welcome to a new season of "our world with black enterprise kwm." i'm your new host, mark lamont hill. this week we're kicking off with grammy award winner john legend who broke into the music industry and what he's fighting for now. then we'll discuss the disparities within education in the black community and finally, we'll close it out with a woman single-handedly changing lives in her chicago neighborhooded. that's what's going on in our world, starting now. ♪ ♪ ♪

he's one of america's favorite singer/songwriters. with four albums and grammys under his belt, john legend is making the music world by storm. now he's trying to wake up the world with his new album, and an ailing school system. ♪ ♪ >> i was think budget first time i actually saw you perform. it was about 12 years ago in a small club in philadelphia called the black lily, and i was thinking about the journey from being in a small venue like that to being a six-time grammy award winner and being "time" magazine's most influential. how does that happen? what's that journey been like? >> i've been a musician since i was a kid. i wanted to be a star when i was a kid, but i started making concrete moves in that direction when i was at school at penn, and i met a few people along the way that really helped me. i met kanye in 2001, and he was very instrumental, obviously, in launching me. he signed me to his label, but before he even signed me, he

brought me in on a lot of the work that he was doing. he was working on college dropout and alicia keys "you don't know my name" encore by jay-z and he would bring me in in the background to play piano and co-write. he helped put me out there so a lot more people in the music community knew who i was, and so through getting out on dream, his label, i signed to columbia in may 2004, and that came after years of knocking on doors, years of performing live shows in new york, philly, all up and down the eastern seaboard and creating a buzz and meeting great people along the way and collaborating with people along the way and getting told no, you know? we just had to keep persisting and believing in the artistic vision, and eventually we found a home at colombia and my first album came out in '04.

>> talk to me about this new album "wake up," like you said it's a soulful album, but it requires you to dig in the crate and then i heard baby hughey, and it might be your grandmama's basement. what was that process like? >> the new album with the roots "wake up" is my most soulful and most organic and most dirty and raw and gritty. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> when i originally came to love, one of his missions was to make sure we didn't do the super standard and everybody's heard these songs and all they'll think of is the original when you do that. >> right. we didn't want to do that. we wanted to do something different. we wanted to dig in the crate and uncover for a lot of people, and rediscover for some people, some songs that may have been overlooked. >> yeah. i think we uncovered a lot of

classics and rediscovered them for a new generation. >> and i think this idea of bringing generations together is powerful and it speaks to the political movement because you were very active in the obama campaign and very active in the '08 election in general as a powerful voice for politics. >> yeah. >> some people would do a public service announcement, but you were really out there. what makes you engaged in politics? >> maybe i'm naive, but i really believe that these things matter. these things actually affect people's lives and the decisions that are made in washington, the decisions made in these political arenas, and so i'm not going to waste my position. i'm not going to waste this opportunity i have with influence and resources. i'm not going to waste it by not speaking out and by not saying something. >> since you're no stranger to speaking out and saying something, let's think about these last two years as someone who has been an activist and voice of the public. how would you gauge the last two years? >> there are people that are upset and frustrated because,

you know? things haven't gotten better yet. they've gotten a little bit better, but not dramatically better, and i think a lot of that is blamed on obama because of expecting too much from the power of the president to make change quickly. >> yeah. >> and if you look at his legislative record, he's gotten a lot done that most presidents would envy. if you told them in the first 18 months that they were to pass health care of a serious financial reform bill and serious education reform would begin an $800 billion stimulus plan to put people back to work which would save a lot of jobs, but that would mean it would have been much worse if they didn't do it. all of these things would happen in 18 months which i think is remarkable, but it's still not enough to turn around in 18 months. >> i joked the other day that maybe the people didn't believe the whole barack the magic negro thing. they thought he would come in and wave his wand and it would change right away. it will just take time.

>> one of the big issues that everybody agrees the problem, there are different approaches to solving is the education piece, and you've been front and center on this conversation about education. >> when we look at these education debates there's a lot that's going on in the conversation, but i think the -- what is clear is there are some models out there that are working really well. >> yeah. >> and they're working in places where people didn't believe they could work before. i think people -- they might not have said it, but they had the sense that a poor black kid was not going to do well, period. >> you're from springfield. >> i came from a working class neighborhood. it was a mixed neighborhood, and it was a working class neighborhood. my father was a factory worker. i went to two years of private school and i was home schooled as well, but i come from the city where between 40% and 50% of our kids dropped out of high school. we're considered a dropout factory in my high school which i did well in and went to an ivy

league school, but i was the exception, not the rule. there are so many kids around the country in that same environment. black, white, hispanic, all over the country who are in schools that just aren't getting the full potential out of them, and we need to do more to -- to make sure every kid has a quality education. >> too often, i think we end up blaming the students themselves and we blame their parents when their parents were in the same system 20 years ago and we're expecting dirpt results, but we're not changing the system. >> what you're proposing is powerful and insightful, but the place you rank in the middle of the debate, some people on the left won't like it. some people on the right won't like it. as an artist, how do you navigate that? >> my argument is let's argue on the merits and argue about what's best on these students? a lot of times we care more about what's happening with the adult than we care about the students and that's one of the powers of this film that i'm a part of "waiting for superman."

i wrote the entire song of the show, and the title of the album which is called "shine." ♪ ♪ >> and in the film they follow the kids and their parents, and you get to know them, and you realize these kids, a lot of time we blame their families and we blame the kids and say they don't want a better life. that's absurd to begin with. >> right. >> once you humanize these young people, i think a lot of times our kids are dehumanized, you know? >> yeah. >> they're not seen as people with potential and optimism and possibility, but when you see them in this film, they're so humanized that you can't help, but say, well, these are our kids. we need to do what we can to fix the system for our kids. it's an emotional film that makes you cry and makes you echl ties with their families and it hopefully makes you leave a little bit angry that our system

has allowed this to happen and hopefully we'll hold our politicians and our leaders and schools accountable for making a real change on behalf of these kids. >> our discussion tackles education. >> the quickest way to get on everyone's not so n nice list my sister's new boyfriend told her that he thinks sundays are just for watching football. believe that? [ thinking ] remain calm. answering incorrectly has... but i just -- [ thinking ] ...consequences. but you're smart, right? you ordered off mcdonald's dollar menu at breakfast. got the premium roast coffee, the savory sausage burrito. everything's so good and just a buck each. you made it happen, so... you got this. he's a jerk. [ thinking ] well-played. mcdonald's dollar menu at breakfast. the simple joy of being smart.

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black students graduate from high school in four years compared to 75% of their white counterparts. who's to blame and can these numbers be improved? here to discuss are david banks, president of the eagle academy foundation. kelly golf, contributor to the luke 21.com and dr. earl lewis, assistant professor of the sociology and black studies at the city college of new york. thank you all so much for joining me. you all have seen the numbers. graduation rates are low. literacy rates are low. kelly, what do you see as the root of this issue? why are we falling so low in the problem? >> it's not one issue at fall, but i think that there's no question that every study has shown that the teachers of the child particularly when they're young can make the difference if they fail or succeed. the new york times has had a dozen studies that when you focus on things that the school can control, claz size, the one

thing that makes the biggest difference is the teachers the child had. i think if you have better training for the teachers. teach like a chomp on, there are a lot of teachers who want to do the good thing and aren't succeeding. getting rid of tenure. this idea that teachers can be protected. it's hard to get rid of a bad teacher than it is to get rid of a bad doctor, but it's pretty hard to believe but yet, it's much harder to get rid of a bad doctor, than a bad teacher. >> and we have to get rid of teacher tenure is at the top of the, what do you say that teachers are too protected. >> it's a shiny issue, but it's inaccurate. when we dig into how teachers are effective when we look at how teachers are related -- or rated it's unreliable and we can't put all of the weight on

teachers. >> i'll differ with him a little bit upon i actually thank teachers in urban communities are facing the problems that police officers are, there's an i nate reverence that comes with the job, but we'll hold you to a higher level of accountable. people get hurt when you fail at your job, people get hurt, so for me listening to teachers unions leadership say that the issue is not a bad teacher when a kid fail, it's sort of like hearing a police commissioner saying, it's not a cop's fault because someone got beat and someone got shot. you made the choice to go into the prophysician and we'll hold you to a higher level of accountability, it's not the only problem, but to say they're not part of the problem is disingenuo disingenuous. >> you managed to run a successful school. your graduation rates are through the roof and you've gottien a lot of national axe tension for this. how have you managed to take control of the teaching issue? >> i was a teacher for a number of years in a tough neighborhood. >> god bless.

i will tell you the problem is multi-pronged. of course, we have bat teachers, but the bigger reality as kelly pointed out is most of the teachers are smart, they're well-intelephone ond, but many of them are ineffective and that's where the big of the part of the problem is. not the horrible teachers, but the teachers who really do try, but we're not properly training our teachers for the reality of the classroom that we face today. >> as you all know this is an issue that toughes everybody, everyone has a child in school or went to school themselves and there's a position. we went to the community and talked to some people and got some questions from them. i think you ought to respond to some of them. >> hi. i'm marie con te and we're seeing a lot of black children raising babies today upon. how does that affect the value of education in. >> parents are younger and younger and they're having children in school, 15 and 16 after they got out of school. what do we do with that issue and how does it affect educational achievement. >> education is khum lat you have. if i am a young parent and i had

a negative experience, when i put my children in school my perception of school will be different. so we have to do the bridging work and making sure that even if you had a negative experience, we need you to understand that the school is a place where you can contribute and the school is where you can work with your child and develop kecks. aufsh we assume young parents aren't good parents where we need to provide greater services and providing opportunity and skills around parenting. >> the work at the academy, we may have the greatest level of parenting of any school in new york city. hundreds of parents who come out and they're actively involved. the leadership in the school and the same wi -- >> and others who are like me who really, deeply care and are committed to our kids and our community and our families, and we say that our young people, there are a lot of people who don't believe in you, but at this place we have the highest expectations for you. you have to have that same level of expectation for the parents and when parents know that you're serious about this being a real partnership, and you will hold them it accountable for that, it's amazing how parents

will respond, but they've got to feel the wow from you. they've got to feel a level of passion and excitement from you as the leader in the school and the environment that you create. you create a winning environment, parents will get involved. >> i think i learned in the last couple of weeks that the quickest way to get everyone's not so nice list is to criticize teachers and parents, and i'm about to do both right now. we don't discuss things like family planning, and i find it fascinating that we will say to a kid you can't drive a car until you're educated and have a license to do so, but we treat it like everyone should become a parent. anyone. and i'm not just talking from a class level or education level, not serve meant to be a parent, right? we have to start having the conversation in our community about what it takes to be a great parent and beo preparing to do so before you become a parent. preparing teachers and preparing parents to be ready to parent is going to come a long way. >> the reality is that many -- most of us were not prepared to become parents.

and i don't know what course i could have taken that would have prepared me. >> i'm not financially ready to be a parent. i'm not financially stable enough to take care of a child in a way that a child deserves to be taken care of. >> if most of us aren't in a position. >> but we have to figure out how to create an environment that is nurturing for our children. >> if at the end of the day you still have to teach those kids because when they have the children, prepared or not, we still have to teach and we have to stop creating excuses for parents or kids that come from this neighborhood or come from that kind of socioeconomic background. at the end of the day, we've got to teach them. >> that's a challenge that lays in front of us. david banks, kelly golf, earl lewis. it's been a pleasure. with your mortgage,

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[ male announcer ] engine light on? [ engine cranking ] come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say... my money. my choice. my meineke. one woman on chicago's south side is fighting to keep kids off the block. she's our "slice of life." in one of the most dangerous cities in the country, kids off the block is a safe haven for young people. it's a little-known after-school program geared to help you escape gang violence. here, they have access to

computers, tutors and mentors, help clean up the community and plus, provide a place to talk out their problems. in 2003 diane latiker started kids off the block in her own neighborhood. >> right now we're on the far south side of chicago in the roosevelt community. we are in what people call the quote, unquote, wild 100. >> that's because chicago averages 1,800 shootings per year. last year, chicago had the second highest number of murders with 458. behind new york city with 471. >> a 13-year-old named robert freeman was shot 22 times two blocks from here. we heard part of the shots coming out because we were here late. in about ten seconds, we hear police and ambulances rolling down the block. everybody running, what's going on, you know?

>> the shooting had a devastating impact on the kids in the community. >> it really concerned me when i saw you guys' faces after you saw he was shot 22 times, and you all looked really, really concerned. >> that scared me. >> i'm concerned for my nephews. that boy was 13. i've got a nephew who is 12. >> in 2007 near the center diane erected a shrine to memorialize the kids that died too soon. >> i was at home one day, and i saw the stones for the yard and it looked like little headstones and i said i want to do something that will really, like, just make the community go what? what's that? i'll shock the community, if you will. >> she purchased 30 stones that day and began personalizing each one of them with names and ages. >> i started to hear about more young people being murdered.

rebuilt it, made it bigger. and then families started coming. my son was killed. my nephew was killed. my daughter was killed and just kept rebuilding, and we rebuilt it six times. >> today the memorial has 175 stones, but she recently discovered she needs 166 more for victims who didn't make the newspapers. >> i don't know what we can do to stop it. it's -- it's ought of control. it's out of control. >> unfortunately, diane knows kids off the block can't save everyone. >> i will say this, i wouldn't do anything else in my life. this is the most rewarding thing i've eve done my my sister's new boyfriend told her that he thinks sundays are just for watching football. believe that? [ thinking ] remain calm. answering incorrectly has... but i just -- [ thinking ] ...consequences. but you're smart, right? you ordered off mcdonald's dollar menu at breakfast. got the premium roast coffee, the savory sausage burrito. everything's so good and just a buck each.

you made it happen, so... you got this. he's a jerk. [ thinking ] well-played. mcdonald's dollar menu at breakfast. the simple joy of being smart.

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that wraps it up for us here on "our world with plaque enterprise." to watch my full interview with john legend go to "black enterprise.com/our world. next week we tackle mental illness and what caused r & b singer ginuwine to try suicide. thanks for watching "our world with black enterprise." try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis.