>> in a few moments, a look at the role of social workers in impoverished communities. in a little less than 1.5 hours, a house budget committee hearing at programs -- on programs aimed at reducing poverty. after that, the latest from the congressional budget office. call forration judges independence from the justice department. >> this weekend on the c-span networks -- friday night on c-span, american history. -- native american history. and then national book festival coverage from the science pavilion. then a debate on scotland's

decision on whether to end its political union with england. robert katzman, chief justice of the circuit of abuse. c-span 2, in depth with congressman ron paul. then all day coverage of the national book festival from the history and biography pavilion. sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, "afterwards" with william burroughs, talking about his book. on c-span 3, a nasa documentary about the apollo 11 moon landing. saturday, general william tecumseh sherman's atlantic campaign. and then a look at the supreme court case bush versus gore. find our schedule at c-span.org and let us know what you think

about the programs you are watching. call us. on twitter, use the hashtag #c123. join the conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. >> steve perry is the founder and principal of a school in hartford, connecticut, that except only first-generation students. it is part of a conference hosted by clark atlanta university. it is a little more than an hour. >> folks, i want to thank you so much for having me here today. honoredly humbled and to be at clark atlanta because you are the epicenter of what atlanta means.

you are really at the center. so we are going to have a , and i mean today that because what i know is that i do not know everything. what i also know is that you are seeing things on your side of the front lines that i'm not seeing. -- i amn tell you this a social worker first, second, and third. [applause] i find myself squared off against teachers unions pretty regularly. i will get into why. it starts with the fact that they do not care about our kids. that theythe knocks have had against me, they say, he is not even a teacher. he is a social worker. amazed when i hear

educators complaining about how hard their jobs are, like they have never met a social worker. andere downstairs talking he said, i saw you picking kids up in the morning. educators do not do that. but every social worker does. how many times does someone have to tell you you cannot put people in your car. yeah, whatever. i am supposed to just leave them here? vital on soo is so many levels in so many industries. but the problem is that we are too silent. the african-american community, in particular, people from disadvantaged populations in general need our voices. the problem i have with my brothers and sisters who are

social workers is your silence. you see the problem before the problem turns into a problem. theiavelli said, not tupac, real one, that when an illness is new, it is difficult to detect but easy to cure. as it matures, it becomes easier to detect and more difficult to cure. you see the germination of some of the most difficult challenges that our community faces and you see them on a micro and macro level. you see how so many of our people, not just children -- because everybody should be working with young people. one of the things that i struggled with when i was in social work school was that there were people i did not think were called. i believe that you are called to be a social worker. some people do it because it seemed like the easiest masters they were going to get. some people did it because there

was nothing else to do. are called, us who we take great offense to having those people even in our classes. then you get stuck with them on a group project. social workers have got to do everything in a group. you cannot eat without being in a group. you cannot go to the bathroom -- social workers have got to work together. where are you going? water fountain. well, i will go with you. [laughter] but for those of us who are called, we see something that other people do not see. we get access to people's lives. and i say people, not just children, because, very often, the most difficult client that i have is the parent of my childhood who thinks that they know every thing that there is to know. and they have no understanding or respect for the context in which i am talking to them.

the reason i am here is because your child is acting a fool. maybe if you would listen to somebody, we can get this boy back in class. for those of us who are on the front lines, our voices are silent. in our to each other professional meetings and we sit and you goby-case, through and talk about what you did and did not do. we do not make those conversations public. worki was doing my social internship in philadelphia at a school called strawberry mansion, which is a very pretty-sounding school, but there is nothing beautiful about it, when i was doing my social work internship, i felt like i was running up a hill of sand. because a kid would come into my

office and we would work for 45 minutes on an issue. outthen i would send him into the very environment that created the issues for the next 23 hours and 15 minutes. the first 15-20 first two ore three weeks, he did not say anything. are you all right? yep. why are you just sitting here? i do not know. do you want to talk about anything? nope. and there we sit. watch the game last night? nope. you watchedn well the game. we have to, regardless of whether you are micro or macro, whether you want to be a therapist or an administrator,

our conversation needs to be elevated to the public sphere because every single issue that is being discussed in our community, you have solutions for. but you, because you are so social worker, you just want to be a soldier. i do not want to deal with this. just give me my clients and i will deal with my clients. i get that. and we respect that about you. but you have got to cut that out. it is time for social work to grow up. it is time for social work to mature, to recognize that the other professions have organized themselves into unions and associations that are speaking on their behalf and working towards working conditions that will make their jobs easier even if they do not produce a better product. recognizing that they have worked very hard to position themselves in the years and eyes of politicians and the community so that they are the ones that people trust when we are the ones who are making their jobs

the easiest. there is not a single profession in which social work education cannot help you. not one. we are everywhere. go to major corporations and there is a social worker there, helping people get their lives together so they can go back to selling insurance. go to hospitals or corporations in the furthest places and you will find that there are social workers there. but we are not talking. i know the whole thing about confidentiality, but you all are taking it so -- taking it too far. we need to talk about the systems that are causing our children the real issues and we need to talk about this in a real way. not just esoteric social work school way, because you know how we get. not just talking about racism in the aggregate, but talking about

it in its nuances. not just the racism of white versus black people, but the racism of black people versus black people. the deep-seeded, self-hate that we carry around on a daily basis so that that when you, as a social worker, come into the they are suspicious of you. that just makes the black person that you are working with even more suspicious and the white person you are working with even more suspicious. taking a look at the issues of and how this profession, because there are so many women in it, it does not get the respect that it should. we need to have these conversations and we need to come forward with solutions. we have ourselves a real problem and the problem is us. there were two reasons i went to social work school. i had an interest

in politics. i thought i was going to be a politician. i thought i was going to be a policymaker. i felt like you cannot be a policymaker if you do not understand the issues that people are confronting. i should go to a place where people are learning to deal with people's issues. issue why i went to social work school, because i grew up in a family where there was domestic violence. women i love, women who i thought were strong, carry on a lot. would watch them explain away the conduct of their husbands or boyfriends. destruction -- i seen the destruction of not only the woman, but everyone involved.

not just the woman who has been hit, but the children who saw it , the mother of the man who beat the woman who has to come up before sheon why would correct her son. and the sickness of the man who feels compelled to express himself by taking violence to the woman. or the woman who has lost her way and feels like it is ok for her to get in a man's face and start pointing in his face and challenging him. i saw from that particular experience in my own life that there were so many entry points where people need help. we all came to social work because we were inspired by something. behind eachtory

social worker. a person who was raped as a help person and wants to rape victims. up sufferinggrew and wants to help those who do not have. with soson who grew up much and wants to extend those gifts that they have been given. every single social worker has a story. every single one of us has a reason why we decide to work longer hours than any other profession. while we were going to the most dangerous communities, and do -- ihink twice about remember when i went to social work school, i was dead broke. i was working two jobs. my first job was at an alternative school and i worked with kids who were placed out in , theselternatives

residential programs. you know how bad a kid has to be to be placed in a residential program. , because no one wants to place the kids. they want them to sit and tell it out when they need significant mental health support. everyone thinks they can do our job. like there is no real skill involved. just talk to people, right? , i second part of my day would work from 8:00-3:00 in the morning and i would drive 45 minutes and work from 4:00 to midnight. it was a private adjudicated youth program. like a probation officer. my job was to go and do visits. remember, one time, my

supervisor, this white dude from , thatst coast named sonny was his name and he was the quintessential, stereotypical west coast dude. this is what he said to me one time. i had drawn the short straw because, during this particular summer, i was the only black person employed by the organization. i got the dubious distinction of getting into the project. -- the projects. they would sent me into the projects -- they would send me into the projects with a blue vic with numbers on the side. and then they would send me in with a walkie-talkie. and that is what every social worker watts, right? because those are the tools of the trade. what am i going to do with this,

throw it at somebody? all this is doing is getting in the way. said,told me one time, he i had gone back to the office and he said, we have been looking for you because one of the kids, his mother hit him. and i said, and? he said, conventional wisdom says you are not supposed to hit kids. i happened to know this particular child. he needed to be hit. so i asked him, which convention did you attend where they said you could not hit a child? when we do not bring what we know to the policy conversations , the policy becomes so broad and thoughtless that i was supposed to go back and essentially call the police on this parent who had just had it

to here. her son was about 6'3" and she was about 5'5". even if she connected, she was not going to get him square. osu was trying to do was to get her son to stay out of trouble. all she was trying to do was to get her son to stay out of trouble. and what this social worker was saying was that we should legislate this level of morality on this family and essentially pull this mom and child out of the house. our silence keeps that going. levels,nce, on so many keeps it going. those of you who work in schools, you have seen it. the kids are the first one to tell you, they do not even like us. right? you sit in the group sessions and the first adult they can

find to tell, they say they do not like us. how can they teach us if they do not like us? is -- but it really don't. they can name the teachers in school who do not care about them. they can name the administrators in school who do not care about them. they can name them by name. and they have great things to say, really intuitive things to tell you. but why? they feel like these individuals do not care about them. because of our silence, that kid gets in trouble because he skipped class. because he wass not going to learn anything. them talkingwant to him anymore. he felt that if he was going to go into that class one more time, he was going to say one more slick thing and he was going to react. and we know that. too often, what we do

intuitively, we just go get the kids. you cannot go out like that. to you.et them do this we tried to talk to him, but we know better because we know that , in some neighborhoods, when you walk away, that is the worst thing that you can do. you have now become a mark. are you like that? you are going to let us say something to you in class like that? home.u ain't walking we have been silent for too long. we have been silent for too long. because we do not go to the administrator and say, can i talk you for a second? i have had six kids come to me and tell me this math teacher humiliates them. i am not here to get in this man's way of making a living, but i have got to think human

have asthma who right to making a living as he does. this dude is ripping their confidence apart. they do not even raise their hands and answer questions anymore. they said they do not like school anymore. connectionere is a between the micro and the macro and you know it but we do not do anything about it. up, we do notk organize our community of well-known, well-educated, and very caring individuals. no one has more credibility in our respective communities than us. nobody has done what we do. homes goes into those where they ask you if you want something to eat and you are like, no, i am good. i do not care if i'm hungry, i am not eating in here. [laughter]

places where the stench of filth is so powerful that when you walk on the steps, you can smell it. it smelled like something is dead in the house. you have been to homes where people are squatting. they do not have electricity. you have seen this. you have seen it. understands the problems more than you. no one. teachers, for the most part, see ,ids in school, on their terms and then they do not typically see them again. every other part of their life, you see them in, including the classroom. learn about everything

that is going on in their lives. things that they have never told many of them, especially the boys, will never tell another person. so many of the young men with , they are married fathers, grandfathers, holding onto the thing that you have heard the -- that you have heard. ear this conversation about how we need to have health care, universal health care, universal health care, but we are not talking about universal mental health care because we are silent. the doctors are organized. the teachers are organized. the trash workers are organized. know,cial workers, you just being social workers. we are just out there doing the work. you that if your interest is to transform the

circumstances in which our young people and adults are living, then we have to work towards more political activism. a true social worker works with the society, not just with the individual. it is not enough for you to just serve your clients. it is not enough to just make sure that the homeless parents that you have get a place to live. it is not enough. it is not enough. you are not just solving the problem for that community. one of my first jobs out of social work school was running a homeless shelter. hometown. virtually everyone who was a guest in the shelter was a friend.

one of the first people that i saw when i went to the shelter was a girl -- man, i used to like her a lot. a lot, a lot. she liked my cousin. you know, he was a drug dealer, he had money. you know. , in i saw her at the shelter just figured she worked there. i figured she was a caseworker. we both went off. i went off to college. i figured she did too. but she was a guest. she was a client. over time isens that we understand the nuance of how these things -- how this problem, when it was small, could have been addressed. we know that. simpleminded as to think that you just end poverty.

i know that if we just gave her money, she would smoke it. right? you are with your friends very often and they walk by a homeless person and the first thing they do is pilaf ones -- peel off ones and you are like hey, you're not solving the problem. and you know that. with your acute knowledge that you have, we should be putting together policies and strategies to take care of atlanta's homeless problem. something happened. there were breakdowns along the way. we know that substance abuse is real. we know when substance abuse starts. we know it starts, for most people, in high school. the real hard-core ones, right around 11. for the most part, right around high school.

and we know the people who are most susceptible to it. we know about their family patterns. we know all of these things. yet we are not pushing for programs, the supportive programs to do it. so then our programs are these little programs. well,d of us saying, substance abuse starts in the teens, typically. so we did some programming in the high schools. not just the don't do drugs, those are bad for you. bring in the person, i do not have any teeth and i was on drugs. [laughter] because the kids make those connections. like, i do not want to

look like that. somebody always wants to come talk to my school. i want to tell them my story about how i was broke. man, they have heard it. they do not care. you are not famous and they do not know you. yeah, but i want to come in and help. you want to help? come in here and work with the kids. build a relationship with them. talk to them about life. do not just show up like some and you are going to come in and lay hands on them -- i was poor once and i am not poor anymore. be like me. they have heard that a million times and guess what? they do not believe it. it. do not believe but you know how to put together a program that is meaningful. is meaningful, not just an afterschool program that they can drop in, but something more

take awayat does not from their preparation from the state examination but helps them the more prepared because their mental health is addressed. we know that people of color are the least likely to go and get the services that are necessary to help them but the most likely to need it. particular, men, in are the least likely to go and get mental health support and are the most likely to need it. who are we identify most as having mental health issues in early ages? men. african-american and latino men. still, those are the ones who are least likely to get it because we do not get it to them at a time when it is bad. when the issue is small and curable. we know that so many of our teachers are so ill-prepared to deal with african-american and latino boys is the first -- that the first thing they do is kick them out of class.

mad they come back to class about it, they kick them out again. when they get in class and cut up because they do not know what , they say that something is intellectually or emotionally wrong with them. you know this. you know how it happens. you know how it is going down. there is one woman at the end of this long table by herself and it is us flanking her like a line, tellingrain her how bad her child is and we hit her with every acronym we can. i am the principal. what? what do those letters spell? can i buy a vowel? [laughter] if i do not understand it, i know she does not get it. and you know how that kid got there. you do.

you know what the system did. so why aren't we working harder with the education schools to get them right? why aren't we, as university faculty, not saying to this school, you have got to have at work --% of your curse of your coursework be in social work? you are talking pedagogy. what is more pedagogical than understanding the human element of the people you are educating? what is more germane to teaching than understanding that you do not just feel sorry for the child because he is poor? nobody responds, oh, we understand. oh, yes, he comes from a home. and they always use the most bizarre outlier. works five jobs.

they have 70 kids at the house and he has got to watch them at five years old. [laughter] ass did not come to school today because he is lazy. that is why he did not come to school. and a social worker can go get him. call the house. by the time i get there, you better be dressed or i will dress you. i will dress your behind. you understand the nuances. you understand how this thing falls apart. know why the kids are not paying attention and you know why the parents are so suspicious of us. many of our men and women need to talk to someone who is a professional, not just their cousin and them, as a group. harder to transform

the way in which resources are used in our community. we are spending in some communities on education and incarceration, more than we are spending on anything else. we are dropping a lot of money at the backend. in some communities, $50,000 a year. to incarcerate. just imagine if some of these that youive programs are supposed to work in or want to start, just imagine if you had $50,000 a client. you could buy them a house per year. dut that money is just poure allow thee because we political forces that are going on in our country to come and say, lock them up. three strikes, you are out.

and then wonder why they are vagabonds when they come out. they cannot get a job. they cannot get a student loan. they can barely even get access to their own children and we wonder why the kids don't have anybody in their life. you see it. you see how this thing happens. it is a couple of small decisions that become big. why is it that our services are always the first to be cut? why is it that our programs are always the first to be cut? you hear people say, we need to put more money into schools. for what? most of the money that you put into the schools goes to the teachers and the administered a system. the building and the nuts and bolts. it is not materials. you know this. it is not buying more stuff. you do -- you can go to some of these raggedy schools in the country and they will get more of theer pupil than some

schools. if you had more money, what would you do? so many of our programs are running on $1500 a client, $1000 a client. what that does to our profession is it water sit down -- it down because these organizations have you, a bunch of people who may or may not have a degree, right? and if they have one, it is definitely not social work. this person has an accounting degree and she is black, so they hired her. she must be able to talk to black people. and she is the one who is delivering the services to this very needy, acute need population. she might be a nice person, a , and mom or wife or friend

maybe even really smart. because we have allowed our work and resources to be the first that are dried up, that is what we get. m.s.w. who works the entire organization and you have to sign off on everything. am i saying it right? you are asked to come in and sign off on some stuff, treatment plans, where you think, i do not know if that is the way i would have done it. the state is coming in and the funders are coming in. happens, that has happened, that is happening because of us. leastk with some of the desirable people and you have a lot of women who do it. do you see how you guys get pushed off as a group and you are quiet on top of it?

if social workers do not start to speak up, then we will disappear. we will disappear. from the professional ranks. we will be seen as old-school and outdated. you -- i dow about not usually -- it takes a lot to offend me. it really does. but one thing that has always -- people call themselves a doctor and they are not a doctor. but when someone calls themselves a social worker and they are not a social worker, i am always offended. [applause] because the only person who would do that is someone who does not understand or respect the level of intellectual endeavor that you have had to go through. the level of emotional space that you have had to go through

to get to this place. they do not understand. a lot of times, you are reading the dsm and you are saying, this is me? i have got to read that again. you are going through case studies and you are finding your family in them. it is uncovering all of this ugliness in your own life and how much you have had to go through in your own life and you are trying to make your life that are and other people's lives better. cases, you are dealing with the same exact stuff. i used to refer to my refrigerator as furniture. because it would be of more use on its side, as a chair. because there was nothing in it. when your clients have more food , when youre then you

client has got to cut a hole in their pocket to get the 120-inch tv in the house, when you drive a kid home to a house with four cars in the driveway and nobody gets off there behind to come get this child, when you find yourself arguing with somebody about something that they did wrong, then you know what social work is really about. that, in order to get the level of understanding that you have, you had to go through some stuff. i do not know if any other educational experience requires as much as social work. i do not know it. i do not know. is, fromhe expectation

a social worker, that you are going to be on the ground level at one point or another. you are going to be there. and you are going to be in someplace that is dark and scary , whether it is physical or emotional. you are going to sit with a child who is four or five years old and draw pictures with her as she describes to you how she was brutally raped. then that session is going to be over and you are going to go and do it again. and then that session is owing to be over and you are going to squeeze a lunch in in between there, at your desk, and then you are going to do it again. ,ach and every time you do it you are going to feel a piece of your soul being ripped out.

i remember someone saying to me that they had seen it all. i remember saying to myself, if ever i say that, i do not want to be a social worker anymore. how could you see it all? people at their most vulnerable times. when fear is the only emotion they can make sense of. you get to see people at a time and in a space that no one will ever see them again. you may be working with the elderly and you are looking into the eyes of a grandmother who is ready to pass and she knows it and she knows that nobody is going to take care of these kids. your problem is your effectiveness.

instead of you, a social worker, saying, you know what, there should be a program for such a thing and there should be resources for such a thing and there should be a process for justa thing, you focus on taking care of it. you just go and take care of it. you say, she is about to pass away, you start contacting foster care and then you realize that college, they cannot go to that one. then you finally find one. it is not the best, but you have got to get the resources of. now you get to the job training program. this is all you. you just think you just do it. and thenrun into it you are part of the home. can you come home? i will be home in a little while. i promise. i have just got to go to this family's house, one more thing i need to do and after that, i will come home.

you just care your life up -- tear your life up. you just mess your stuff up. when you come home, somebody is at the door like, you stink. where you been? instead of us pulling back and saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, there has to be something in the social net for social workers to be able to depend on and it develops in society. it cannot just be dependent upon the skill of the social worker forever. we need to fight to give resources to the front lines, and i mean money. we need to fight to make sure there are programs that can take care of people at the lowest level. as social workers, you know we are all going to be at our lowest point, sometimes a couple

of times a year. people can pray their way through anything and they can shout and clap and do whatever they want, but at the end of the day, that bill has got to get paid. somebody has got to take care of that child. somebody has got to make sure that the grandparents get the care that they need. someone has to make sure that this addict stays sober. you that i submit to we have fallen short on our responsibility as social workers. it seems like an odd thing to say to social workers, but all you do is work. we need to be more vocal in the public sphere. we need to speak out. we need to talk about the things that we see and put the solutions out there. because you know what the solutions are. you really do. you know when they would best take shape. you know when the illness begins. and you know how to stop it before it gets big.

my brother'sma has , and education program, in many ways. he should be a social worker. am i right? have you seen what they are supposed to do. --you read it, you think i am saying that we have come to the point in the black and latino communities and in some of the poor white communities where we have nothing left. usually, when i am in a group, they have -- i have to tell people that it is really bad. you do not understand it it is worse than you have ever imagined. we had a young girl, three years old, stab another girl in the face with a pencil four times.

the child showed no remorse. , i do notther said know what you all are doing at that school. we need help, folks. and you are the calorie. -- cavalry. you are the delta force. whatever analogy you need to use, you are it. and you know it. if you do not know it, i hope you know it now. you should understand that you need to get involved politically. you do. a little social activism with our social work, please. adding some parity to the public conversation that is so muddied by politics.

recognizing that sending people to prison is not the answer. institutionalizing the others is not the answer. you see it when it is small, folks. you see it when it is small. every single issue, you see it when it is small. i bet if i asked you whatever population you work with, whatever region you worked with, if you had those solutions, every single one of you has them. and i bet most of them would work. especially if they were done on a larger scale. keep -- i do not know why this fire will go out. i keep throwing a glass of water at it. this is our time and this is the only time we have. our profession is being watered -- is being watered down by individuals who are not andal workers, coming in

taking what are literally referred to as social work jobs. they get the job and they are called a social worker. that is insane. agency can come into an and be called a social worker by title? wow. plumber by just being called a plumber. you cannot be an electrician, you cannot be a barber. years of after two masters program or four years of a bachelors program, in some cases, whatever number it takes to get your phd, someone comes in and called himself a social worker. us, man.

this is our time right now. it is our responsibility to step up and start putting what we know in front of everyone and start to solve the problems. we actually can solve a lot of these issues. they are actually solvable. you have seen it. you have seen, on a micro level, where some of these people have access to some of these services, their lives be turned around. redemption,n change, forgiveness. you have seen it happen. you have seen people from the inths and bowels of poverty, the most disgusting circumstances of violence, you have seen those people stand strong because some of you are those people. tell, just because you got your hair done, just because you have a nice suit on, you are not slick. we all see the markings. you had a mayonnaise sandwich. [laughter] i know you did.

you had a sugar sandwich. you know what that block of cheese tastes like. [laughter] you had cereal that just has serial on it. it.cereal" on you have done that thing, it says "expired by," but the doughnuts don't have any mold on them. you know that we can make people's lives better. that is what you were called to do. your story, the thing that evidenceu to this, is that the problems can be solved. solvede problem can be in your life and people can be called from the depths of our

community to the highest highs of clark university school of social work. there have to be more people behind you who can be saved too, right? that we are soks great that god only did it for us, right? that this is something that he reserved just for us because we are that good? we are in this to save thousands of lives. it is usually entertainers, but people say, if i could just touch one life -- then you would be fired. one? that is a low threshold. one total? one by ten? one? you should make people laugh or do something like that, but those of us who are real social

workers, we do not think in in termsones, we think of hundreds and thousands, entire communities and nations, cultures and genders, we think about sexualities, entire swatches of the nation. if that is how you think, you have to act that way. if your interest is in an entire group, if you care about black men and latino men, gang girls and boys, the transgender, the poor or the wealthy, if you care ,bout women, whatever the thing you cannot think that one at a time is going to solve the problem. you become part of the problem. place into find a politics for yourself. i know, social workers, i get it. we hate it.

we hate it. more than anybody. the problem is, we need to be the ones who are there. so i will close here and then i want to answer some questions. [applause] if you shout out your question, i will answer it as quickly and completely as i can. ma'am? , the obstacles that we have -- i worked for years with seniors in home care. city, the mayor wanted to stop the sugary drinks. me withconfronted water. year ander year after

she refused to understand. you know why you do not see many large people over 65? because they are gone. our biggest challenge is our clients. >> i would say you are right. but that is why they are our client. if they could fix themselves, we would be out of a job. , the school of social work that i went to, that we were supposed to work ourselves out of a job for that particular family. they should not need us forever. and we can pinpoint the behaviors causing the problems that they face. we can line up the solutions. but the reason why they are in this situation is because they are in this situation. everyone knows that drugs are bad for you.

it is not one of those things you have to work real hard to sell to someone. but that is not the answer. we have to touch their hearts somewhere else. >> what do you recommend to assist us in recruiting young black males into the profession? it is one of the biggest obstacles i have. students come in and they want ,o be criminal justice majors they want to do psychology. i start talking social work and they do not get it until their junior year. maybe that is what i should have done. >> right. you are looking at the only black male rat to it from the university of pennsylvania school of social work in 1995. [applause]

graduately black male from the university of pennsylvania school of social work in 1995. i think one of the things that has to happen is we need to i thinke it earlier and a way to do it, especially when you have teams on campus, is to talk to the teams. the trackll teams, teams, the basketball teams, where you have a lot of boys on campus. talk to them. >> ideal with a lot -- i deal with a lot of my young men. men.at them like that nor real issue is

one listens to them. their fathers do not listen to them. always say that if they go to me or any other woman, they hear me, but they do not listen, the males. >> right. that is a complicated question and i will tell you why. there are profound differences between men and women. i know this comes as a shock to some of you. i will give you one. if a man sees another man having wait to see ifl there is an opportunity for him to go up to him and say anything. if he does, it will be something really simple. you good? i'm good. that will be the entire conversation. whereas a woman does not wait at all and does not just say one thing. talkslks and talks and

and talks because, in many cases, from the gender perspective, women talk their problems out. we think -- they think out live. -- loud. i would submit to you that there are very few men in this room who have talked their problems out with another man. in the same way that women do. what especially teenage boys are going through, they are going through a transition -- and i am putting labels on this. if my feminists could hold on for a second and hear what i have to say. they are going from traditionally feminist characteristics in their earlier ages of talking -- like little boys, that is why mothers fall so madly in love with their sons.

sweetest, tellhe you how beautiful you are every goingonds, so they are from that time when they used to talk a lot to a time where they do not talk as much because they are practicing being men. periode is a transition buta lot of boys and men, the men, in many cases, do not know how to talk to a young man. that is stupid. that is what people say to us. so there is that. , thereer part of it is is an intersection of values. a time in which children were meant to be seen and not heard. then there is a group that wants to only hear them.

and these polls are killing us. because there is a lot to be grown folks are talking, the quiet, sit at the child's table. there is a lot of really there is a lot of rich learning how to respond to authorities in their. there is another side where children have an opinion. principal, as a mother says that is your side of the story. like i have a side of the story and eight-year-old has the other side. some of the listening or not is caught up in some of the values, especially children of color. one of the problems we have is that we are very -- we have violent parenting strategies. a pretty significant

undercurrent of violence in the way we communicate with our children. even our complements are not really complements. you think you are so smart. parents describing their son in particular -- how is your son? bad as hell. it is a complement, sort of comment that the site complement. complicated it is a question. people whos easy as are going to talk to them. one of the things i find is the best way to engage many boys is to get them involved in group's that are sports or otherwise oriented. boysd by a male because grouply feel safer in a because they can deal with some

other issues differently without actually having to put himself up front. there's a safety in that experience for a lot of mails. the coach can set expectations to make you do certain things that if you do them yourself, you would look like a punk. the coach says, you better be in school tomorrow else you are playing. when a friend says, come chill with me, you say i can't or else i won't be able to play. at tovolve them in these the days. what happens is it gives them a safe place to do good. it also allows them to build a rapport with a man in a way that makes them feel comfortable. the last part of this is here, especially in a black and latino community, but the black community i know better. we have real homophobic issues. , deep,real, real poisonous, frighteningly scary,

homophobic into most of the station issues -- into molestation issues. it makes me believe a lot of black men in particular were sexually molested them have ever come forward. i would venture a guess. honest five, 10 times what we know. easily, easily. we have these issues. even here the boy saying, no homo. we have such issues. even grown men learned among us lot ofe with how -- a times brothers will come up to me. i love what you do. effing a whole

disclaimer. if i've got a wife, understand what i'm saying? i got you. i appreciate you. i'm just saying, letting you know. appreciate what you do, but i'm saying, i ain't gay or not then. but that is a really bad suit. it's nice. and i think i like your suit like, like it like it. just saying it is a nice suit. we have such deep-seated issues around sexuality in the black community, especially among black men, that complex is deeply embedded in us, we don't know what to do. we are really a mess over this. want to be able to talk to a young man, but you don't want to be put in a

situation where you think he is tried to come onto them. you guys don't think about this. this is real thoughts. onas men have to think about a regular basis because of the over sexualization of black men. after all of those other systems are in place and the last thing a man is sitting down -- if you havey father --ike coach or if you don't have a title, folks look at you and think, what are you doing? why do you have all of those boys around you? you like having boys around you? what is that about? the boy can talk to anybody because of these things. it is to the point where he is becoming a teenager and he doesn't want to talk to his mom like he used to because he knows

that there is a point of which we learn that you like girls. oh. mom is a girl. holy cow. [laughter] it is different, right? space where-bitty you have a 12-14-year-old boy, he's right. no one is listening to him. he is right. he is unaffiliated and not connected to a team or something like that and because nobody will let him go to see a ,sychiatrist or a social worker he is trying to pack that stuff in. he is tied to put in his pocket and walk with it so he looks normal because he doesn't want to be crazy, like your "crazy."

you want to talk? you are crazy. it is a challenging thing. -- somethingcial many social workers still with. the boy wants to talk to you, but he won't talk to like he would talk to a man who he felt comfortable talking with. you recognize that come especially in the modern black community. most of us who do have a role model, it was someone who is a professional -- a coach, teacher . done ourselves in as a black community. we have hurt ourselves pretty bad. we have done real wicked stuff. it,on't always want to own but it is real. we have really poisoned the well on a lot of places.

i'm not saying we did it by ourselves. i want to be clear. a slavery is not the reason why a man in 2014 doesn't take care of his kids. [applause] my question is i heard you talk about working things on a macro and micro level. what are some things you are engaging in? >> on a macro level, one of my pet projects is working to make sure that children have school choice. the reason why school choice is important to me and to us is because we know that an effective teacher and by extension school is the most important fact in in a young person's development and moving on. and so the reason i find myself

squared off against the teachers unions is because they want things to stay the way that they are. i don't. atlanta. this always trips me out. you have more black college thannts per square inch any other place outside of the continent of africa. that is just my statement. nowhere else on earth are you going to find so many educated and have one of the worst school systems in america. [applause] confused. you have five colleges, right? how many?

four? four colleges and just beyond here, some of the worst of the worst and within america. of the worst-- one neighborhoods in america. i'm confused. this is a mess. , atlanta.t it every time i come here, i don't get it. i'm confused every single time i come. -- talk about travel on the things they do in the lifestyle they have been the car and the housewives. aylmer to nobody. -- ain't married to nobody. i don't get it. i don't understand. i'm lost and confused. you can't blame white people.

you had lacked people in every single decision, the butcher, the maker, that candlestick maker. mayors. it is now to the point where people will be shocked if they had a white mayor. what? how did that happen? from now on, you can fool -- you could find the coolest white man -- school choice should be the order of the day. give them another shot. this right here is on us, man. school choice. i do understand how you have so many people who were educated and why aren't there more of you in schools?

steps. who. -- boom. with so many churches, there should be more saved people. so many more educated people should be more who educate people. these -- in tornier fraternities and sororities. jill.nd every damn thing. all the markings of the middle class. middle class takes care of the rest of the people good as is not middle-class. this is something else. we are moving through the middle class in such way that we have our own government. we made this that we messed it up. the greatest african-american minds of all time had studied in the city, in the city of all

time. in this city. y'all have the worst schools. really? my grandmother would say, terrible. [laughter] you have got people cheating. i have never seen such. y'all walking around like, do, do do. don't you get it? this is not ok. this is so abnormal. i bring you greetings as your brother from the northeast. i'm telling you up there, a lot of people look at you guys down here and say, i'm going to move down there. they get here. they send the kids to the same school up the northeast. it is not ok. a macro thing i'm working on is one, education come and two

telling black people to cut it out. we have got to stop. [applause] sir. i have volunteered in a working with kids in the foster care system. to someeen exposed stuff in the system and never imagine was going on in the community. by the same token, large percentage of the kids in the -- they can't be served by the current system. and when and is the future of the children who are caught up in that system? hope?me way out, some children, it's bleak.

i didn'te reasons why themy -- was because of racial adoption thing. adoption, andial sorry. if a white family was to take care of a black child, give them the child, man. that's the worst thing, they are white? that's their crime? then i'm cool with that. real cool with that. greater theple child and don't want to take care of them, i don't care what part of the world they are from. i don't pay if they are gay or black,ht, white or just good people taking care of

our children. care if they are gay or straight, white or black, just good people taking care of our children. compelled to say, how many kids are you adopting? john many how many -- show me how many live in your house? [applause] is and thisrt of it is where we as social workers really need to open up our shirts and show the s on our che st, many of those kids are deeply fractured, deeply fractured. you never want to say person is broken. that means there's no hope, but deeply fractured. the data tells us they will be in the system for much of their lives.

is going back to the point of his making. there are no easy solutions. put our solution is we systems in place to make sure that we work harder to make people who are white who want to adopt a will go to russia to get a child, that we make it seemed, we have got you. this is true. i know you know what i'm saying is true. i will hear black people say, they don't know how to do their hair. we'll help them. i mean, really. i see some black kids with k notty hair. come here. [laughter] cornrows in and you will be straight. big family,e got a everyone has got to learn how to do hair.