{"id":31155,"date":"2015-06-25T20:46:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T20:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/building-stronger-community-foundation\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:47:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:47:40","slug":"construir-una-base-comunitaria-mas-solida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/building-stronger-community-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Una declaraci\u00f3n de esperanza: construir una base comunitaria m\u00e1s s\u00f3lida"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is William C. Bell’s keynote address at a forum of the regional community foundation New England Blacks in Philanthropy. The theme of the forum was “Block by Block: Supporting a Strong Community Foundation.”<\/p>\n

Transcript<\/h2>\n

Good evening.<\/p>\n

As I was preparing my talk with you this evening and reflecting on the theme of building stronger communities, I couldn\u2019t help but replay in my mind the recent high-visibility incidents that have thrust our communities, especially our nation\u2019s Black communities and the men and boys who live in those communities, onto the front pages of our newspapers \u2014 at the top of the evening and morning news broadcasts, at the center of dinner-table conversations, into the conversations in social gatherings, and into the focus of a national outcry demanding justice and declaring that Black lives matter, that all lives matter.<\/p>\n

My mind goes back to Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, John T. Williams, Trayvon Martin, (Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell), Miriam Carey, Eric Garner, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Dante Parker, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Antonio Montes, Tony Robinson, Charley Robinet, James Boyd, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray \u2013 22 lives and countless others.<\/p>\n

Some of these names may have already been forgotten by some, and there are many more who never came to our attention. But their families and their communities have not forgotten them. Their children and loved ones that they were taken from have not forgotten them, nor will they ever forget. Our prayer is that they, like the Odom family in Boston, will turn pain into power.<\/p>\n

According to the Washington Post\u2019s count, approximately 385 people of all races nationwide have been shot and killed by police during the first five months of 2015. On average that\u2019s more than 21 lives a day taken by those sworn to serve and protect us. Two-thirds of these 385 people were African American and Latino, adding to the longstanding sense of devastation in our communities.<\/p>\n

And we can\u2019t just look at the lives taken by police officers. Violence in our communities has reached an epidemic proportion. On average, every 24 hours in our communities across America, we lose 29 young people under the age of 25 to violence.<\/p>\n

We lose 4 babies to child abuse and neglect (most of them before their 5th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday). We lose 13 young people to homicide (most of them killed by someone who looks just like them). And even more devastating, we lose 12 young people to suicide. They take their own lives, making the statement that 1 more day of life as they know it is not a viable option to them. That\u2019s 4,379 lives lost over the first five months of this year (2015).<\/p>\n

The question that I feel compelled to ask this evening, as we once again focus our attention on a discussion about building stronger communities, is simply this: \u201cAre we serious this time?\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask if we are serious this time because this is not a new conversation. We\u2019ve been here before; many times before. This isn\u2019t the first time America\u2019s imperfections have boiled over or have risen to the top of the nation\u2019s discussion agenda.<\/p>\n

I ask are we serious this time, because to not be serious means that we as a nation and as a people will continue to stand in fundamental contradiction to the bedrock principles contained in our nation\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

If we are serious this time about addressing our nation\u2019s vast levels of imperfection, inequality and injustice, then we must ensure that we create a pathway to hope and a pathway to opportunity for every child in America, regardless of where they live.<\/p>\n

We have been here before<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Yes, we have been here before.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s consider, for a moment, another turbulent time in our not-too-distant past. Every summer from 1964 to 1967, there were riots in the streets of major cities in America.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to understand and address the conditions that set off the riots, President Johnson convened the Kerner Commission. In 1968, the commission completed its analysis and concluded that the nation was headed toward the creation of two societies (two Americas), one Black and one white, but both separate and unequal.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the Kerner Commission issued its report, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about these two co-existing but contrasting Americas at an appearance in Michigan. He described one America as filled with immense opportunity and the other choking the life out of its residents with devastating poverty.<\/p>\n

Days after Dr. King\u2019s speech, Sen. Robert Kennedy spoke about the two Americas in a presidential campaign speech delivered at the University of Kansas. Senator Kennedy said, \u201cWe as a people are strong enough, we are brave enough to be told the truth of where we stand. I don\u2019t want America to make the critical choice in presidential leadership \u2026 without confronting the truth\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want all of us \u2026 to have a chance to build a better country and change the direction of the United States of America \u2026 America is deep in a malaise of spirit: discouraging initiative, paralyzing will and action, and dividing Americans by their age, their views, and by the color of their skin, and I don\u2019t think we have to accept that here in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen these other Americans \u2013 I have seen children in Mississippi starving, their bodies crippled from hunger and their minds have been so destroyed for their whole life that they will have no future \u2026 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s acceptable in the United States of America and I think we need a change \u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, as I said earlier, we\u2019ve been here before on the doorsteps faced with the undeniable revelation that talent may be universal in America but hope and opportunity are not \u2026 We\u2019ve been here before faced with the question of: \u201cWhat we are willing to do as a nation about the co-existence of enormous opportunity, access, and hope and the deeply rooted devastation of concentrated poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are we serious this time?<\/p>\n

To correct this nation\u2019s course and divert the country away from such an ill-fated destiny, in 1968 (47 years ago), the Kerner Commission stated it was \u201ctime to make good on the promises of American democracy to all citizens \u2013 urban and rural, white and black, Spanish surname, American Indian and every minority group.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, the Commission made recommendations that could have resulted in long-term reductions in poverty, inequality, racial injustice and crime \u2013 recommending policies, programs and steps that would have promoted racial integration, created jobs, provided job training programs and increased the availability of decent and affordable housing.<\/p>\n

But President Johnson said no. He was not willing to implement the recommendations of the Kerner Commission.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that the Kerner Commission\u2019s recommendations weren\u2019t serious and were doomed to fail. Quite the contrary. But America, as a nation, wasn\u2019t serious enough about change 47 years ago to take the steps needed to make a difference.<\/p>\n

President Johnson, who had already pushed through the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, ignored the report and rejected most of the commission\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n

President Johnson ignored all recommendations except the three that called for:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Increased police surveillance in Black communities<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    (You see, the Kerner Commission Report also noted that the rate of growth being experienced by Black families in 1968 would have resulted in a Black majority population by 1985).<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Increased use of police informants in Black communities, and<\/li>\n
    2. Increased militarization of police tactics in Black communities.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Since the release of the Kerner Commission report, instead of moving forward to reduce the development of two Americas, we as a nation have doubled down on the policies that have ensured that the two Americas become a reality.<\/p>\n

      We have rolled back many of the policies, programs, recommendations and steps taken to redress the issues highlighted in the report.<\/p>\n

      In 1971, President Nixon declared a war on drugs. He dramatically increased the size of the federal drug control agencies, pushed through measures for mandatory sentencing requirements, and pushed through invasive police tactics like no-knock warrants.<\/p>\n

      He elevated marijuana to the highest level for criminal prosecution (schedule 1) and appointed a commission to advise him on whether this was appropriate. When the commission reported that marijuana should be decriminalized for personal use\u2026like President Johnson before him, President Nixon rejected his commission\u2019s recommendations. By 1997 there were nearly 500,000 people in jail for non-violent drug offenses (most of them African American males).<\/p>\n

      In the 1980\u2019s President Reagan began an economic policy agenda focused on reducing government spending, reducing taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and reducing the amount of federal regulations on businesses, including those regulations that kept jobs in America.<\/p>\n

      Black communities now and then<\/strong><\/h3>\n

      The unemployment rate in many Black communities today is well over 15% to 20%, while it is at 5.5% nationally.<\/p>\n

      In the 1990\u2019s, President Clinton signed the Violent Crimes and Law Enforcement Act, which banned assault weapons purchased after the date of the law, and increased the number of police officers by 100,000; added over $9 billion for prisons (including building new prisons), added over $6 billion for prevention efforts designed by police officers; and eliminated access to federally supported education services to people in federal or state prisons, which meant that after a 15-year prison sentence, a person\u2019s level of education would still be unchanged. How could they be ready to deal with the world after they were released?<\/p>\n

      The national recidivism rate is 67%.<\/p>\n

      As a nation, we are failing to make good on the promises of American democracy to all citizens.<\/p>\n

      Are we serious this time?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

      Forty-seven years later, I\u2019m still asking the question: \u201cAre we serious this time?\u201d<\/p>\n

      Are we serious enough to begin to change the streets, block by block, in our communities \u2013 the streets that are raising our children?<\/p>\n

      Our children are crying out for someone to help them, for someone to rescue them from the streets that are raising them and consuming them.<\/p>\n

      Ja Rule and Mary J. Blige gave a voice to their cry:<\/p>\n