All language subtitles for The.Great.American.Lie.2020

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When I think about
American dream, I think that

it means having
a lot of opportunities

to have a good education,
a good job,

a good house, and good food.

I think in America,
everything can be possible.

The test of our progress

is not whether we add more
to the abundance of those
who have much,

it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

Any man
who seeks to deny equality
among all his brothers

betrays the spirit of the free.

We have the opportunity
to move not only
toward the rich society,

but upward
to the Great Society.

Those who
have been left out,
we will try to bring in.

To go forward at all
is to go forward together.

The American dream endures.

We must have full faith
in our country.

We all came from different
lands, but we share the same
values, the same dream.

Our nation
is the enduring dream
of every immigrant

who ever set foot
on these shores.

May those generations
say of us here

that we led our beloved land
into a new century

with the American dream alive
for all her children.

The grandest of
these ideals is an unfolding
American promise

that everyone deserves
a chance,

that no insignificant person
was ever born.

The bedrock
of our economic success
is the American dream.

But today, for far too many
Americans, this dream
is slipping away.

The American dream is dead.

What's at stake
are American values.

And we have to reclaim them.

The American dream
was always a belief system,

that if you worked hard
and you played by the rules,

you could climb.

You could get an education
and you could get a good job.

You could have a better life
than your parents did.

You could rise
from nothing
to great heights.

In the 1950s,
90% of kids

could expect to climb
the income ladder

and have a higher
standard of living
than their parents did.

If you look
at that number today,
it's only around 50%.

The rungs of the ladder
have grown further apart

so there are huge differences
in terms of dollars

between the 80th percentile
and the 20th percentile.

You are now more
a prisoner of legacy.

Poverty becomes sticky...
Stickier,

and that you have
less of a chance
of escaping it

if you were born into it.

And that wealth also
kind of clusters itself,

so that if you
were born wealthy

you're more likely
to maintain that wealth.

The American dream
is premised on this notion of the individual above all else.

We don't see context,
we don't see culture,

we don't see circumstance.

We think that all of those
are basically irrelevant

and it's just a matter
of motivation and desire.

But the reality is
that circumstances are critical
to helping them make it.

America has achieved
a dubious distinction
of being the

most unequal society
of any of
the advanced countries.

The very richest Americans,
those in the top one percent,

have been gaining a larger
and larger share
of the economic pie,

while the earnings of people
in the middle of the income distribution have been stagnant

and the earnings of the people at the bottom of
the income distribution

have actually been falling.

We're asking families of
four, five, six,

you know,
to live on very low means.

They cannot own,

they barely can rent.

140 million Americans
are living one paycheck away

or one child's illness away

from complete
financial devastation.

There's no justice in a society
where roughly 40% of people

that are born in poverty
in the United States
are gonna remain in poverty.

When the family
you're born into
determines your destiny,

that tears at the fabric
of the American dream.

It makes
the American dream a lie.

You're blessed to get out
the bed this morning.

You're blessed to feel
well enough to come.

You're blessed
you could drive over here.

You're blessed.
You're blessed!

I think that my childhood

prepared me to do this work.

I was born in
St. Louis, Missouri,

moved to Southern California
when I was three,

and moved to Denver
when I was 10.

We were fleeing
from my father at the time.

He was dealing with some
alcohol and drug abuse,

and some domestic
situations occurred,

and it was just unsafe
for my mom
to be in California.

As a little girl,
I remember Christmas.

I prayed that we would have
a Christmas.

I...

I woke up to nothing.

So, you...

get up,
and it's another day, and...

even as a little girl
I was aware that I didn't
wanna see my mom feel bad.

Mmm-mmm.

She was trying.

My freshmen year
of high school
we were evicted

and I lived
with my best friend.

And my sister lived with

her best friend,
and my mom lived...

I don't know.

My sophomore year, I had
an amazing English teacher.

My girlfriends and I
would stand in the hallway

and discuss
Crime and Punishment.

We were so engulfed in
literature and discussion,

and I was like, if I can do
what she's doing for me
right now

with someone else,
that would be cool.

I am the new principal
at Frick Impact Academy.

We are plagued with
a history of violence,

suspensions, lack of
experienced teachers,

lack of resources.

I am here to turn around
the school. If I fail,

then my school will close.

-Hey.
-Hey.

-Good to see you.
-How are you?

-Good to see you.
-I'm doing well.

Ready to talk shop.

My first feeling was...

-this is an institution.
-Mmm-hmm.

I felt like I was going
for a class at San Quentin.

Does this keep kids safe?

-The fence?
-Yeah.

Are we trying to keep
people out? Or we trying to
invite people in?

Maybe we open the fence.

You can't have schools
that feel like San Quentin

and expect them to be
places of love
and peace and joy.

It just doesn't work
that way.

Nothing is wrong
with my kids.

Everything is wrong
with the system.

We're a society of
do-it-yourself.

Like, that's the
American dream, is...

pull yourself up
by your bootstraps.

When you don't have boots,
it's hard.

We serve
a very high population
of students

who are in foster care.

A lot of homeless families.

My students come with
no supplies, no backpack,

didn't eat...

They come with,
"Dad is in jail."

"My father was taken from
our family and deported

"last night."

The list goes on and on
of what they bring,

and if they have a bad day
and they roll their eyes,

then now
you take it personally
as an adult.

But you don't even know
that her mom is on
a crack binge right now.

And she probably
rolled her eyes 'cause didn't
wanna take her sweater off

because her uniform shirt
is dirty.

But you didn't ask her.

You assumed.

That's inequity.

Is not meeting
every single child
where they're at,

and we have to.

It was
just kinda one thing
after another with his,

not using his uniform,

standing up
and walking around.

Finally, I just said,
"Just leave. Just go."

And it was a trigger
for him

and he got up
and he came up to me

with his hands clenched

and he stepped
on my foot, hard.

Do you feel safe
if he returns to your class?

I have to make sure
you and the other students
feel safe,

at the same time
try to support Elijah,
because I know

he's going thought a lot
at home.

I don't feel like
the best thing
for him is to

go out into the world,
right, because

there's not gonna be any
positive reinforcements.

Where we live,
poverty is real,
violence is real.

They don't recognize
their own trauma

and a lot of the behavior
that they're exhibiting is

a part of that trauma.

Is everything okay?

-Stop.

Stop. Stop!

-Stop! Stop!

No. No. No. No.

Stop. Stop.

Stop!

No! Can you
get him that way?

-I got him. I got him.

Look at me. Look at me.
Look at me...

Is that front door locked?

That chaos is bullshit.

It doesn't have to exist
in schools.

It doesn't have to exist.

And we keep failing kidsby letting shit like this exist.

Fuck, man.

The formation of
the society that would become
the United States

was simultaneously
revolutionary
and reactionary.

These people articulate this
profound aspiration

that all people are equal.

But at the same time,
they're developing

in line with profound notions
of race and gender that say,

some people
just aren't human.

It's no great secret that
it was wealthy white men

who had the political power
and the vision

to create
the founding documents,

which at that time were
brilliant advances in sort of
the democratic project.

But we know now, of course,
that their vision of
"All men are created equal"

certainly didn't
include women,

but it didn't even
include all men.

I mean, most of the
Founding Fathers
were slave owners.

Women had no legal existence

separate from their husband.

Not enjoying a right
to own or buy property.

Not a right to inherit wealth

without the permission
of their husband.

Black Americans were treated
even worse, of course,

because they were enslaved,

and there were no protections
for black Americans
against slave masters.

When you create a constitution
that protects property,

and property includes people,

basically the constitution
is reinforcing

the subordination
of those people.

So we wrote racism,
classism, and sexism

into our founding documents.

The result is a society
that is deeply hierarchical.

We live in a patriarchal system
and that patriarchy, it says,

everything that is
stereotypically masculine
is on top,

and everything that's
stereotypically feminine
is on the bottom.

So, we tend to value things
that we assign to men.

Things like competitiveness,
radical individualism,

control, domination,
aggression.

We then end up devaluing

universal human traits.

Things like empathy, compassion care, community, partnership.

In the gender binary system,

so often we make these
artificial splits

and so we say,
to be masculine
means to be strong.

Therefore, to be feminine
means to be weak.

So, whether you look through
the lens of race, class,

sexuality, you see
the same hard-soft binary.

White people on top,
and black people
on the bottom.

Rich people on the top,
poor people on the bottom.

The people on the top
are humanized
only in relationship

to the dehumanization of
the people on the bottom,

which is woman,
people of color,

poor people, gay people,
immigrants, et cetera.

What we've done
with these ideas
is we've used them to justify

different levels of worth
and worthlessness

to justify privilege
and violence,

and then we've built
our society, the structures,the institutions of our society,

around these ideas.

And so basically,
much of this inequality is

seen as invisible or normal.

For example, politicians
always seem to find money

for traits and activities

that are "stereotypically"
considered masculine.

Weapons, wars, prisons,

but somehow they can't seem
to find enough money

for anything
that we have learned
to call "soft,"

"feminine," childcare,
healthcare, early childhood
education.

The very investments
that we so need,

not only for
human capacity development,

but for economic development.

The United States
is a very masculine country,

and so we need to incorporate
a critical understanding
of gender

in all our efforts
to diminish inequality

and fulfill
the American dream
in the 21st century.

My parents
came to the States from India
pursuing the American dream,

and looking for
better opportunities
for their children.

It was precisely that
striving towards
the American dream

that really struck me
in the larger Chicano
neighborhood

that I grew up in.

These were
working class folks
that worked really hard

and believed
they would one day
be wealthy,

but there's just so many
structural obstacles

to you actually achieving
that "American dream."

I was working at
a Latino immigrant worker
organizing center

when 9/11 happened.

There was a restaurant
at the top of the
World Trade Center, Tower 1,

and on that morning,
73 workers died.

There were also
13,000 workers
in New York City

who lost their jobs
in the months and weeks
that followed.

So we founded
the Restaurant Opportunities
Centers United

to help these workers
get back on their feet.

We were overwhelmed
with workers asking for help.

Key issues kept coming up
again and again.

Poverty wages,

lack of benefits like
paid sick days,

sexual harassment,
and very severe
racial segregation,

so that workers really had
no opportunity

to achieve the America dream.

The restaurant industry, it's one of the fastest growing sectors of our economy

and yet, every year
seven of the 10
lowest paying jobs

and the two absolute
lowest paying jobs
in the country

are restaurant jobs.

One of the reasons goes back
to the emancipation
of the slaves.

The restaurant industry
and the Pullman Train Company

demanding the right to hire
newly freed slaves

and let them rely on
customer tips rather than
pay them a wage.

And that was actually
codified into the very first
minimum wage law

passed under FDR in 1938.

Which meant that the first
minimum wage for tipped workers
in the United States was zero.

And we've gone from zero
to $2.13 an hour,

which is the current
federal minimum wage
for workers who earn tips

over a hundred-year period.

The ultimate goal
is to get Congress
to do things for women.

Especially women in
the restaurant industry
and women in low-wage jobs,

that help them succeed
and feed their families,

and getting rid of the
lower wage for tipped workers
is one of those things.

70% of tipped workers
in America are women

who have a median wage of
$9 an hour including tips,

suffer from three times
the poverty rate of the rest
of the U.S. workforce,

use food stamps at
double the rate,
and suffer from the worst,

the absolute worst
sexual harassment rate of any
industry in the United States.

Generally about $100,
I would say a month,

were what
the restaurant paid me.

And then I would be making
$900 in tips.

My budget was $2,000.
I had to pay rent,

I was helping my mother
take care of my
little brother,

still had to pay
student loans,

phone bill, everything...
It was not adding up.

So, it forced me to either
go and get a second
or a third job.

Do you know that we spend
$16 billion annually
in tax payer dollars

for public assistance
for these workers?

This is the only industry
on earth that's gotten away
with essentially saying,

"All other working Americans
should pay for
our workers' wages."

There was an article in
The New York Times about restaurant workers in Denmark,

where they have a minimum wage
of $21 for all
restaurant workers,

tipped and non-tipped.

And they asked
the operator of

major chain restaurants
in the Copenhagen Airport,

"Why do you pay this much?"

And he said, "Well,
if I didn't pay $21 an hour,

"workers would have
to live on
public assistance,

"and that would be a sign
of a failed society."

'Cause it isn't just about
these workers who can't live,
it's the fact that

they're not gonna
be able to afford
to support this economy.

We're nearing a place
where half of America
is living in poverty.

That's gotta be our
top priority for the world's
richest country.

Let's say you have giant
multinational company "A"

that employs hundreds
of thousands of workers,

but doesn't pay those workers
a living wage.

Well, who makes up for that?

The taxpayer makes up for that.

And so then,
the taxpayers, regressively,

are in a position of
subsidizing the shareholders.

Giving welfare, in essence,

to some of the wealthiest
corporations in the world.

It used to be
that corporations

saw themselves as
long-lives institutions,

but beginning around 1980,
we began to rewrite the rules
of the economy,

with those at the top
doing very well,

the bankers
doing very well,

the rest of the economy
doing very poorly.

There was also a shift
in our values.

We began, in a sense,
to enter a new gilded age

in which we celebrated wealth
and celebrated power.

Corporations take the profits and they distribute them to the shareholders

and pay the CEOs
huge amounts of money.

And then they say,
"We don't have any money
to pay workers."

The annual Wall Street
bonus pool,

just the bonus pool,
is almost double

the full time
minimum wage earnings

of all Americans.

Corporations,
the financial sector
figured out

that investments
in Washington,

by campaign contributions,
paid huge returns
in terms of

first, deregulation,

and then in terms
of preventing

the kind of re-regulation
that would make
our economy function well

for everybody in society.

So we see this
very tight relationship

between politicians
and corporations,

in terms of the revolving door between the two sectors.

We changed the rules
of the political game

as well
as the economic game.

They give more
influence to money.

It has moved from
one person, one vote
to one dollar, one vote.

And all across the land,

we see institutions
that have broken
the social compact,

this notion that
we're all in it together.

I grew up
in a small village
in McDonald, Ohio.

A town that was named after the first superintendent of U.S. Steel.

When I was younger,
everything was booming.

We had five bars
and five churches.

They were all full.
We had a grocery store,

a pharmacy.

It seemed like the America dream was going on and everybody was happy.

These apartments
were actually built
for mill employees.

We lived
in the apartment here.

With my own father leaving
at six months old,

it was pretty devastating
to us.

My mom is by far
the hardest working
individual

that I've ever met.

She worked at the mill
seven days a week,

long hours,
then she went to clean
the post office.

I'm not even sure
when she slept.

When I came home,
there was always food
on the table.

I always wanted to work
at the steel mill.

The way those guys
laughed and joked,

and the old roughness
to 'em,

their arrogantness,
and told dirty jokes...

I loved it.

It was what was meant to be
a man as far as I knew.

I ran a sonic tester,
at Copperweld,

which tests for internal flaws in all of the quality steel.

It's a well-known fact

that the individuals
in this area helped build
the tanks and bombs

that won
these countries' wars.

And September, 1977,
was known as Black Monday.

LTV Corporation
announced the closing
of the Youngstown Works.

Five thousand individuals
lost their jobs immediately.

In the next several months
after that, over 14,000.

And over the last 20 years
in the Youngstown area,

we've lost over 100,000
steel mill-related jobs.

Management did not
wanna buckle

and understand that
you needed these folks.

You're gonna have to
pay them a little bit more.

And that was one of
the key issues.

Corporate greed
annihilated this area.

In August of 2000,

they were talking about
closing Copperweld,

and a lot of the individuals
around me

said they've been talking
about closing for 30 years,
it'll never happen.

Well, that Christmas time,
I was one of the folks
that got laid off.

I was completely devastated.

I had just built a new house
and bought a new truck.

I have three young boys.

It was either file bankruptcy and move back to the apartments where I came from,

or go door to door.

You gotta get your hustle on.

And you put
your pride aside...

and you ask 'em
if you can clean their gutters.

I remember one year,
we filed our income tax

and I think it was
less than $15,000.

That was our combined total,
you know.

Our first, probably, 10 years,

most of our arguments
was about money.

And I hated it.

You struggle...
We did it for many years.

I used to joke
I'm going grocery shopping
at my mom's.

Toilet paper,
you know, couple of cans
of macaroni and cheese.

-Hey, Steven, how you doing?
-Not bad.

Thank you.

When the yellow point
starts to run out,
you keep going

to look for a job
and you keep getting
turned down, or you keep

getting rejected
over and over again,

it takes a toll.

It not only takes a toll
on you,

but it erodes
the whole family.

How'd you adjust?
What'd you do?

-You go into survive mode.
-Yep.

Cut everything out,
sell everything.

I've sold coin collections,
I've sold my gold,

I sold watches
that I had collected...

just to keep the house.

All these years
and now here I am again
starting over.

I left my wife and kids,
I went to Texas.

And went right
into the oil field.

My day would
start at 3:00 in the morning,

and it was six days a week.

It killed me to be away.

I had missed so much
of my family time with them
because of that.

They were gonna pay
for relocation, but I just...

my roots are here.

I'm not gonna take the kids
away from their grandparents.

Right.

The years you watched
as we let foreign countries

shutter our factories
and steal our jobs

like we're little babies,

but those days
are over, Ohio.

We switched party lines
and voted Republican

for the first time since 1972.

We've had
40 years of suffering.

Enough is enough.

What we've done
for the last 50 years is

we've created a politics
in which there's broad support

for a series of policies
that are driving
economic inequality.

The rich can win
popular support

for their preferences,

which is more power
and more wealth concentrated
in their hands,

if they say to the public

government programs
that try and build
a collective public

are actually giveaways
to undeserving minorities.

Government is not
the solution to our problem.

Government is the problem.

"And if
government is a problem,"
Reagan would say,

"stop funding it.
Cut taxes."

And so Reagan did.

He passed some of
the biggest tax cuts
the country's ever seen.

But did these tax cuts
actually go
to hard working whites?

In fact, over the 1980s

the Reagan tax cuts
transferred
a trillion dollars of wealth

to the top one percent
of the country.

And these tax cuts
have never been repealed.

And so each decade since,
a further trillion dollars
of wealth

have been transferred
to the top one percent
of the country.

If you're reducing taxes
on the wealthy,

and you're not bringing in
any more revenue,

you're gonna have to then
cut programs that serve people.

Including
mental health programs
and community services

and public works projects.

Worker retraining
and all the kinds of ways

in which government money
can ameliorate
the most dire effects

of inequality,

and the idea there
is totally gendered,

in other words, the notion
of a self-made man

who doesn't need
other people

versus community which is
gendered very much feminine,

which is to say
interdependence.

How do they convince people

to turn against
the very policies

that had created
the biggest expansion
in middle class

the United States
had ever seen?

They engaged in what we call
dog-whistle politics.

And the metaphor
is of a political message

that on one level generates
sharp reactions,

but on another, is silent

in a way
that allows politicians

to deny that they are doing
any such thing.

To you,
the great silent majority,

my fellow Americans,

I ask for your support.

...great national crusade
to make America great again.

All Americans are rightly
disturbed by the large numbers

of illegal aliens
entering our country.

And we will
not be intimidated by thugs.

The silent majority is back.

And we are going
to make America great again!

"Make America great again,"
what it really says is,

"Make white men
center-stage again."

Any hierarchy

has ways of defending itself

by creating a situation
of scarcity in competition.

So, there's been scarcity
in competition

between women
and people of color,

between racial minorities
and immigrants,

between working class people,

and racial minorities.

And all that competition

makes it hard for people
to look, to see

what's happening
at the very top.

You have your chair stuck, baby?

I was raised with two
younger brothers

in a very middle-class family

in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

My dad took me outside
one day.

It was a really cold
December day.

He said,
"Go grab the shovel."

I said, "Okay."

So, I get the shovel
and he said,
"All right, start digging."

Okay, so I'm digging
and in a little while I said,

"Um, what are we doing?"

He said, "I'm teaching
you something."

I said,
"What are you teaching me?"

He said,
"Do you want to do this
the rest of your life?"

I said, "Oh, no, sir."
He said, "Go to college.

"Get an education.
Work hard."

I said, "Yes, sir." He said,"All right, you can put away theshovel and go in."

Thank you, ma'am.

In 1980,
when Reagan beat Carter,

I was six years old,

and my dad let me
stay up and watch
the election returns.

I was hooked right then.
Hooked.

How can you not
fall in love
with Ronald Reagan?

I aim to try and tap

that great American spirit.

We're going to put America
back to work again.

His message
was just hope

and American exceptionalism.

He believed
in American greatness.

I believe if you work hard,

you can do anything.
It's America.

I've always been
a Republican

because I thought
they were the party
of lesser government,

more individual liberties.

I don't wanna give up
my individual freedoms

for an entitlement
for a whole group of people.

So, this was
my little trailer park.

I technically
still own the land.

You just would be surprised
how people live.

Sometimes you'd walk in
and you'd step
on a dirty diaper.

When you're high
and you're on drugs,

they just throw up
on themselves,
they don't clean it.

One was so bad,

I had an officer with me
to evict people,

and he came out puking.

The frustrating part
to someone like me is,

whatever, they're 16 years old

and they say,
"Oh, I'm gonna go
file for disability."

You're like,

"Are you disabled?"

"Oh, no, no, no.
I'll just say I have seizures.

"They can't prove epilepsy."

And they just
collect a check,

and it is very frustrating.

My mother believed
she was right

and everyone else was wrong.

She was not
compassionate at all.

It was, "You're on welfare,
you should starve to death."

Not, not to that degree, okay?
But I mean, it was just real...

rigid.

So I was raised
very conservatively,

but without compassion.

One of the fundamental problems that we have to address

is this empathy gap.

This tendency
to otherize people

who aren't like ourselves.

To point fingers rather than
offer a helping hand.

We have created a society

where we don't see each other.

And so, when you
don't see people,

you can dehumanize people.

We are in a crisis
of connection.

Children are being
raised to believe

that the outgroup member,

whether it's class-based,
race-based, gender-based,

is somehow fundamentally
not like them.

And that is the most
devastating thing we can
communicate to our children,

because what do you think
that does to your actions,

your ability to create
a collective with people

from different communities?

You're not gonna
be able to do it.

This morning we come
to the name of Jesus.
We love you.

We thank you for loving us.
God, give us peace today

as we search for you.

It's in your name we pray,
Jesus. And everybody say...

Amen.

We wanted it
to be a community that
everyone felt welcomed,

no matter who they were
or what they'd been through,

their social status,

um, and then we want
to be a church of grace.

Even though it was storming
this past week

and everybody was flooded in,

we still found time to feed
over 500 people
this past Thursday.

-That's awesome.

People ask us all the time,

"Why do y'all
feed those people?

"They're taking
advantage of you."

It's not on me what they do
when we do good,

it's our job to do good.

We're in the Bible Belt.

We have very rich people
who come here, we have very poor people who come here.

We have white, black,
all different types of races,

different types of families,
orientation.

We have progressives here

and we have
conservatives here.

I wanted us
to be a testimony

of different people
coming together

in spite of those differences and still worshipping together

because what I saw
was division.

A lot of people
aren't really interested

in understanding
other people right now.

If you're not on their side
on women's rights,

their right to choose,

if you don't believe in just
one man and one woman,
what they believe,

then they would say,

"How could you be
a Christian?"

I feel like, that today,

one of the greatest sins
of our country is

racism, prejudice,

and hatred against people
that are different than you.

If we do not
protect our race
and protect our people,

they're gonna destroy you.

-White power!
-White power!

White lives matter!
White lives matter!

You will not replace us!

You will not replace us!

My country!
I'm a proud fuckin' American!

Go back to jail, motherfucker!

And build that fucking wall,
for me!

We started doing
healing circles.

It's been a practice
that we've seen

bring our community
closer together.

And when you connect
you heal.

Every single one
of my students

could use a therapist.

Weekly, minimum.

There is a waiting list
for therapy.

It's really sad

how we start to rank trauma.

With our newcomer population,

their trauma is so fresh,

in that whole experience
of crossing the border.

One of my young
female students

normally very respectful,
happy,

yelled at a teacher

and, like, was really angry.

And once we started
to ask her, you know,

"What's going on?
Why are you acting out?"

And she said that
ICE was at her house.

We had a soccer game
and they didn't wanna
come and play.

They didn't know
if they would be safe.

They're scared.

Hi.

Thank you for being here.

-Thank you so much.

What percentage
of your students
are newcomers?

-31%
-31%? Wow.

Can you feel the difference
in the atmosphere,

like this year
versus last year?

It's way more tense
this year.

Every week I have a kid
who is trying
to commit suicide

and I'm calling
an ambulance.

-Every week?
-Every single week.

We have over 30 kids cutting,

like, a cutting epidemic.

Do you guys remember when
I explained to you that

the mayor had made
an announcement

about ICE being in Oakland?

And that I told you
not to panic,

that, um, you guys were
in a safe school,

and that nothing
was gonna happen to you?

I think it's very important
that people know their rights

and I hope that people
feel welcome in Oakland

no matter where
they come from.

And I encourage you
to always speak

to those who hold power

about what they're
doing with it.

-Because you matter, right?
-Yeah.

What are some of your dreams?

I want to be a doctor.

-Doctor?
-Yeah.

-That'd be great,
to heal people.
-Yeah.

Does anyone want
to be the mayor?

-No?

We call him "Mr. President."

I want you to have
all your dreams come true.

I want everyone to feel like

they have access to a future

and I know we have work to do.

And you have
a wonderful principal

who works very hard
and she holds a lot.

The things that worry you,

she goes home and worries
about them, too,
every night.

That's part of
being a family, right?

Mmm-hmm.

You can't be so close
to this much trauma

and not be affected by it.

It's much more emotional
than I thought it would be.

It's really, like,
it takes a lot.

And sometimes
you just feel like,

"I'm not achieving
anything here."

-Yes, you are.
Stop saying that.
-It gets to you, right?

It gets to you.
You feel like

-the problems
are insurmountable.
-Mmm-hmm.

This is like the biggest
challenge of my life, really.

I'm just worrying about
the Ruby plan.
Do you have one?

How you gonna
sustain yourself?

-I love them.
-I know. I'll tell you
why I asked. All right.

Let's say you burn out,
you get tired,

not just physically,
emotionally, mentally,

spiritually, you're tired.

Your mind starts breaking down,
your body starts breaking down,

you're not doing
any good for anybody.

I was in a classroom

doing an observation

and I'm starting to get
kind of dizzy,

and my chest is just hurting,

I just can't breathe.

The right side of my body
kinda goes numb

and I'm, like,
panicking at this point.

I get to the hospital

and straight to
the emergency room,

and I'm...

...freaking out
and I'm crying.

In my mind I'm thinking,
"You're weak."

Like, "You're weak.

"This is not...

"Get it together."
But I can't. I can't.

I physically
cannot do anything.

I had a panic attack.

At that point, I said,

"Well, if I don't
take care of my myself,

"and my kids,

"who's gonna
take care of them?"

Our best economic policies

were investments
in the common genius.

Universal public education,

the Homestead Acts,

to which 25%
of Americans today

attribute their wealth.

The creation of
the 30-year Mortgage Act

by Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac.

The G.I. Bill,

where we said to our G.I.'s,

"You defended our country,

"so we'll provide you
home loans,

"business loans,
college loans."

Each of those major
wealth-building initiatives

left out people of color.

The federal government
spent money in such a way

that excluded
African-Americans

and other non-whites,

from enjoying the fruits
of our wonderful experiment,

um, in democracy.

Redlining actually
kept people who were black

from being able
to buy homes
in certain areas.

People who were white
began to move in droves

out of cities into
suburban communities.

Political clout went
with them to the suburbs.

The best schools
went to the suburbs.

Cities were left with schools
that were under-funded,

jobs that were disappearing,

under-investment in public transportation systems.

We like to think
that this stuff happened
a long time ago,

but to this day, then,

those exclusions continue
to shape life chances

for people who are
their descendants.

On the one hand,
we have this wonderful value

about equality in the country,

democracy,

the value of public education,

and on the other hand,
we have the ugly reality

of inequality and segregation

that was baked into
much of public education

from the beginning
of the country.

Fortunately, the legislation
in the '60s and '70s

that was
desegregating schools,

that was reducing inequality
in funding for schools,

putting money into cities
and poor rural areas,

uh, from the federal
government,

all of which came to an end

or was greatly reduced
in the 1980s.

What has happened since?

We began to
disinvest in the public?

We adopted this idea that

it was all about
the private good

that undermines

the collective investments

that we need to be
a successful society.

By making education
a private good for ourselves,

I unwittingly,
and perhaps unconsciously,

collude in the processes
of inequality.

Because that means
that I'm okay with segregation.

I just want the best
for my child.

In the United States
it's sort of as though

some kids are on
a high-speed elevator

going to the top
of the 90-story building,

and others are going up
some escalators

on the way to that goal,

and others are trying
to walk up creaky stairs

with holes in them.

And that really is
the opportunity gap
in the United States.

In most states,
the funding structure
for education

is predicated
on the tax base.

You can't get a big tax base
in communities

where there's not
home ownership.

And it is radically different
from communities

where the median home

is going for $950,000.

So, when we do have these
fundamental opportunity gaps,

we're sending,
to some kids a message

that you don't matter
as much as other kids.

When you say that
there's an American dream

to somebody
who's a poor child

with no education,

living in a dangerous
neighborhood,

with no opportunity,

what would that
do to a child?

That would say that
if they couldn't find
the American dream

there is something
wrong with them.

And that has a social
psychological impact.

I think it has
a behavioral impact as well.

How do you keep invested
in something

where you don't think
people care about you?

Extreme poverty
and marginalization

has created despair.

And some of that despair
has manifested itself

with drug addiction
and abuse,

it has manifested itself

in pockets
of increased violence.

The war on drugs
has historically,

from its inception,

been a war
on poor people

and a war
on people of color.

White and black kids
experiment with marijuana

at about the same rate.

And yet, nine out of 10
of the people

who were being arrested
were black.

How do you look at that

and say that the government
itself is not being used

as an instrument of punishment
and suppression

for one group of people?

It ultimately
became a means

of mass exploitation,

in a mass bureaucracy.

This dramatic increase
has left states

devastated economically.

They can't fund schools
and health and human services

because so many
of our dollars have been

swallowed by this system

of over-incarceration
and excessive punishment.

And then you ask
why so many

young black women
are not married?

Why you have disparities
in schools?

Why so many young
black children

are in need
of social services?

It's a systemic problem.

We have to move away
from this punitive economy

that has served no one.

It means reckoning
with a long history

of racial injustice
in this country

and reinvestment
towards jobs, not jails,

books, not bars,

healthcare, not handcuffs.

-Books, not bars!
-Book, not bars!

Jobs, not jails!

Healthcare, not handcuffs!

One of the first times
that I started to think about

inequality and racism

was being asked
as an undergrad

to go and speak
to high school students

to encourage them
to go to Harvard.

I then found that
half of the students

were not graduating
from the high school
in my neighborhood.

I was also noticing that

young people at Harvard

were being treated
a lot differently

for doing a lot
of the same things.

So, drug use and abuse

meant taking a semester off

and restarting your studies,

whereas it might mean
getting locked up

for some of my friends
in East Oakland.

A year-and-a-half ago,
my daughter was, uh, detained

and she was housed here.

They tried to give her
two to five years

-and I had to bail her out.
-Whoa.

I've been in
this revolving door

for 12 years.

He's got a mental problem.
He's not a criminal.

He has the mind
of a little teenager.

We are called out when
somebody has been, um,

reporting that they
have been sexually harassed

or sexually assaulted
in the jail.

I've had a few clients
recently who

are in
for non-violent crimes,

and they are remaining
in here

rather than being released
to programs that would help

with what we call
dual diagnosis.

So that could be
substance abuse,
mental health issues,

and that's not a way
to rehabilitate people.

It's not a way
to get people off the street

and it's not humane.

I just really commend you
for the work that you do.

You hang in there.

You tell your daughter
to hang in there.

Thank you.

I'm sorry
we brought you back...

-No, I'm just thinking like...
-...to the lion's den.

That's slavery...

Yeah.

That's slavery at the...

finest compound.
This is slavery.

I'm sorry.

As you know, people are making
their choice of putting,

literally putting food
on their table

-or trying
to bail out their kid.
-I had to do it.

-Right? Yeah.
-Like, I had to do it.

-I've been living
out of suit...
-Yeah.

...for the last
year-and-a-half.

I don't tell people that,

how many times
I didn't have water,

or didn't have electricity
in my house.

You have to choose.

$50,000 later,

-I chose college or bail.
-Yeah.

We've gone
just so far off

the deep end in this country,

in terms of embracing

this punitive criminal
justice system

that disproportionately
impacts people of color.

This system is costly,
not just in financial terms,

but in terms
of people's mental health,

and it worsens
the mental health situation
of their entire family.

So, we have an opportunity
to do something different.

When the mills shut down,

all the social problems
came about.

The marriage troubles,
the suicides,

the split families.

And these are jobs
that are not
$8-an-hour jobs.

-So you can raise families.
-Yeah, yeah.

You know,
and take vacations,

and buy a car.

-Live the American dream.
-Buy a home.

Now, what are you gonna do?

I had young people,

they'd say, "What do I think?"

I'd say,
"Get out of the area."

You know, my own children.
"Leave."

There's nothing here
and that's sad.

This was a great area.

This was a steel area,
but what we had

became from steel
to heroin.

I became more aware

of our opioid addiction

and heroin problems
in this area

when it affected
my own family.

My own son's girlfriend

became addicted to heroin.

Bryson was born

addicted to drugs
and had seizures.

I did not know
that she was doing drugs

while she was pregnant
with Bryson.

I was terrified
when I found out.

I tried helping her.
I even offered to pay

for some of her rehab
and she refused.

I've had full custody
since then.

There it is.

Being a single father is...
I mean, it's hard.

Even with me graduating from college with two degrees,

the regular 40-hour-a-week
is just not enough anymore.

Right now I'm working
seven days a week,

three jobs,

teaching special needs
at Austintown High School.

I'm also part-time
at the Vitamin Shoppe.

I still have my drug
and alcohol counseling job
on the weekends.

This is just what I have
to do to survive.

See you, buddy.

I mean, he is turning
eight this year,

so I have to start
thinking about

putting money back
for college,

and with me working
75 hours a week,

I think I should be able
to afford to put
some money back.

But something is
definitely wrong
with the system

that I can't do it.

I mean, it's not just me,
it's every...
It's everyone around here.

To work every day
to basically just make it.

It's not really living,
it's just...

not dying.

The universal way

in which we determine
value in our culture

is through money.

Certain sectors
are vastly underpaid

and they tend
to be feminized sectors.

So, for example, education,

healthcare,
the service sector,

um, we just don't pay
people in those occupations

whether they be
male or female,

as much as they're worth.

Who's gonna argue
that teachers
living in poverty

is somehow okay?

But because that occupation
is feminized, we pay it less.

Whereas we overpay other
masculinized occupations,

we'll start with sports.

Or the financial sector,

people making money
off of money.

So, compare teachers,
right, to someone
in the finance sector,

and the value that
they're contributing
to society

and the hours
that they're putting in,

it's outrageous,

that we value one
so much more

than we value the other.

It's the jobs
that get closer

to caring and emotional labor

that seem to be
the least valued.

That's just never quite seen
as real work.

And it's often
been associated

with women of color,
immigrant women,

women who are of
marginalized social status.

We all hear that women earn

79 cents on the dollar
compared to men,

but what you don't
often hear

is that they own only
32 cents on a dollar.

For women of color
that gap is really a chasm,

because black
and Latino women

own only pennies
on the dollar

compared to white men
and white women.

It's really important
to remember that

women did not have access
to credit in their own name

until the Equal Opportunity Act in 1974.

Then when we were able
to access credit,

women were preyed upon
during the lead-up
to the foreclosure crisis.

African-American women
were two-and-a-half times

more likely to receive
a subprime loan,

and that led to a lot
of wealth stripping.

To really succeed
in our society,

you need access
to a well-paying job,

you need access to support
to take care of your kids
while you're working,

you need access
to investment vehicles

like a home or a business.

Oftentimes, people do
the blame-the-victim thing,

when what's really
behind her

is this whole history of...
of discrimination

and she's carrying it
on her shoulders.

Whose building?
- Our building.

-Whose building?
-Our building.

-Whose building?
-Our building.

-Whose building?
-Our building.

Hey, everybody.Happy International Women's Day.

In front of our building.

Our building!

We're here to stand with workersof all different sectors,

to say, "Enough is enough."

What we need
is one fair wage.

We need paid sick days
and paid family leave.

We need healthcare
for everybody.

We need an end to sexual
harassment and discrimination.

So we're going to keep rising

as women workers.

All right,
so we've got sisters here

from the restaurant industry

who are going to
share their stories.

At 18, I started bartending.

On my first day,

the owner called me
into his office.

He said that he could help me
pay for college

if I gave him a blow job.

When I refused, I was fired.

At 30, I was locked in the bar
where I worked

by the general manager

and assaulted
by the vice president
of the hotel group.

Unknown to me, he was told
he could have anything
he wanted, including me.

The dynamic of having
a mostly-female workforce
in the front, living on tips,

and a mostly male workforce
in the back,
not living on tips,

creates a dynamic in which
women have no power.

They have no power
vis-a-vis the customer.

They have no power
vis-a-vis the kitchen.

And they have no power
vis-a-vis managers,

who can decide, "You can have
this table or that table,"

which means
you get zero dollars
or $200.

Your wage and your income
could be anything.

It's all up to the men.

There are millions
more young women

for whom this is the first job in high school, college,
or grad school.

This will be the first job
for my daughters.

I know it.

But as a mother,
as an American, that's not the American dream.

As long as you have
a model of our species,

in which one half of humanity
is considered inferior
to the other half,

you are not going
to have equality.

Because that's basic
to inequality.

Systems of power
are these invisible,

behind the scenes,

but very powerful ways
in which we organize the world.

Men dominate
most of the major

economic, political,
and social systems.

And if women are erased
from these institutions
by and large,

if they're showing up
at the highest level
in such small numbers,

it likely means that
their concerns are also erased.

The domination pyramid
keeps rebuilding itself

on the same foundations

of this ranking
of one half of humanity
over the other half.

It's about power,

and it's about the ability
to exercise power,

both individually
and institutionally.

So for example,
if you're serving power
in an economic sense,

you have more chance
for advancement than
if you're not serving power.

And if you're helping
to reinforce men's dominance,

then there are
more opportunities for you
than if you're

subverting men's dominance.

If you really start looking
at economics

through this lens,

you begin to see

that more resources
are funneled to those on top.

But not only that,

there isn't enough investment
in caring for people,

and with this
there isn't enough investment

in human capacity development.

We can project
American military strength
all over the world

and spend hundreds
of billions of dollars,

but then, what are we
doing about poverty
in the inner cities?

What are we doing about
rural white poverty?

What are we doing about
healthcare,

and citizens who can't even
afford to go to the doctor?

I mean, it's a question of
who are we as a society?

What are our values
as a society?

At the end of the day,

a budget is a set of values.

Budget reflects
your values.

What is this symbol?

-Less than.
-Less than.

-Or right... Or greater than.
-Greater than.

This, for me, is also
a symbol of the way in which

we reinforce
and justify inequality.

The idea that men

are more important than women.

That straight people
are better than queer folks,

that citizens are better
than non-citizens,

and on and on.

And so if you feel an imbalance
in this country,

it is because
we are not in balance.

This imbalance plays out
in our homes,

in our policies,
and in our national priorities.

And the truth is
that this symbol

limits our ability to see.

We're releasing this report

called Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families.

A big part of our challenge
today will be

making sure
that people understand

that criminal justice reform

must be about
women and families

and not just about
the folks who are
incarcerated themselves.

Families and the women
who sustain them

are being dragged
into deeper poverty,

stress, strain, and debt

when their loved ones
are incarcerated.

I have a brother.

He went in
when he was 18 years old,

and he's been in
for 10 years now.

So, it was really hard
for our family.

My mom
in the first two months
lost 60 pounds.

went into serious depression.

My parents had to get
multiple jobs to be able
to afford his lawyer fees.

And 10 years after,

we're just financially
getting back to the point

where we can enjoy
a family vacation,

because all of our money
was going to
lawyer fee services.

It's, uh, something
that you have to choose

between whether you're going
to visit your loved one

or you're going to buy them
a shirt,

a long-sleeved shirt
for the winter.

My mom is still, you know,
taking depression pills

and, you know,
dealing with how is it that,

you know, she's going to be
present for her son.

Congratulations.
That's great.

-Thank you so much
for your time.
-Of course.

One in three families
who are facing
big difficult choices

between paying for
basic necessities, like food,

-versus making
court-related payments.
-Mmm-hmm.

One in five families
that we surveyed

had taken out
some sort of loan.

-We can't wait and we really
do need these reforms...
-Mmm-hmm.

...in terms of
the criminal justice system.

And we need to do them in ways
that take into account

-the entire family.
-Mmm-hmm.

If you look
at our history as a country,

we have,
for a very long time,

valued all things

connected to
a dominant framework.

A power over framework.

We actually need to invest
in well-being in our country.

I'm afraid
for all of my kids.

There's nothing really here.

A lot of minimum-wage jobs,

but nothing
to raise a family on.

It has to be
a joint venture

between the companies
that are here,

the educational institutions
and the government
to subsidize education.

They're going
to have to offer incentives

to provide the training
for skilled trade jobs.

We need to pay
a living wage to these folks.

So, employees pay taxes.

They're not on
the program of government
to have the children get lunch.

We wouldn't be talking
about healthcare,

we wouldn't be talking aboutsocial security in this country,

we wouldn't be talking about
lack of money.

Good jobs solve problems.

They pay.

When you take care
of your people,
you will be successful.

That's how you build
a successful company.

-That's the moral of my story.
-"Take care of your people."

Take care of your people.

That's right, brother.

I'm just hoping
that they can pour
some money into this area.

So people
don't have to leave.

You always have to have hope.
You have to.

You think
about America, that we had
a formula for success.

We out-educated,
the rest of the world.

We invested
in right infrastructure,

we invested in roads,
and bridges, and ports.

And we also invested
in research and development.

We pushed the boundaries
of discovery.

We encouraged risk-taking
but not recklessness.

All of these things
inure to the benefit
of businesses.

All of those things
were public investments.

A public construct

of which the private sector
benefitted greatly.

And so this notion
of interdependence,

this notion that
we're all in this together,

that we rise
and fall together,

is absolutely true.

Mr. Naughton has decided

that this is not
going to work for him
moving forward.

He's probably going to move
somewhere where
the need is less.

I think
people leave education

because it's just not valued
in our country.

We don't pay teachers well.

We don't celebrate them
and encourage them.

And then you're a teacher
in East Oakland,

and you might have a kid
cuss you out
or you might get hit.

Um, and who... What human is,
like, gonna sit there and say,
"Oh, I can deal with that"?

Two of my therapists quit

because of
the secondary trauma

that they've experienced
with our students
this school year.

So people leave
because it's crazy.

And it's hard.

HI!
- Hi! Good morning.

What's on your mind?
What's on your heart?

-There's a lot of anger.
-Hmm.

-Fuck this system.
-Yeah.

Fuck this.

This is the sign
to fail my kids

and I'm sitting here and
I'm contributing in this way.

-I get angry.
-Yeah.

The superintendent
has changed twice now
in two years.

When we have
a new superintendent,
then it's almost like

you're trying to convince
that new person

of the work that you're doing.

And that is exhausting.

There is not
a true understanding

of the amount of need

versus the amount of money
that we receive.

With the budget crisis,
I'm sure you're aware,

our future center may be

not funded next year.

So that's something I know
you're really concerned about.

What else?

Our African American
Male Achievement program...

Our Restorative Justice program.

So everything that's designed
to break down traditional

-oppression and barriers
to opportunity...
-Yeah.

-...all that's going away.
-Pretty much.

When you stick
all of the students

who have the highest need
into one school building,

and that is
all they see all day,

how can you vision
something different?

You cannot put
all of the poor people
in one building

and expect them to succeed.

I think about myself
in this...

generational poverty,

and, like, how hard it's been
for me to break that cycle

within myself and my family.

And I didn't go
to a school like Frick.

My school was diverse.

And I was able to
go to my apartment

and not have lights,

but go to my friend's house
and see her bedroom

as big as my apartment.

And what if
I hadn't ever seen
something different?

Would I have believed
in something different?

I think my students
should be around
other students

who live completely
different than them.

And they can go
to the hills in the weekends

or go to a pool party with
someone of a different race

or a different
economic background,

and that's
not happening here.

We're trying
to break the system,

we're trying to break
generational poverty,

and it's going to take
way more resources
than we have.

I believe my kids
can be successful.

But I need more time.

I need more time
to change this school.

Ah... over there.

We have to change the habits
and the hearts of the people

and move away from
our own self-interest

to become more empathic
about what's happening
to other people's children.

Knowing how much benefit

early childhood
education brings

to closing the achievement gapand closing the opportunity gap,

we're very foolish
not to provide access

to high-quality learning
for all young children,

especially those
in low-income communities.

You get so much more
bang for the buck

by investing in a trouble
six-month-old

or a troubled six-year-old,
than you do in investing
in a...

in a troubled 16-year-old.

It's going to cost money

to make sure every child
starts school ready to learn.

It's going to cost money

to make sure that
young people get

the training they need
for good jobs.

But for every dollar
that we spend,

not only do we save several,
but we produce,

we increase the GDP.

America will prosper when
the people of the future

are prepared
to lead to the future
that we all want.

You know, for all the love
and support in the room,

I have to confess
that nobody ever seems

to want to take me
out to dinner.

But, uh, the employers
in this room

prove that actually you can
take the high road.

Many of these employers
have been willing
to come with us

to Congress and
state legislatures and say,

"We believe in higher wages
and better benefits.

"Not just for workers,
but because it's better
for the bottom line."

You know, this is ultimately
about our democracy.

It's about this question...

Who gets to decide
how women are treated
in the workplace?

Who gets to decide
whether we as a nation

follow the outstanding path

of the high-road employers
in this room,

or follow the low road,
a path of poverty and misery?

Is it a handful of
trade lobbyists,

or is it we, the people?

The values of the restaurant
emanate from whatever it is

that the ownership wants.

And so, when you say,
"I want an equitable
work environment."

"We want to create
a living wage
for all of our employees."

"We want
to open up opportunity."

All these things really
are basic human values.

Restaurants can create
a lot of change.

There are seven states.

California, Oregon, Washington,

Nevada, Montana,

Minnesota, and Alaska,

have all demanded
that the restaurant industry

pay their own workers' wages

and let tips be
on top of that wage.

And then we've got measures
moving in states
around the country

to eliminate the lower wage
for tipped workers. And so...

this is going to be
rolling momentum towards

the next
three to five years

being able to move
one fair wage legislation
in Congress.

We have breaking news.

The Intercept,which is a,
uh, media platform,

intercepted a poll
on public support
of the minimum wage.

And here were the results,

"71% support
among all people,

"Republican and Democrat,
raising the minimum wage,

"and only 8%
of people in America
totally oppose it."

Everybody wants this.
Everybody needs this.

It will happen.

It is just a question
of how and when.

Imagine a world
in which women were valued.

In that world, they'd be able to take care of their families,

they'd be able to take care
of our communities.

They would lead.

All it takes is valuing her.

Letting her know
that she is valued.

Paying her in a way
that reflects her value.

If we did that, we'd have
a different economy,

we'd have
a different country.

Nations that have invested
in caring for their people

and in caring for their
natural environment

are not only always
in the highest ranks

of the United Nation's
Human Development Reports,

but of
the World Economic Forum's

Global Competitiveness Reports.

And not coincidently,
these are the nations

where is is much more
equal partnership

between the female
and male halves of humanity,

in both
the family and the state.

As the status
of women rises,

men no longer feel
it's such a threat
to their status

to also back, embrace

more stereotypically soft,
caring policies.

So they have childcare,

they have very generous
paid parental leave.

Of course they have
universal health care.

And because
they have invested
in caring for their people,

they have less poverty,
less crime, long life spans,

kids who do well
in international tests.

They are societies
that have shifted

from a domination system
more to a partnership system.

We're not bystanders
in this world.

We have the ability to step up
and solve big problems.

We have done that
in the past.

It's just a question
of prioritization,

a question of political will.

Just like nations,
businesses should be run

for the benefit
of all their stakeholders.

Society, partners, investors,

customers, employees,
the environment,
communities, et cetera.

Every business
should have a purpose

that goes
beyond making money.

You could compete,
for example,

on whether or not
your company

has a high-happiness rating
for its employees.

Um, you could compete
in terms of

the environmental record
of the company.

In terms of whether or not
they offer paid parental leave.

Instead of just valuing money,

we would introduce
a whole other set of values.

You know, economic systems
are human creations.

We can recreate them.

If we are a nation
founded in justice
and equality,

we have to always
be able to see

folks as deserving
even when they make mistakes.

We know that
the true path to safety

is through economic opportunity and restorative justice.

That most people
would respond to

a meaningful job,

and would respond to
restorative justice,

where they're held accountableand yet still held in community.

I think that
there is an opportunity

to restore the balance
of this country,

and to live up
to our ideals.

We need to move away
from this
punishment-based economy

towards a more caring economy.

What we have to do
as a society is stop
being blind to history.

Stop being blind to systems.

Understand that
there are privileges

and there are oppressions
in society.

And, in fact,
they work like a seesaw.

Your privilege is actually
built on my oppression.

We actually have to
engage in truth-telling.

We're gonna have to
express some shame

and sorrow about who we are
and what we've done.

We're gonna have to
find the will

to reconcile ourselves
to a different future.

If you don't
address the racism,
sexism, homophobia, hatred...

The hatred that we live in,
in our culture,

then you can't start having
a conversation

about love, peace
and understanding.

I think
it was realizing that, like,
my mom's rhetoric

of she really hated
certain types of people.

And I thought,
"Well, wait a minute,

"you tell me that
Jesus loves people, right?

"But you're saying this
and they don't line up.

"If Jesus loves everyone,

"then how can you hate
this type of a person?"

Had a lady
at the trailer park,

she would walk
two miles to work every day
at McDonald's,

and she had to quit
because they took
her food stamps away,

because she had a job.

And she said, "Sharon,
I can't afford to work.

"Because I'm paying
childcare...

"and now
I don't have food stamps,
so I can't... I'm making less."

Why can't we help people
that go out
and try to help themselves?

-Congratulations.
-Thank you.

About to graduate?

So, when are you due?

-I'm due on October 5th.
-Oh, wow!

-Here you go.
-Thank you.

And then, did you pick out
your produce yet?

-Yes, ma'am.
-Okay.

I've lived 15 years
on the Western Rivers.

I've never been married.

Don't have any kids.

All I cared about
was making money, you know.

And that didn't do
a lot of good for me,
you know.

I made a real
bad investment.

I was gonna go
in the dive boat business.

And I was stuck with,
you know, a boat that
wasn't worth anything.

except a big bill.

I'm so sorry.

One or two bad decisions
and he had nothing.

Wow, that could be me.

I mean, how many paychecks
do most Americans live
from bankruptcy?

-Here you go.
-Thank you.

But you grew up on your own?

Yes, ma'am.

Some of these guys
got good education,
good potential.

I mean, if we had a roof
on our head, it'd be better.

Just a job.

We are so busy
in our own worlds,

so we fail to see the people
that need so much
right in front of us.

What's up, bro?

The best preacher
in the world.

Doing all right, my man?

Yes, sir.

I'm 57 years old.

I've worked,
paid taxes my whole life.

I was an engineer.

And I got
compression fractures
in my back,

but it's not enough
to get disability money.

If I could get
disability money...

I wouldn't be living
out here.

I don't get food stamps.

The system sucks.

Yeah.

It really is easy
to judge

and say, "Well, go get a job.
That's what I did."

But a lot
of these people can't.

I think people need to learn
each other's stories.

When we know
each other's stories,
you don't judge harshly.

Father, we come to you
in the name of Jesus.

God, I thank you
for my brother here

and, God, I pray
that you be with him.

Help him, God.
Protect him, God...

A lot of this
causes me to think about

the soul of a nation
and I guess the values of it.

And what you do with
the most vulnerable
around you,

whether it's children
or the mentally ill.

And we forget that
so many people
are left behind.

I really feel like if we focus more on each other,

and not on ourselves,

we'd be so much better.

We live in such
an individualistic society,

I guess I'm trying
to think of ways

to create more communities
where people
are more connected.

Reconnecting with
your fellow humans

on that deep
relationship level,

that feels like
that's the right path

to solving some
of these things.

The change we need is premised
on going back to what we know

about what makes us human.

We need each other.
We're born into the world
needing each other.

We thrive in relationships.
We need communities.

That's the most important thing we have.

We're all part of
this interconnected system,

and we all flourish
or we suffer together.

It truly is about...

what are your values
as a human being?

And what does
our American character say
about who we are?

Are we caring people?

Will we fight for justice,

wherever that fight takes us?

If we shift our culture
to be a world in which

we're much more connected
to one another

and where
we're serving others,

then we all rise,
this is our moment.

We all rise.

We will know
we have equality
in this country

when everybody has a chance
at the American dream.

Not just in the sense
of hard work leading
to economic security,

but to the American dream
in the more profound sense
of being treated

with equal dignity
and being rewarded by full membership in society.

What makes us who we are
as a country is that
every generation of people

tries to bridge the distance

between our founding reality
and the beauty of the dream.

When I grow up,
I want to be
a doctor or a lawyer,

because I want
to protect people
and help them.

I think in America
everything can be possible.