♪ ♪ ♪ >> those opportunity gaps begin early. often at birth.

and they compound over time. becoming harder and harder to bridge. making too many young men and women feel like no matter how hard they try they may never achieve their dreams. and that sense of unfairness and of powerlessness of people not hearing their voices, that's helped to fuel some of the protests that we've seen in places like baltimore around ferguson and right here in new york. the catalysts of those protests were the tragic deaths of young men and the feeling that law is not always applied evenly in this country. and too many places in this country black boys and black men, latino boys latino men they experience being treated differently by law enforcement. in stops and in arrests and in

charges, and in incarcerations. the statistics are clear up and down the criminal justice system. there's no dispute. that's why one of the many things we did to address these issues was to put together a taskstask force of community policing community activists some who had led protests here in new york, young people whose voices needed to be heard. and what was remarkable was law enforcement and police chiefs and county sheriffs working with these young people they came up with concrete proposals that if implemented would rebuild trust and help law enforcement officers do their jobs even better and keep them and their communities even safer. and what was clear from this task force was the recognition that the overwhelming majority of police officers are good and honest and fair and care deeply

about their communities. and they put their likes of on the line every -- lives on the line every day to keep us safe. their loved ones wait and worry until they come in that door at the end of their shift. as many of you know, new york's finest lost one of its own today, brian moore who was shot in the line of duty saturday night, passed away earlier today. came from a family of police officers and a family of fellow officers he joined in the nypd and across the country deserve our gratitude and our prayers not just today but every day. they've got a tough job. [applause] which is why in addressing the issues in baltimore or ferguson or new york, the point i made was, that if we're just looking at policing, we're looking at it too narrowly. if we ask the police to simply

contain and control problems that we ourselves have been unwilling to invest and solve that's not fair to the communities. that's not fair to the police. what we gather here to talk about today is something that goes deeper than policing. it speaks to who we are as a nation. and what we're willing to do to make sure that equality not opportunity is not an empty word. across the country and in parts of new york, in parts of new jersey and parts of my home town in chicago there are communities that don't have enough jobs. don't have enough investment. don't have enough opportunity. you have communities with 30 or 40 or 50% unemployment. they've been struggling long before the economic crisis in 2007-2008. communities without enough role models. communities where too many men

who could otherwise be leaders who could provide guidance for young people, who could be good fathers good citizens, good neighbors, who are languishing in prison. there are no shortage of people who could tell you who and what is to blame for the plight of these communities. i'm not interested in blame i'm interested in responsibility and i'm interested in results. [applause] and that's why we partnered with cities to get more kids access to quality early chidehood education. no matter who they are or where they are born. that's why we partner wednesday cities to get booster zones to get support for new moms to summer jobs for young people to helping more young people afford

a college education. and that's why over a year ago we launched something we called my brother's keeper, an initiative to address those persistent opportunity gaps to assists young people of color can go as far as their dreams can take them. it was an initiative we pursued after trayvon martin's death we wanted a message from the white house in a sustained way that his life mattered, that the lives of the young men who are here today matter. that we care about your future. not just sometimes, but all the time. in every community in america there are young people with incredible drive and talent. and they just don't have the same kinds of chances that somebody like me had.

they're just as talented as me. just as smart. they don't get a chance. because everyone has a part to play in this process we brought everybody together. we brought business leaders and faith leaders mayors, philanthropists, entrepreneur, all around the simple idea of giving our young people the tools they need to achieve their full potential. and we were determined not to just do a feel-good exercise to right a report that nobody would read to do some announcement and then once the tv cameras have gone away, you know, there weren't protests or riots then somehow we went back to business as usual. we wanted something sustained. and for more than a year we've been working with experts to identify some of the key milestones that matter most in

every young person's life from where they enter school ready to learn to whether they graduate ready for a career, are they in danger of entering the criminal justice system, can we catch them before they do? key indicators will make a difference. if he child is reading by third grade at great level we know they have a chance. if they aren't involved with the critical justice system and aren't suspended we knew they would do better. there are things we knew would make a difference and we are looking at programs and policies that actually work in intervening at those key periods periods. early childhood jeas works. job apprenticeship perhaps work, certain mentoring programs work. we've identified which strategies make the difference in the lives of young people

like mentoring or violence prevention and intervention, and we knew this work couldn't just be the work of the federal government we challenged every community in the country. big cities, small towns tribal nations, to milkily commit to help young people succeed. and as a result we have already got more than 200 communities across the country who are focused on this issue on board and doing great work. they're sharing best practices and ideas. all of these things happened in the last year. we've gotten such response in such a short period of time, the enthusiasm from people all around the country proves how much people care about this. sometimes politics can be cynical, and the debate in washington is cynical but when you get on the ground folks care about this.

they know that how well we do as a nation depends on whether our young people are succeeding. that's our future workforce. they know that if you've got african american or latino men here in new york who instead of going to jail they're going to college those are going to be taxpayers. they're going to help build our communities. they are going to make our communities safer not potentially part of the problem but part of the solution if we treat them as such. so we made enormous progress over the last year. but today after months of great work on the part of a whole lot of people, we're taking another step forward. with people from the private sector coming together in a big way. we're here for the launch of the my brother's keeper alliance which is a new nonprofit organization of private sector

organizations, and companies that have committed themselves to continue the work of opening doors for young people. all our young people. long after i've left office. it's a big deal. [applause] i want to thank the former ceo of deloitte, joe ech anniversary eci echivierra. you have done an incredible job. [applause] >> just like my brother's keeper we launched last year, joe and my brother's keeper alliance is all about results. they have set clear goals and getting boys to read at grade left at third grade.

getting 50,000 more of those young men into postsecondary education or training. they have already announced $80 million in commitments to make this happen and that is just the beginning. and they've got a great team of young people who helped to work on this, a lot of them from deloitte we appreciate them so many, we're proud of the great work that they did. but here's what the business leaders who are here today and joe certainly subscribes to this will tell you: they are not doing this out of charity. the organizations that are represented here, ranging as varied as from sprint, to b.e.t they are not just do it to assuage society's guilt. they are doing this because they know that making sure every young person has the abilities to succeed is an economic imperative. these young men all our youth are part of our workforce.

if we don't make sure that our young people are safe and healthy and educated and prepared for jobs for tomorrow, our businesses will knot have -- will not have the jobs to succeed in 20th century america, our society will lose in terms of productivity and potential, our economy won't be operating at full potential they know there's an economic rationale for making this investment. but frankly there's also about more than just economics. it's about values. it's about who we are as a people. you know joe grew up about a mile from here. in the bronx. and as he and i were sitting there listening to many incredible young men in a round table discussion, many of them from this community their stories were our stories. so for joe and i this is

personal. because in these young men we see you're. the stakes are clear -- see ourselves. the stakes are clear and the stakes are what kind of country do we want to be? it is not enough to celebrate the ideals that we're built on, liberty for all and justice for all and equality for all. those can't just be words on paper. the work of every generation is to make those ideals mean something concrete in the lives of our children. all of our children. and we won't get there as long as kids in baltimore or ferguson or new york or appalachia or the mississippi delta or the pine ridge reservation believe that somehow their lives are worth

less. we won't get there when we have impoverished communities when we are in the richest nation in the earth children are born into abject poverty. we won't be living up to our ideals when their parents are struggling from substance abuse or in prison or unemployed or fathers are absent and schools are scarce and jobs are scarce, a young man is less likely to end up in college than jail or dead. and feels like his country expects nothing else of him. america's future dpefnedz on depends on us caring about this. if we don't then we will just keep on going through the same cycles. periodic conflict. we ask police to go into communities where there's no

hope. eventually something happens because of the tensions between societies and these communities. and the police are just on the front lines of that. and people tweet outrage and the tv cameras come. and they focus more on somebody setting fire to something or turning over a car than the peaceful protest and the thoughtful discussions that are taking place. and then some will argue well, all these social programs don't make a difference. and we cast blame. and politicians talk about poverty and inequality. and then gut policies that help alleviate policy or reverse inequality. [applause]

and then we wait for the next outbreak or problem to flare up. and we go through the same pattern all over again. so that in effect, we do nothing. there are consequences to inaction. there are consequences to indifference. and they reverb rate far beyond the walls of the projects or the barriers or the roads to the reservation. they sap us of our strength as a nation. it means that we are not as good as we could be. and over time it wears us out. over time, it weakens our nation as a whole. the good news is it doesn't have to be this way. we can have the courage to

change. we can make a difference. we can remember that these kids are our kids. for these are all our children, james baldwin once wrote. we will all profit by or pay for whatever they become. and that's what my brother's keeper is about. that is what this alliance is about. and we are in this for the long haul. we're going to keep doing our work at the white house on these issues. sometimes it won't be a lot of fanfare. i notice we don't always get a lot of reporting on this issue when there's not a crisis in some neighborhood. but we're just going to keep on plugging away. and this will remain a mission for me and for michelle not just the rest of my presidency but for the rest of my life. [applause]

and the reason's simple. like i said before. i know it's true for joe it's true for john legend, part of our round table true for alonzo, part of our board. we see ourselves in these young men. i grew up without a dad. i grew up lost sometimes and adrift. not having a sense of a clear path. the only difference between me and a lot of the other young men in this neighborhood, and all across the country is that i grew up in an environment that was a little more forgiving and at some critical points i had some people who cared enough about me to give me a second chance or a third chance. or give me a little guidance whether i needed it. or to open up a door that might otherwise have been closed. i was lucky.

alex santos is lucky too. where is alex? alex is here. stand up, alex. [applause] so alex was born in puerto rico, grew up in brooklyn and the bronx in some tough neighborhoods. when he was 11 he saw his mom's best friend, a man he respected and looked up to, shot and killed. his older brothers dropped out of school, got caught up in drugs and violence so alex didn't see a whole lot of options for himself. couldn't envision a path to a better future. he then dropped out of school. but then his mom went back to school and got her ged. she set an example. that inspired alex to go back and get his ged. actually it's more like she stayed on him until he went back. and i know, because just like

i -- i was lucky i also had a mom who used to get on my case about my studies so i could relate. bus this is what alex says about his mom. "she made me realize that no matter what there's a second chance in life." to today alex is getting his ged, he's developed a passion for sports. his dream is to one day work with kids as a coach and set an example for them. he said he never thought he could go to college now he believes he can. all alex wants to be is a good role model for his younger brothers who are bright and doing well in school. he said they matter so much to my life and i matter to theirs. so alex and his brothers and all the young people here, all the young ones who are out there struggling the simple point to make is you matter. you matter to us. it's interesting during the round table we asked these young

men, incredible, gifted young men, we asked them what advice would you give us and they talked about mentor programs and they talked about counseling programs and guidance programs in schools. but one young man malachi he just talked about we should talk about love. [applause] >> because malachi malachi and i shared the fact that our dad wasn't around. and that sometimes we wondered why he wasn't around and what had happened. but really, that's what this comes down to, is do we love these kids? see, if -- >> applause. >> if we feel like because they

don't look like us, they don't talk like us or they don't live in the same neighborhood as us, that they're different that they can't learn. or they don't deserve better. or it's okay if their schools are run down or it's okay if the police are given a mission just to contain them rather than encourage them. then it's not surprising that we're going to lose a lot of them. but that's not the kind of country i want to live in. that's not what america's about. so my message to alex and malachi and darinel and all the

young men and boys that are not in this room, haven't yet gotten that helping hand, haven't yet gotten that guidance, i want you to know: you matter. you matter to us. you matter to each other. there's nothing not a single thing, that's more important to the future of america than whether or not you and young people all across this country can achieve their dreams. >> wow we've been listening to the president of the united states, strong words here particularly toe end of his remarks. i want to bring in mike viqueria, white house correspondent, talking about your lives really matter and maybe you can sort of give us a backdrop on what you're seeing here. the president is here and announcing the creation of an independent nonprofit organization. am i right to say that this is a spinoff -- >> that's right. >> this is a spinoff of my

brother's keeper initiative? >> exactly and it's designed to last pass president obama's term. of course he's got less than two years to go in office. my brother's keeper alliance was formed by the administration by the president in the wake of the trayvon martin killing and the verdict of his assailant george zimmerman. meant to reach out to communities, mostly of color where the president says, the life statistics are not what they could be for other individuals, for their peers he says. he says there are opportunity gaps and what my brother's keeper and my brother's keeper alliance the president is announcing is going to be formed as a private organization, young people when they are in the third grade to make sure there's a proper reading level for example at high school to make sure they graduate, to make sure

they go to either college or vocational school, this is the initiative the president is taking speaking from the heart tone you're absolutely right a theme he has struck over the past several weeks in ferguson and in new york city and in baltimore over the course of the last week. the president talking about the root causes the backdrop under which this is staged tony. >> michael i know you'll have more on this newscast. but let's see the president again in that room in the bronx in new york city shaking hands and greeting supporters. this is something he says he is going to work on for the rest of his life. this is going to be his life's work that this framework here for his work, for the rest of his days. more on this tonight in our newscast here on al jazeera

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report. >> stories that have impact. that make a difference. that open your world. >> this is what we do. >> america tonight. tuesday through friday. 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! >> this year, striking restaurant workers brought their low wages to the nation's attention. but what many americans don't know is that low wage workers are often being cheated out of what little they do make. >> i said are you kidding me? i said you're telling me that these people allowed to treat people like this and you can't do anything? >> they accuse me. they accuse me, the federal government, that i stole one