minneapolis Georgia or Kentucky or Memphis in 1963

19:51

or 2020 or 2021 a thing that social sociologists call linked fate binds us

19:58

in our communities together prompting us to seek Justice on a scale that is

20:04

broader and deeper than any one individual so this is the second dialectic of individual versus systemic

20:12

those of us who want to be co-workers or progress thinking about where we locate

20:18

and focus our energy all right next one discomfort should be avoided or engaged

20:36

no oh I like that no one's staying avoided but I wonder if I said in practice how much

20:44

of us actually do engage discomfort versus avoid it can we get can we get some votes to like thank you I see I see

20:52

a little movement in the avoided yes some of us even though we want to engage

20:57

discomfort sometimes we know out of practical considerations we might need

21:04

to avoid it so it's okay it's okay these are these are provocations right these

21:10

are not accusations or judgment this is just getting us to think um and so of course the clergy

21:18

um wanted to avoid discomfort right they were saying we have we further strongly urge our own negro Community to withdraw

21:25

support from these demonstrations when rights are consistently denied a cause

21:31

should be pressed in the courts and negotiations among local leaders and not in the streets we appeal to both our

21:38

white and negro citizenry to observe the principles of Law and Order and common

21:44

sense so Law and Order and Common Sense and King

21:50

his response um was I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the negro's

21:57

great stumbling block in this stride in his stride toward freedom is not the

22:03

White Citizens counselor or the Ku Klux klanner but the white moderate who was

22:08

more devoted to order than to Justice who prefers a negative peace which is

22:14

the absence of tension to a positive piece which is the presence of justice

22:20

so what king is doing here he is saying that it is

22:26

um Justice that should be the measure of whether peace a real peace has been

22:33

achieved right in that order like if you go by order if you Define peace in terms

22:39

of order then you look at if something is orderly or disruptive if it's orderly

22:44

it's peaceful if it's disruptive it's not peaceful but if you define a piece

22:50

according to the presence of Justice then you have a very different measure and so that is the next

22:59

um dialectic that we've had we've had scope a vision we've had scale

23:06

of concern and now we have tactics our tactics orderly or disruptive

23:14

and now we have our final question the pace of change should be gradual or

23:21

immediate and I know that we would like to say both but I'm forcing you to choose one

23:27

again to provoke conversation around these dialectics which admittedly are on

23:35

a spectrum that we are not fixed on but move from side to side

23:45

so we got we got a lot of gradual and it got some immediate okay so we're at 70 so we're going to move to

23:53

um what the clergy said we recognize the natural impatience of people who feel

23:59

that their hopes are slow in being realized but we are convinced that these

24:04

demonstrations are unwise And Timely and King said

24:11

frankly we have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was well

24:18

timed in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation for years now I have heard

24:26

the word wait it rings in the ear of every negro with piercing familiarity

24:33

this weight has always has almost always meant never so this is the you know this

24:41

is the one that like people are like I'm down with moral imagination I'm down

24:47

with systemic change I'm even down with some disruption but

24:53

immediate change is a little difficult to imagine and so

24:59

um you know it's okay right like it really is okay

25:05

um because this again is a provocation and I think but it's important for us to

25:11

be true to when we're talking about king um and the clergy that the clergies

25:18

end of the spectrum was a focus on the legal code a focus on individual solutions that are

25:28

achieved through orderly means and that are gradual that reflect gradual change

25:34

King grounded his work in the moral imagination that was beyond what had

25:41

been legally codified focused on systemic change that meant

25:47

that it it involved and encompassed everyone and that it was something that

25:52

everyone had to be involved in change that could be disruptive of course his most

25:59

um strongest commitment as a tactician was to Civil Disobedience non-violent

26:04

Civil Disobedience and then finally uh you know immediate that there needed to

26:10

be some signs of the media change and so this is the dialectic and that is

26:18

introduced in um King's letter and this dialectic I

26:23

think is a good framework for us to think about like and again it isn't a

26:28

judgment it's like we should always be on our toes when we are advancing Solutions as co-workers for Progress

26:34

where are solutions on this this spectrum where are they floating on the Spectrum and so here's some questions

26:42

that we might want to consider as co-workers for progress what is the scope of our vision for

26:49

justice what is the scale of our approach how aligned with our existing systems is our

26:57

work and what is our timeline for change so as we read King's words and reflect

27:04

on our vision of Justice our own networks of mutuality how we sit and

27:10

engage discomfort how we sit with and engage discomfort and our sense of

27:16

urgency for what is needed let us think about how we might be co-workers for

27:21

Progress for something that is bigger than ourselves and our current moment thank you for your engagement thank you

27:29

for your attention and I look forward to the conversations that we can have in

27:35

the remaining time and the conversations I hope that you continue to have as you

27:41

engage in the work of being co-workers for progress

27:51

wow wow thank you Zaire for that very insightful and informative presentation

27:58

I know we're going to have plenty of questions in the chat and we will get to

28:03

all of that um unless we were taking a moment now

28:08

Monique I believe I'm just going to um go straight into introducing into

28:14

this conversation someone who has responsibility for helping the Department of Commerce become a

28:19

co-worker for Progress Mr junish Aurora Jewish is the Department's Chief diversity equity and inclusion officer

28:26

in that capacity he promotes deia in the Department's externally focused Mission

28:32

area of Service delivery including supporting Outreach to historically underserved communities he is also

28:40

responsible for developing and implementing an internal deia strategy to fully integrate and sustain the eia

28:47

into the agency's workforce Mr Aurora received his VA in English from Dartmouth College his inmate in English

28:54

from the University of Virginia and his JD from the school of law at the University of Texas at Austin

29:00

he is a member of the District of Columbia bar he was also honorably

29:05

discharged from the U.S Army Reserves he is married and has two raven-haired angels his full bio is also posted in

29:12

the chat junish take it away thank you Amina I want to thank you and

29:18

the ITA diac and be bold um and ocr's Monique to smux um for

29:24

inviting me and providing me with the opportunity uh to offer people remarks and of course under secretary Lago for

29:30

her opening uh to this uh session um and of course I want to thank uh

29:35

Zahir Ali for those uh inspiring insightful observations and connections

29:40

to Dr King's letter to Birmingham and being a co-worker for human progress a

29:46

wonderful term of art that is both aspirational and attainable

29:51

um I I think uh since I hear you did a masterful uh dissection of um Dr King's

29:58

lettering for burning Hammond and made uh all of us think about it uh in in different ways by offering this

30:03

dialectic approach because here at the Department of Commerce we are aware all co-workers and

30:10

we all want professional progress it makes me think why can't we leverage those relationships in that trajectory

30:16

that seeks to elevate I think um when learning about Dr King's letter to Birmingham I was most struck by his

30:24

belief that all communities were interrelated as Dr King wrote and um and in Zahir uh

30:31

also uh mentioned this in his presentation uh Dr King wrote quote we are caught in an inescapable network of

30:38

mutuality tie in a single Garment of Destiny I mean what beautiful oratory

30:44

um he continues whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly

30:49

and in the workplace all employees are interrelated networked in mutual

30:55

dependence aligned to a single Mission purpose uh a linked fate as Dr King

31:00

would say this is reflected uh partly in the Department of Commerce diversity

31:05

Equity inclusion and accessibility strategic plan fiscal year 22-24 so we

31:11

have our timeline uh for for uh our pace of change particularly in goal area

31:17

three which is to create a and promote an organizational culture that is

31:22

inclusive and supports a sense of belonging this area of inclusion focuses on

31:28

retention career advancement including professional development and promotion

31:33

diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility training and Workforce culture

31:39

some of the specific objectives in this area include enhancing employee retention

31:44

enhancing career advancement Career Development enhancing and promoting Dei

31:50

training monitoring the health of the Department's work environment

31:55

lastly the doc deia strategic plan has a framework to promote safe and inclusive

32:01

workplaces and address workplace harassment to ensure that we have respectful workplaces and create a

32:08

culture that doesn't tolerate workplace harassment and discrimination

32:15

so is it here I I was just really uh so

32:22

impressed uh by your uh your your presentation initially you uh you know

32:27

showed us some some pictures of Dr King and you talked about how we often think

32:33

about him as as superhuman and sometimes when we have leaders like that we assume

32:39

that they will do the work and we don't think about our own accountability and the own work that we might do could you

32:45

elaborate on that a little bit oh I think you're muted inside here

32:51

can can you all hearers are here okay yes okay there we go okay yes can you

32:57

escape the question yeah um you mentioned um initially uh that we

33:02

often think of Dr King and and other leaders as being superhuman and we assume they'll do this work for social

33:09

justice social progress and we don't think of our own role um and the own work that we might do um

33:15

our own accountability could you talk about that a little bit more sure um and you know this is the this is

33:22

the challenge with um you know uh some people call it exemplarity when you have people who we

33:28

see as examples um they you know it's like people who we see as exemplary right

33:36

um in the work that they've done and certainly Martin King was exemplary but then we we moved to this point where we

33:42

moved from exemplary to exceptional right and when we make people exceptional then we kind of take them

33:49

out of our out of our sense of part of who we are and what we can do and so

33:54

it's really important um because you know we think of ourselves most of us as Ordinary People

34:00

and we because we know how we move in the world and if we only encounter

34:05

people like King and others in the extraordinary moments of their lives

34:12

um then we don't understand how we are also um connected to them and so showing them

34:18

in these sort of ordinary settings is important and why that's important is because you know this is this is work

34:24

that we have to do right like you know the the passage that introduces the idea

34:30

of co-worker right he I like co-worker better than you know some people say Ally right like or they like co-workers

34:38

like you you have to be with me doing the work right

34:43

um because this is not inevitable there is nothing you know like some people say the Ark of the universe bends towards

34:50

Justice it bends because people bend it right and so that I think is the

34:55

important lesson to to when we talk about king um talk about him as a co-worker not as

35:02

this you know a leader he was that right um but as a co-worker because when we

35:08

think of him as a co-worker we are implicating ourselves in the work that he uh is doing or that we all want to do

35:15

yeah and I think that also ties into that other quote that you presented um from from Dr King that it the the the

35:22

progress isn't on the the wheels of of inevitability that

35:28

um time isn't necessarily you know our our Ally that time can be this Ally of Social stagnutation and that it's it's

35:35

really work it's it's grit uh to get to a future that we want uh as as you were

35:41

you're sharing you know we might think that there's this teleological Arc of progress

35:47

um and that history will will you know write itself but history is is made by

35:53

by us as these co-workers of progress you know think about like the people you

36:00

know so the March on Washington about 250 000 people attended the March and watch it was a huge demonstration that

36:05

says 250 000 people right like not everybody some people were just doing whatever they were doing and

36:12

imagine the challenge of having to enlist people to join you in a struggle

36:19

in that moment right where people are like nah you got this like King you have

36:24

this and we are in a moment now where not only are we

36:30

we'll we're we might be looking at contemporary figures to say like they have it we're we're relying on History

36:36

we're not even relying on living human beings to do the work we want the

36:42

history to do the work for us right so that we think by just remembering the past we have done the work right and

36:50

that history is not the ceiling it's the floor it's the foundation right so it's

36:55

we have to remember the history but we we cannot expect the history alone or

37:01

even the memory of the past alone to move us forward and I think that is you

37:06

know as a historian as someone who's like a student of History um you know like that's really important

37:13

for us to understand like we these figure and you know like a lot of times I give a presentation on Martin King or

37:19

Malcolm X people like so what would Martin think and I'm like you know it's those so what would Jesus do kind of

37:25

thing and it's it's that is a kind of historical eventual

37:30

where we want people from the past to speak into our moment and so what I what

37:37

I what moved me to do this presentation in this way is not necessarily think

37:42

about the answers King has for our moment but the questions he has for our

37:49

moment right so looking at these historic figures not to see what their because their answers are specific to

37:56

their historical context to their moment in time right but their questions

38:03

are Timeless right so yeah yes so that's that's it we look at the past for the

38:10

questions we need to ask ourselves today we have to answer those questions right the next generation is going to have to

38:16

answer those questions and so that's I think part of this is to not rely

38:22

on History to answer questions that we need to answer but look at the history

38:28

for the questions that we need to to to uh face I think that's so uh appropriate for a

38:35

special observance event where we often just look at the history we look at the past we think about it in terms of of

38:42

Education we don't think about it in terms of action in terms about uh how

38:48

that that historical framework can drive action in the present and into the

38:54

future that I think we all want um what in the workplace uh in our society so um thank you so much and I

39:02

want to now um leave it uh I think we're going to check to chat for some questions Monique because uh we want to

39:08

uh make this uh keep this interactive and um

39:13

it was such an inspiring uh presentation and dialogue

39:19

absolutely and we do we do it so I'm gonna call one of our

39:24

s Marianne melzer to come off uh uh mute to unmute herself and ask for each

39:31

question Marianne are you there

39:42

um I am here I didn't enter a question though okay your hand is up Marion oh I

39:47

I apologize I'm sorry no problem no problem okay so I do have two questions

39:53

from the Tourette chat and uh one of them is just a simple one generally she mentioned something about a timeline so

40:00

um is there a link to the timeline that you noted uh is there a link that we can get well yeah the deia uh strategic plan

40:09

for the Department is uh fiscal years 22 to 24. uh it's on um our website and is

40:15

is readily available uh of course it's uh a living document

40:21

um and uh it you know gets updated uh you know uh regularly so um when the the

40:27

DIA strategic plans in ends in 24 we'll um issue a new uh Dei strategic plan

40:34

because um you know we uh it is a journey and uh we'll continue continue on this Dia

40:41

Journey thank you I will put that in the uh that link to that strategic plan in the chat

40:46

I just wanted to make sure I had the right one so okay that is what we're talking about and then the other question is uh for you Zaire can there

40:55

be progress without disruption uh I so I think it depends what we think

41:02

of disruption um I I do think that progress

41:07

there can be some uh yes I mean it's on a spectrum right there can be progress that is orderly

41:14

um but disruption doesn't have to be disorderly disruption can be creative disruption disruption can be thinking

41:20

outside of the box disruption can be um challenging

41:27

um you know conventional I call it unwisdom right the the idea that

41:34

um if our imagination is is you know uh

41:41

confined to what we have always done um then maybe we need to shake that up a

41:47

little bit and so disruption doesn't necessarily need to be protest

41:53

um so I was thinking of disruption more um broadly I I do think that if we're

42:00

looking at patterns um that our systemic uh patterns of

42:05

discrimination patterns of Injustice um those need to be interrupted uh they

42:12

do need to be disrupted and they can happen creatively

42:17

um but I think we should we we should welcome um you know people who are coming with

42:24

ideas and and provocations right like so we might not be in the position to be

42:31

the provocateur but we should be open to the I ideas that provoke us to think like I you know

42:39

I may not always be lined up with it most of us that is the other thing is like a lot of us like to think we're

42:46

Martin King we're not and it's okay right like we're not gonna line up with

42:51

King on everything um but it's important to hear what he's saying and it's important to listen to

42:59

the challenges that are posed by a Martin or Malcolm or Ella Baker or

43:04

Fannie Lou Hamer or even a contemporary moment with black lives matter and the

43:10

full spectrum of people who are calling for you know the various ways of addressing police uh

43:17

killings or or any other of our social ills we don't have to agree with the

43:23

solutions but we should really be open to understanding and listening to what

43:29

people are saying as as provocations it's it's like you know Shifting the Overton window right like if we're only

43:36

listening to people that we agree with then we have set ourselves into a box of

43:42

what is possible but we have to expand our cone of possibility even if we don't go there

43:49

um it should be important for us to consider what people are challenging us

43:54

to do um I think of the the acronym for this organization of be bold boldness is

44:01

disruptive right it's not be timid it's not fall in line it's not you know it's

44:09

be bold um so that is just corruptive and I think it's important even if we don't

44:15

um say like I'm gonna do that it's important for us to to be challenged by

44:20

it right um so that's what I think is important absolutely thank you thank you I think

44:27

you answered that question very well and I do have another question for you so what lessons can we learn from Dr King

44:33

and others on not getting burned out doing the work especially when it feels

44:38

like constantly pushing against a status quo play pool no uh

44:46

well that's that's the joy right like Joy is part of uh the the the healing

44:53

work of of engaging in resistance right or engaging in struggle

44:59

um and think of all of the Traditions that are part of the black freedom

45:06

movement the food culture the music the embodied

45:13

ways that people move and dance and sartorial decisions they make and how

45:19

people do their hair and how they get dressed and how they talk and the rhythm of language and all of that are the

45:27

things that bring us joy that make us feel whole that are restorative and sometimes you have to rest and sometimes

45:32

you have to take a break but um that I think is why when we think about the you know the historical black

45:39

experience to think about it holistically um you know we tend to just kind of get

45:45

these flash points of struggle and only think about confrontation or struggle I

45:51

um you know I think of the work of like Toni Morrison who you know they always would ask Tony Morrison like well you

45:57

don't really um They Don't Really Center white people in your stories and she was like because

46:03

I'm focusing on black communities um Zora Neale Hurston did the same thing

46:09

um so there are it's important for us to be balanced and it's important for us um you know to to make sure we have

46:16

these moments of Joy um but it's also important for us to be vigilant right and make sure that when

46:24

we're doing what people now call self-care that it's not the kind of self-care

46:30

um that lends itself to Indulgence to the disregard of

46:36

um the very really pressing needs of of our communities right so there's a balance

46:42

great thank you um now here's another question it's kind of an interesting question so

46:49

you know I'm looking at it and trying to understand the spin on it but you can take it delve it up either you Jewish or

46:55

as I are either one or both um can you give your opinion on when

47:00

diversity equity and inclusion may not be ideal intolerance is better Suited

47:14

yeah well um

47:20

so I think that tolerance is

47:27

just the coexistence with difference which Maybe

47:34

that might be all that's possible but I think the ideal is pluralism which

47:40

is engaged difference which is encounter difference which is relational difference

47:46

again you know the idea of of building Community

47:51

um we don't have to be the same to be in community with each other

47:58

but one would hope that to be in community in each other with each other

48:04

is not just to tolerate each other but to celebrate each other be in relations

48:09

with each other to um engage and learn from each other's

48:16

difference and I think that's that's much more than tolerance um and so I do think that's the goal and

48:22

I think there are many ways of achieving that and um you know strategically I think that

48:29

the space that's been created for the work of Dei provides some of that space

48:34

but it doesn't need to be limited to that space

48:40

yeah I would just add that um I mean to me tolerance sounds sounds like order

48:45

and um sounds like um you know what uh what the the white clergy at the time we're

48:52

telling Dr King um in terms of uh

48:57

you know the pace have changed uh you know the the kinds of of tactics and

49:03

um I I think uh deia is is much more um expressive uh is is much more

49:11

connective uh imagines a a future um where we are networked and um you

49:18

know we do have a sense of of shared fate and uh we're all draped by this uh

49:24

because as king would say this this Garment of of Destiny but thank you junish and zayer that is

49:32

going we have other questions but for the sake of time we're not going to be able to get to those other questions right now

49:38

um I think uh if you have access to the chat um you may be able to look at the

49:43

questions and if you want to put some chat something down in the in the uh chat how you might be able to do so or I

49:50

can actually write the questions down and we can get it back to um the individuals later Zaire

49:56

um I can shoot those over to you and you can just give me a quick response and I'll shoot it back to the to the requesters but I want to now turn this

50:02

back over to Amina because we uh we will get ready to close it out just to make sure we can do this in a timely manner

50:10

thank you yes thank you thank you so much um what did I tell you everyone I said

50:16

they left I knew we would have the perfect speaker if he was available um I just wanted to take a moment you

50:22

said um you know we talked about black resilience a journey to equality this journey is the Spectrum as he said um

50:28

there's no one way or exact direction to get there um it's just a matter of doing the work

50:35

and like you said history is important to understand but we can't rely on that to do the work I think that that was a

50:40

very important Point um I just want to take a moment to thank you Zaire and junish for that very

50:46

informative and enlightening discussion and presentation um we will now turn over the program to

50:51

Mr Jerry beat director for the office of civil rights for closing remarks

51:01

good afternoon everybody uh Zaire thank you so much for your

51:07

presentation today thank you be bold thank you Monique thank you junish our

51:13

chief diversity officer I I I I really thought this was an outstanding

51:19

program and I want to mention that we are here today delivering this to you

51:25

through the office of civil rights because of Dr King and the Civil Rights

51:30

Movement the name of our office office of civil rights born in the 60s we're

51:36

still carrying out very fundamental foundational work today uh my favorite quote from him or not my

51:45

favorite quote from him from this but gives us something to think about when we're talking about uh how quickly the can this work be done

51:52

let let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial Prejudice will soon pass away in the deep fog of misunderstanding will

51:59

be lifted from our fear-drenched communities and in some not so not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of

52:06

love and Brotherhood will shine over our great nation with other scintillating Beauty

52:12

wow is that aspirational are we there yet as a nation I don't think we are I don't

52:19

think we're there just yet and it might be some time I'd venture to guess till we are there

52:25

so I want to mention that um that special observances are work

52:31

that we do on a monthly basis specifically to hold conversations just like this perhaps to go to some of the

52:38

tenets of of the letter from Birmingham Jail to detention is there perhaps to

52:44

help bring out the tension we may not be the Creator's attention we're acknowledging what's there to have a fruitful constructive discussion

52:52

and so that is specifically the purpose of special emphasis programs which would

52:57

be occurring even if there wasn't the executive order on advancing racial equity and Outreach to underserved communities or advancing deia and the

53:04

federal Workforce we would still be doing this work here today and we will continue to do it because it's

53:10

foundational the office of civil rights enforces anti-discrimination laws and we coordinate these programs we look

53:17

at our Workforce through the employment cycle by race ethnicity sex and disability

53:23

now we are con this work is complemented by our deia work which is wonderful and

53:29

it continues to evolve our work and grow it's very different than where it started perhaps in the 60s and 70s but

53:36

it's still necessary that we continue to do the work in the office of civil rights the foundational work in addition

53:43

to the deia work so again thank you for this excellent example this excellent program of the

53:51

purpose for special emphasis programs why this under the law we do these

53:56

things at the Department of Commerce and across the federal government it's still very important today so it's wonderful

54:04

discussion um so I want to remind everybody that tomorrow also we are having another

54:11

event for black history a month the homage exhibit it's going to be actually

54:17

exhibition and in the Herbert C Hoover building in the lobby I encourage everybody if you're

54:23

physically in the building to to go in and actually uh go to the exhibit and to

54:29

touch these articles and hear the curator there we're very excited if you're on not in the DC area

54:36

um and you aren't able to go into Herbert C Hoover building tomorrow in the morning specifically we'll be

54:42

offering an online way for you to see the exhibit as well uh the curator will

54:47

be uh giving a presentation I'll be video uh be a video clip uh and we'll be

54:53

sent out later and then there are a number of other events including the event this coming

54:58

Friday with our deputy secretary interviewing the Black Chamber of Commerce as well here at the department

55:04

uh you name it there are so many different wonderful events to celebrate Black History Month it's a very exciting

55:10

thing um in March we are kicking off women's History Month

55:17

um and the theme for the 2023 women's history month is celebrating women who tell our stories and the theme

55:24

encourages the recognition of women past and presents who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling

55:29

including print radio TV stage screen blogs Etc very excited for that theme we

55:35

actually already have a speaker who will be coming in you'll be getting more information about that through a

55:41

broadcast um the event will happen on March 29th and Aina Peterson who is the founder and

55:47

CEO of women LED Global media and entertainment company inner voices artists will be here to speak to us then

55:53

so I look forward to seeing everybody then don't forget to visit ocr's webpage

55:58

doc dot ocr.gov I'm sorry doc.gov

56:03

forward slash OCR uh doc.ocr I'm gonna get it all confused you can uh

56:11

you can get to it from uh from the paid the equity page if you're there but hopefully everybody knows how to

56:17

navigate we have a list of all our special emphasis programs and other wonderful things for you to be able to

56:23

join to support and uplift deia an equal employment opportunity so on that Nick brings it close to our program thank you

56:29

all very much and enjoy the rest of your day and we'll see you at a future black history month program the one tomorrow and Friday take care

56:36

thank you um Zaire could you stick stay on for just a minute and uh Amina sure

56:42

okay

56:49

and Sharif are you there Chief's still here

57:00

thank you everyone thank you for attending and I don't know if the other Bebo folks

57:05

are here that if anybody else some people this year I hope they will pop up

57:10

like because I just wanted to thank you all my salary for my camera on Twitter oh like everybody saw

57:18

sometimes we um what I have to do is sometimes after these events like open

57:24

up a another room so to be like going into the Green Room so we can go into the great room after the event is over

57:30

and we can and we can just do a little wrap up in June is here too and and Jerry

57:36

yeah so I just wanted to uh again thank you all

57:41

for everything you've done all your work everything you did to be here um so there were a couple of questions

57:47

that we didn't get a chance to to put up for the audience but um I think they were it was some simple questions but I

57:55

can take and put those up for future reference and for the audience

58:00

and yeah

58:14

oh yeah is it still recording or do we need to

58:20

um phone so I can't it's a little delay

58:25

yeah thank you for remind

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