So it's 2006. My friend Harold Ford calls me. He's running for U.S. Senate in Tennessee, and he says, "Mellody, I desperately need some national press. Do you have any ideas?" So I had an idea. I called a friend who was in New York at one of the most successful media companies in the world, and she said, "Why don't we host an editorial board lunch for Harold? You come with him."
2006. je godina. Zove me moj prijatelj Harold Ford. On je kandidat za Senat SAD-a u Tenesiju, i kaže: "Melodi, očajnički mi je potrebno nešto nacionalne štampe. Imaš li ideja?" Imala sam ideju. Pozvala sam prijateljicu koja je bila u Njujorku u jednoj od najuspešnijih medijskih kompanija na svetu, i ona je rekla: "Zašto ne bismo priredile redakcijski ručak za Harolda? Dođi sa njim."
Harold and I arrive in New York. We are in our best suits. We look like shiny new pennies. And we get to the receptionist, and we say, "We're here for the lunch." She motions for us to follow her. We walk through a series of corridors, and all of a sudden we find ourselves in a stark room, at which point she looks at us and she says, "Where are your uniforms?"
Harold i ja stižemo u Njujork. U najboljim smo odelima. Izgledamo kao sjajni novi novčići. Krećemo ka recepcionerki i kažemo: "Ovde smo zbog ručka." Ona nam daje znak da je pratimo. Prolazimo kroz niz hodnika, i iznenada se nađemo u praznoj prostoriji, u kom trenutku ona pogleda u nas i kaže: "Gde su vaše uniforme?"
Just as this happens, my friend rushes in. The blood drains from her face. There are literally no words, right? And I look at her, and I say, "Now, don't you think we need more than one black person in the U.S. Senate?"
Dok se ovo dešava, moj prijateljica uleće unutra. Nestalo je boje sa njenog lica. Bukvalno se nema šta reći, zar ne? Pogledam u nju i kažem: "Zar ne misliš da nam je potrebno više od jedne crne osobe u SAD Senatu?"
Now Harold and I -- (Applause) — we still laugh about that story, and in many ways, the moment caught me off guard, but deep, deep down inside, I actually wasn't surprised. And I wasn't surprised because of something my mother taught me about 30 years before. You see, my mother was ruthlessly realistic. I remember one day coming home from a birthday party where I was the only black kid invited, and instead of asking me the normal motherly questions like, "Did you have fun?" or "How was the cake?" my mother looked at me and she said, "How did they treat you?" I was seven. I did not understand. I mean, why would anyone treat me differently? But she knew. And she looked me right in the eye and she said, "They will not always treat you well."
Harold i ja - (Aplauz) - mi se još uvek smejemo zbog te priče, i na mnogo načina, trenutak me je uhvatio nespremnu, ali duboko, duboko unutra, zapravo nisam bila iznenađena. A nisam bila iznenađena zbog nečega čemu me je moja majka naučila 30 godina ranije. Vidite, moja majka je bila surovo realna. Sećam se jednom kada sam došla kući sa rođendana gde sam bila jedino pozvano crno dete, i umesto da mi postavi normalna majčinska pitanja kao što su: "Da li si se lepo provela?" ili "Kakva je bila torta?" moja majka me je pogledala i rekla: "Kako su se ponašali prema tebi?" Imala sam sedam godina. Nisam razumela. Mislim, zašto bi se bilo ko ponašao drugačije prema meni? Ali ona je znala. Pogledala me je pravo u oči i rekla je: "Neće te uvek dobro tretirati."
Now, race is one of those topics in America that makes people extraordinarily uncomfortable. You bring it up at a dinner party or in a workplace environment, it is literally the conversational equivalent of touching the third rail. There is shock, followed by a long silence. And even coming here today, I told some friends and colleagues that I planned to talk about race, and they warned me, they told me, don't do it, that there'd be huge risks in me talking about this topic, that people might think I'm a militant black woman and I would ruin my career. And I have to tell you, I actually for a moment was a bit afraid. Then I realized, the first step to solving any problem is to not hide from it, and the first step to any form of action is awareness. And so I decided to actually talk about race. And I decided that if I came here and shared with you some of my experiences, that maybe we could all be a little less anxious and a little more bold in our conversations about race.
Rasa je u Americi jedna od onih tema koja čini da se ljudi osećaju izuzetno neprijatno. Iznesite je na večernjoj zabavi ili u radnom okruženju, u razgovoru je to bukvalno ekvivalentno dodirivanju treće šine. Nastaje šok, praćen dugom tišinom. I čak dolazeći ovde danas, rekla sam nekim prijateljima i kolegama da planiram da pričam o rasi, i upozorili su me, rekli su mi, nemoj, da će biti ogromnih rizika u tome da govorim o ovoj temi, da ljudi mogu pomisliti da sam borbena crnkinja i da bih uništila svoju karijeru. I moram vam reći, zaista sam se na trenutak malo uplašila. Onda sam shvatila, prvi korak u rešavanju bilo kog problema nije sakriti se od njega, a prvi korak ka bilo kom obliku akcije je svesnost. I tako sam odlučila da zaista govorim o rasi. I rešila sam da ako dođem ovde i podelim sa vama neka svoja iskustva, da bismo možda svi mi bili malo manje anksiozni i malo više smeli u našim razgovorima o rasi.
Now I know there are people out there who will say that the election of Barack Obama meant that it was the end of racial discrimination for all eternity, right? But I work in the investment business, and we have a saying: The numbers do not lie. And here, there are significant, quantifiable racial disparities that cannot be ignored, in household wealth, household income, job opportunities, healthcare. One example from corporate America: Even though white men make up just 30 percent of the U.S. population, they hold 70 percent of all corporate board seats. Of the Fortune 250, there are only seven CEOs that are minorities, and of the thousands of publicly traded companies today, thousands, only two are chaired by black women, and you're looking at one of them, the same one who, not too long ago, was nearly mistaken for kitchen help. So that is a fact. Now I have this thought experiment that I play with myself, when I say, imagine if I walked you into a room and it was of a major corporation, like ExxonMobil, and every single person around the boardroom were black, you would think that were weird. But if I walked you into a Fortune 500 company, and everyone around the table is a white male, when will it be that we think that's weird too?
Znam da ima ljudi koji će reći da je izbor Baraka Obame označio da je kraj rasnoj diskriminaciji za čitavu večnost, zar ne? Ali ja radim u investicionom poslu, i mi imamo izreku: brojevi ne lažu. A ovde postoje značajne, merljive rasne razlike koje se ne mogu ignorisati, u bogatstvu i prihodima domaćinstva, poslovnim prilikama, zdravstvenoj zaštiti. Jedan primer iz korporativne Amerike: iako beli muškarci čine svega 30% populacije SAD-a, oni drže 70% svih mesta u korporativnim odborima. Na listi "Fortune 250", svega 7 direktora pripadaju nacionalnim manjinama, a od hiljada javno trgovanih kompanija danas, hiljada, samo dvema rukovodi crnkinja, i gledate u jednu od njih, istu onu koja je, ne tako davno, skoro pomešana sa kuhinjskim osobljem. Dakle to je činjenica. Imam ovaj misaoni eksperiment koji odigravam sama sa sobom, kada kažem, zamisli da sam te uvela u prostoriju i ona je u velikoj korporaciji, kao što je Ekson Mobil, i svaka osoba u sali je crna, pomislila bi da je to čudno. Ali ako bih te uvela u "Fortune 500" kompaniju, i svi za stolom su beli muškarci, kada ćemo misliti da je to takođe čudno?
And I know how we got here. (Applause)
I znam kako smo dospeli ovde. (Aplauz)
I know how we got here. You know, there was institutionalized, at one time legalized, discrimination in our country. There's no question about it. But still, as I grapple with this issue, my mother's question hangs in the air for me: How did they treat you?
Znam kako smo dospeli ovde. Znate, postojala je institucionalizovana, jedno vreme legalizovana, diskriminacija u našoj zemlji. Tu nema sumnje. Ali još uvek, dok se hvatam u koštac sa ovim problemom, pitanje moje majke mi još uvek lebdi u vazduhu: kako su se ponašali prema tebi?
Now, I do not raise this issue to complain or in any way to elicit any kind of sympathy. I have succeeded in my life beyond my wildest expectations, and I have been treated well by people of all races more often than I have not. I tell the uniform story because it happened. I cite those statistics around corporate board diversity because they are real, and I stand here today talking about this issue of racial discrimination because I believe it threatens to rob another generation of all the opportunities that all of us want for all of our children, no matter what their color or where they come from. And I think it also threatens to hold back businesses. You see, researchers have coined this term "color blindness" to describe a learned behavior where we pretend that we don't notice race. If you happen to be surrounded by a bunch of people who look like you, that's purely accidental. Now, color blindness, in my view, doesn't mean that there's no racial discrimination, and there's fairness. It doesn't mean that at all. It doesn't ensure it. In my view, color blindness is very dangerous because it means we're ignoring the problem. There was a corporate study that said that, instead of avoiding race, the really smart corporations actually deal with it head on. They actually recognize that embracing diversity means recognizing all races, including the majority one. But I'll be the first one to tell you, this subject matter can be hard, awkward, uncomfortable -- but that's kind of the point.
Ne pokrećem ovo pitanje da bih se žalila ili da bih bilo kako izazvala neku vrstu saosećanja. Uspela sam u životu iznad mojih najluđih očekivanja, i prema meni su se dobro ophodili ljudi svih rasa češće nego što nisu. Govorim priču o uniformi jer se dogodila. Citiram statistiku o raznolikosti korporativnog odbora zato što je istinita, i stojim ovde danas govoreći o problemu rasne diskriminacije jer verujem da preti da liši još jednu generaciju svih mogućnosti koje svi mi želimo za svu našu decu, bez obzira na njihovu boju ili na to odakle dolaze. A smatram da takođe preti da zaustavi poslovanje. Vidite, istraživači su skovali ovaj termin "slepilo za boje" kako bi opisali naučeno ponašanje gde se mi pretvaramo da ne primećujemo rasu. Ako se desi da postanete okruženi gomilom ljudi koji izgledaju kao vi, to je puka slučajnost. Slepilo za boje, prema mom gledištu, ne znači da nema rasne diskriminacije, i da je tu pravednost. Uopšte to ne znači. Ono to ne obezbeđuje. Prema mom gledištu, slepilo za boje je veoma opasno jer znači da ignorišemo problem. Postoji korporativna studija koja kaže: umesto izbegavanja rase, zaista pametne korporacije se u stvari direktno bave njome. One zapravo priznaju da prihvatanje različitosti znači priznavanje svih rasa, uključujući onu većinsku. Ali ja ću biti prva koja će vam reći, ova tematika može biti teška, nelagodna, neprijatna - ali u tome je stvar.
In the spirit of debunking racial stereotypes, the one that black people don't like to swim, I'm going to tell you how much I love to swim. I love to swim so much that as an adult, I swim with a coach. And one day my coach had me do a drill where I had to swim to one end of a 25-meter pool without taking a breath. And every single time I failed, I had to start over. And I failed a lot. By the end, I got it, but when I got out of the pool, I was exasperated and tired and annoyed, and I said, "Why are we doing breath-holding exercises?" And my coach looked me at me, and he said, "Mellody, that was not a breath-holding exercise. That drill was to make you comfortable being uncomfortable, because that's how most of us spend our days." If we can learn to deal with our discomfort, and just relax into it, we'll have a better life.
U duhu raskrinkavanja rasnih stereotipa, onog da crnci ne vole da plivaju, reći ću vam koliko ja volim da plivam. Volim da plivam toliko da kao odrasla, plivam sa trenerom. I jednog dana mi je moj trener naložio da uradim vežbu gde sam morala da plivam do jednog kraja bazena od 25 metara bez uzimanja vazduha. I svaki put kad nisam uspela, morala sam da započnem iznova. A mnogo puta nisam uspevala. Na kraju sam uspela, ali kada sam izašla iz bazena, bila sam razdražena i umorna i iznervirana, i rekla sam: "Zašto radimo ove vežbe zadržavanja daha?" A moj trener me je pogledao i rekao: "Melodi, ovo nije bila vežba zadržavanja daha. Vežba je trebalo da ti učini prijatnim da ti ne bude prijatno, jer tako većina nas provodi svoje dane." Ako možemo da naučimo da se bavimo svojom nelagodnošću i samo opustimo u njoj, imaćemo bolji život.
So I think it's time for us to be comfortable with the uncomfortable conversation about race: black, white, Asian, Hispanic, male, female, all of us, if we truly believe in equal rights and equal opportunity in America, I think we have to have real conversations about this issue. We cannot afford to be color blind. We have to be color brave. We have to be willing, as teachers and parents and entrepreneurs and scientists, we have to be willing to have proactive conversations about race with honesty and understanding and courage, not because it's the right thing to do, but because it's the smart thing to do, because our businesses and our products and our science, our research, all of that will be better with greater diversity.
Mislim da je vreme da nam bude ugodno u neugodnom razgovoru o rasi: crni, beli, Azijati, hispano, muško, žensko, svi mi, ako iskreno verujemo u jednaka prava i jednake mogućnosti u Americi, mislim da moramo da imamo prave razgovore o ovom pitanju. Ne možemo priuštiti da budemo slepi za boje. Moramo biti hrabri za boje. Moramo biti spremni, kao učitelji i roditelji i preduzetnici i naučnici, moramo biti spremni da proaktivno razgovaramo o rasi sa iskrenošću i razumevanjem i hrabrošću, ne zato što je to prava stvar koju treba uraditi, već zato što je to pametna stvar koju treba uraditi, jer naši poslovi i naši proizvodi i naša nauka, naša istraživanja, sve to će biti bolje sa većom raznolikošću.
Now, my favorite example of color bravery is a guy named John Skipper. He runs ESPN. He's a North Carolina native, quintessential Southern gentleman, white. He joined ESPN, which already had a culture of inclusion and diversity, but he took it up a notch. He demanded that every open position have a diverse slate of candidates. Now he says the senior people in the beginning bristled, and they would come to him and say, "Do you want me to hire the minority, or do you want me to hire the best person for the job?" And Skipper says his answers were always the same: "Yes." And by saying yes to diversity, I honestly believe that ESPN is the most valuable cable franchise in the world. I think that's a part of the secret sauce.
Moj omiljeni primer hrabrosti za boje je tip po imenu Džon Skiper. On predvodi ESPN. Rodom je iz Severne Karoline, u suštini južnjački gospodin, belac. On se priključio ESPN-u, koji je već imao kulturu inkluzije i raznovrsnosti, ali je on uložio dodatni trud. Zahtevao je da za svaku otvorenu poziciju postoji različit spisak kandidata. On kaže da su se stariji ljudi u početku rogušili, da bi došli kod njega i govorili: "Da li hoćete da zaposlim manjine, ili hoćete da zaposlim najbolju osobu za posao?" A Skiper kaže da je odgovor uvek bio isti: "Da." I rekavši da različitosti, iskreno verujem da je ESPN najvrednija kablovska franšiza na svetu. Mislim da je to sastojak tajnog preliva.
Now I can tell you, in my own industry, at Ariel Investments, we actually view our diversity as a competitive advantage, and that advantage can extend way beyond business. There's a guy named Scott Page at the University of Michigan. He is the first person to develop a mathematical calculation for diversity. He says, if you're trying to solve a really hard problem, really hard, that you should have a diverse group of people, including those with diverse intellects. The example that he gives is the smallpox epidemic. When it was ravaging Europe, they brought together all these scientists, and they were stumped. And the beginnings of the cure to the disease came from the most unlikely source, a dairy farmer who noticed that the milkmaids were not getting smallpox. And the smallpox vaccination is bovine-based because of that dairy farmer.
Mogu vam reći, u mojoj industriji, u Ariel investicijama, mi zapravo vidimo našu raznolikost kao kompetitivnu prednost, a ta prednost se širi daleko izvan poslovanja. Postoji tip po imenu Skot Pejdž na Univerzitetu Mičigen. On je prva osoba koja je razvila matematički proračun za različitost. On kaže, ako pokušavate da rešite zaista težak problem, stvarno težak, da treba da uzmete raznovrsnu grupu ljudi, uključujući one sa različitim intelektima. Primer koji on daje je epidemija velikih boginja. Kada je ona harala Evropom, skupili su sve te naučnike, i oni su bili zbunjeni. Počeci leka bolesti su došli iz najneverovatnijeg izvora, mlekara koji je primetio da mlekarke ne dobijaju velike boginje. I vakcina za velike boginje je zasnovana na govedima zbog tog mlekara.
Now I'm sure you're sitting here and you're saying, I don't run a cable company, I don't run an investment firm, I am not a dairy farmer. What can I do? And I'm telling you, you can be color brave. If you're part of a hiring process or an admissions process, you can be color brave. If you are trying to solve a really hard problem, you can speak up and be color brave. Now I know people will say, but that doesn't add up to a lot, but I'm actually asking you to do something really simple: observe your environment, at work, at school, at home. I'm asking you to look at the people around you purposefully and intentionally. Invite people into your life who don't look like you, don't think like you, don't act like you, don't come from where you come from, and you might find that they will challenge your assumptions and make you grow as a person. You might get powerful new insights from these individuals, or, like my husband, who happens to be white, you might learn that black people, men, women, children, we use body lotion every single day.
Sigurna sam da sedite ovde i kažete, ja ne vodim kablovsku kompaniju, ne vodim investicionu firmu, nisam mlekar. Šta mogu da uradim? I govorim vam, možete biti hrabri za boje. Ako ste deo procesa zapošljavanja ili procesa prijema, možete biti hrabri za boje. Ako pokušavate da rešite stvarno težak problem, možete da se izjasnite i budete hrabri za boje. Znam da će ljudi reći, ali to ne vredi mnogo, ali vam zapravo tražim da učinite nešto stvarno jednostavno: posmatrajte svoju sredinu, na poslu, u školi, kod kuće. Tražim da pogledate ljude oko sebe sa svrhom i namerom. Pozovite u svoj život ljude koji ne izgledaju kao vi, ne misle kao vi, ne ponašaju se kao vi, ne dolaze odande odakle vi dolazite, i možda ćete otkriti da će oni dovesti u pitanje vaše pretpostavke i učiniti da rastete kao osoba. Možda ćete dobiti snažne nove uvide od ovih pojedinaca, ili, kao moj muž, koji je nekim slučajem belac, možda naučite da crnci, muškarci, žene, deca, mi koristimo losion za telo svakog dana.
Now, I also think that this is very important so that the next generation really understands that this progress will help them, because they're expecting us to be great role models.
Takođe mislim da je ovo veoma važno da bi buduća generacija zaista razumela da će im ovaj napredak pomoći, jer očekuju od nas da budemo sjajni uzori.
Now, I told you, my mother, she was ruthlessly realistic. She was an unbelievable role model. She was the kind of person who got to be the way she was because she was a single mom with six kids in Chicago. She was in the real estate business, where she worked extraordinarily hard but oftentimes had a hard time making ends meet. And that meant sometimes we got our phone disconnected, or our lights turned off, or we got evicted. When we got evicted, sometimes we lived in these small apartments that she owned, sometimes in only one or two rooms, because they weren't completed, and we would heat our bathwater on hot plates. But she never gave up hope, ever, and she never allowed us to give up hope either. This brutal pragmatism that she had, I mean, I was four and she told me, "Mommy is Santa." (Laughter) She was this brutal pragmatism. She taught me so many lessons, but the most important lesson was that every single day she told me, "Mellody, you can be anything." And because of those words, I would wake up at the crack of dawn, and because of those words, I would love school more than anything, and because of those words, when I was on a bus going to school, I dreamed the biggest dreams. And it's because of those words that I stand here right now full of passion, asking you to be brave for the kids who are dreaming those dreams today. (Applause)
Rekla sam vam, moja majka, ona je bila surovo realna. Bila je neverovatan uzor. Bila je tip osobe koja je postala ono što jeste zato što je bila samohrana majka sa šestoro dece u Čikagu. Bila je u poslu sa nekretninama, gde je radila izuzetno vredno ali često imala teškoća da sastavi kraj sa krajem. A to je značilo da bi nam ponekad telefon bio isključen, ili svetla ugašena, ili smo izbacivani. Kada bismo bili izbačeni, ponekad bismo živeli u malim stanovima koje je posedovala, ponekad u samo jednoj sobi ili dvema, jer nisu bili završeni, i grejali bismo vodu za kupanje na ringli. Ali nikada nije gubila nadu, nikada, i nije dozvolila ni nama da izgubimo nadu. Taj surovi pragmatizam koji je imala, mislim, imala sam četiri godine i rekla mi je: "Mama je Deda Mraz." (Smeh) Ona je bila taj surovi pragmatizam. Naučila me je tolikim lekcijama, ali najvažnija lekcija je da mi je svakog dana govorila: "Melodi, možeš biti bilo šta." I zbog tih reči, probudila bih se u cik zore, i zbog tih reči, volela sam školu više od bilo čega, i zbog tih reči, kada sam bila u autobusu idući u školu, sanjala sam najveće snove. I zbog tih reči stojim ovde upravo sada puna strasti, tražeći od vas da budete hrabri zbog dece koja danas sanjaju te snove. (Aplauz)
You see, I want them to look at a CEO on television and say, "I can be like her," or, "He looks like me." And I want them to know that anything is possible, that they can achieve the highest level that they ever imagined, that they will be welcome in any corporate boardroom, or they can lead any company. You see this idea of being the land of the free and the home of the brave, it's woven into the fabric of America. America, when we have a challenge, we take it head on, we don't shrink away from it. We take a stand. We show courage. So right now, what I'm asking you to do, I'm asking you to show courage. I'm asking you to be bold. As business leaders, I'm asking you not to leave anything on the table. As citizens, I'm asking you not to leave any child behind. I'm asking you not to be color blind, but to be color brave, so that every child knows that their future matters and their dreams are possible.
Vidite, želim da gledaju direktore na televiziji i kažu: "Ja mogu da budem kao ona", ili: "On podseća na mene." I želim da znaju da je sve moguće, da mogu postići više nivoe nego što su ikada zamišljali, da će biti dobrodošli u bilo kojoj korporativnoj sali, ili da mogu da vode bilo koju kompaniju. Vidite tu veliku ideju o zemlji slobodnih i domu hrabrih, utkana je u tkaninu Amerike. Ameriko, kada imamo izazov, preuzimamo ga direktno, ne umanjujemo se pred njime. Zauzimamo stav. Pokazujemo hrabrost. Dakle upravo sada, ono što tražim da učinite, tražim da pokažete hrabrost. Tražim da budete smeli. Kao od poslovnih vođa, tražim od vas da ništa ne ostavljate na stolu. Kao od građana, tražim da ne zapostavite nijedno dete. Ne tražim da budete slepi za boje, već da budete hrabri za boje, tako da sva deca znaju da je njihova budućnost bitna i da su njihovi snovi mogući.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause) Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. (Applause)
(Aplauz) Hvala vam. Hvala. Hvala. (Aplauz)