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Black
Issues Forum #1424
Holloway:
Jay Holloway, Host
Holloway:
The CEO of Bank America Nations
Bank, Hugh McCall addresses the challenges of creating economic
opportunity in the black belt, next on Black Issues Forum.
[MUSIC]
Holloway:
Good evening and welcome to
Black Issues Forum. I am Jay Holloway, your host. This week
we continue with the coverage of the Governor's Business and
Education Conference on Race, held in Charlotte in February
1999. Last week we brought you highlights from the opening
session. Tonight we have remarks from the conference key note
speaker, Hugh McCall, CEO of Bank America Nations Bank. Plus
more comments from the President of the UNC system, Molly
Broad and Chair of UNC Board of Governors, Ben Ruffin. In
our town hall meetings this season, we have talked a lot about
race and racism on education and economic opportunities. Here
are some very provocative remarks from Hugh McCall as he compares
reports of economic prosperity in the New South against the
reality of economic depression in the Black Belt.
McCall:
As a businessman, it is clear
to me that I struggle to provide opportunities for all our
citizens is directly tied to our region's economic health.
As a Southerner who has witnessed racial hatred and distrust
first hand, I have been saddened by the deterioration in the
way we talk to each other about race. And as a citizen of
a country that will only become more diverse in the century
that is upon us, I know that one way or another we will come
together or we will fall apart. One way we have avoided talking
about race in the past is to talk about the booming economy
of the New South, instead. The idea, of course, is that as
long as the South is making economic progress everything must
be okay. And to a degree, we assume that rising tide is lifting
all boats. Now, I have to admit that I have been guilty of
calling attention to all of our successes and downplaying
our failures, especially when I am giving speeches up north.
Well, the facts are we have had our successes. The New South
is a better place now than it was in the past for many of
us. New industries and cities have sprung up attracting even
our somewhat misanthropic friends from the higher latitudes.
It is nice to know that whether you are black or white, we
can all still get together and pick on the northerners. Sadly
though, these successes are not enough. And they do not tell
the whole truth. I gave a speech a couple of years ago in
Raleigh called "Filling In the Spotty Field." In that speech
I talked about how, in North Carolina, our economic crop had
come up unevenly. In other words, we built corridors of prosperity,
but we continue to have many poor undeveloped communities
in our state. Indeed we could say this for the South as a
whole. What I did not talk about was race and how race in
the South correlates to economic opportunity. And that is
because I really didn't understand it. Last summer I began
to understand. I read a report written by Ronald Wimberley
of North Carolina State University and Libby Morris of the
University of Georgia called the "Southern Black Belt." The
Black Belt is that group of counties throughout the South
that have a higher than average percentage of African American
residents. The region stretches along the Atlantic Coast from
Virginia south to Florida and along the Gulf Coast to east
Texas. The Black Belt is home to almost half of the country's
African Americans. The report made a few things clear. For
example, in various surveys it ranked U.S. states according
to levels of poverty, education, unemployment, infant mortality,
teenage births and hunger. The states that make up the Black
Belt consistently rank near the bottom. More than 80% of the
country's black rural poor live in the Black Belt. People
who live in the counties that make up the Black Belt, including
blacks and whites, account for 21% of U. S. adults without
high school diplomas, while the South as a whole accounts
for 40%. Not suprisingly while our country's white unemployed
are concentrated in Appalachia, the Ozarks, the West and the
northern New England, the highest level of African American
unemployment are fully entrenched or firmly entrenched in
the Black Belt and indeed, throughout the South. While almost
none of our country's white poor live in the Black Belt almost
all of our country's black poor live here. Now after reading
this report, it became clear to me that not only has prosperity
in the New South eluded a large number of our people. For
some reason, and it ain't luck, a disproportionate number
of our people who are missing out on opportunities are black.
These facts are sobering. But before we move on and start
talking about solutions to our race problems, there's something
else we're going to have to fix. And that is the way that
we have been talking to each other. Indeed, white people and
groups representing them around the country can be heard expressing
disdain for minorities that would have been completely taboo
in mainstream society not many years ago. And some leaders
in the African-American community continue to insist that
the racial struggle in our country is one of us versus them,
that the white establishment continues to aggressively hold
back the black underclass, and there's a war on in which we
must all choose sides. What I want to know is, where is all
this animosity coming from? Why are we slipping back now after
having made so much progress? Why do so many of us still feel
the need to make this a fight? And what do we think this kind
of rhetoric is doing to the attitudes of our children, who
grew up listening to recriminations across racial lines? When
I see whites pointing their fingers at blacks, and blacks
pointing their fingers at whites, most of all I'm saddened.
And I can't help thinking what any fair-minded moderate would
think. Yes, whites have a big responsibility to help lift
the African-American community to a position of economic,
political, educational and social equality in this country.
Why? Not because of a racist past, but rather because whites
continue to control the vast majority of the country's institutions
and its resources. In my judgment all those in position of
power of affluence, black and white, have a duty to help all
those in our society, black and white, who need an opportunity.
And yes, African-Americans who are still struggling share
an equal part of the responsibility for lifting themselves
to that position of true equality. I'm not interested in fixing
blame, but I am interested in fixing lives. Now in my judgment,
there are three things that we can do to solve the problem
of African-American poverty in the South. First, pour our
resources into education. Second, engage in meaningful economic
development ideas and projects. And third, return to a dialogue
about race that is based on trust and good will. Those who
continue to support race-based quotas at public universities
say that if we take away these programs, minority enrollment
will plummet. And they are right. But why are they right?
They are right because according to one study, black high
school seniors in our country average more than 150 points
lower on their combined SAT scores than their white classmates.
Now why is that? Is it because they're innately less intelligent?
Well of course not. Likewise, is it because the SATs are so
culturally biased that no minority student has a fair shot?
Once again, I don't believe that. Not when every student in
this country has the opportunity to attend public schools.
I believe the reason for this gap is rooted in the cycle of
poverty that continues to trap too many African-American families.
So why should it surprise us that African-American kids who
come in disproportionate numbers from low to moderate income
homes struggle to compete academically with their largely
better-prepared white classmates. It's not surprising. And
the solution is obvious. By supporting programs like Success
by Six and Smart Start, we will attack the cycle of poverty
and educational underachievement at the root. In addition
to early childhood programs, we should emphasize support for
community colleges for kids who aren't headed to four-year
institutions, and just as important, for adults who need to
be trained for new careers in emerging industries. After education,
I think targeted economic development projects can be of immense
benefit to low-income African-American communities. Just last
year, we formed a partnership with the National Congress of
Black Churches to rebuild minority neighborhoods around historically
black churches. This is a first of its kind partnership between
a national faith-based organization and a financial institution
to do joint development work. Another program I'm very proud
of is called Rural 2000, which we inherited from our new partners
on the West Coast. Rural 2000 was designed to increase community
development investments in low and moderate income rural communities
throughout the bank's franchise. I've already made a commitment
to extend Rural 2000 to our communities throughout the eastern
half of our franchise. Now with so much of the South's entrenched
poverty concentrated in our rural communities, I think this
will be an important tool in our continuing effort to bring
economic opportunity to all of our citizens. What I want us
to do is work together to build communities of justice, equality,
and hope. Communities where every man, woman and child, regardless
of race, pulls their weight, even as they reach back with
a strong hand and a compassionate heart for those, once again
regardless of race, who have been left behind.
Holloway:
A great deal of emphasis in
discussions throughout the day was also directed toward the
need for well-trained educators who are motivated to understand
the various special needs of their students.
Gov. Hunt:
There's probably nothing we
can do that's more important than preparing good teachers
to bring about equality of opportunity and fairness. A good
teacher-and this would be pre-K as well as K-12 and in higher
education-a good teacher knows their subject matter, what
they're trying to teach. They know how to teach it successfully.
A great teacher has a different approach they can use for
every kid, they know how to spot that kid's needs. They try
out things to see how you connect with this kid; they learn
in different ways. Good teachers care a lot about their children,
and they care about all of them equally, committed to every
child. They find ways to get more time for them, and find
more resources, and hook up with the community and get businesses
to do things and bring the universities in to help them. That's
what a great teacher does. That's why they're so important,
and we can't do anything more important. North Carolina's
focusing primarily on improving the quality of teachers. That
means teachers who have these skills and can really make these
things happen in kids' lives.
Female Voice
Well there are some very important
issues of race relations that are embedded in our strategies
to improve schools by improving the training of teachers and
training more teachers to serve the needs of a growing student
population. When you match a good teacher with a classroom,
the academic achievement of those students inevitably improves.
And when we look across the country at where we have issues
of underachievement on the part of children, all too frequently
we find that they are in schools that are poor, that are significantly
minority enrollment, and where we have teachers that are not
the most skillful teachers we have. That's the problem. But
I think in the seeds of that problem is the solution, and
where the University can help by bringing effectively-trained
teachers into these challenged settings. They make a big difference,
and you can see it in the results of student tests and other
measures of academic achievement.
Male Voice
Many of the historically white
institutions do a great job, and they provide great opportunities
in terms of scholarship-great inducement for a lot of young
people who otherwise wouldn't be able to go. But we still
have to keep our eyes on that institution that brought us
across. I am proud of North Carolina Central University, and
proud of all our schools in the system. But I know that if
it had not been for North Carolina Central during the days
when I couldn't go to those other schools because of race,
that Central took me and made something out of me when I had
no money. And I'll never forget that. And I'm committed to
that.
Female Voice
When I refer to affirmative
outreach, I am talking about the array of programs reaching
out to prospective university students in their schools, in
summer programs, in community-based organizations, in their
churches, as part of the overall effort of the University
to extend our reach and to recruit students into the University.
Male Voice
Now I'm in a role where I'm
committed to all the schools, and I'm going to work to enhance
all our schools. But I think our historically black colleges
have played a role. If we had not had the five historically
black public institutions we had, we would have a deficit
of black teachers, of black nurses, of black doctors, of black
lawyers. Because we had a North Carolina Central University
with a law school back in the segregated days, we can boast
that we probably have more lawyers and judges in North Carolina
coming out of North Carolina Central. And that's something
that the state can boast about. It's an evil way to do it,
but the state can boast, and at least we took advantage of
it. And because we had the schools, we were able to train
our people. And I think our state is better for it.
Holloway:
One question that President
Broad addressed concerned TIAA-Creft, a 200-plus billion dollar
services organization that provides insurance and retirement
programs for the educational community.
Molly Broad
We were successful in recruiting
TIAA to North Carolina in large part because they were persuaded
that they could find the work force with the training skills
that they needed. In part because of the presence of large
financial services organizations like Bank of America and
First Union, but also because of the commitment to the University
for ongoing education and training. This is a company that
deeply believes in higher education and is prepared to support
all of the efforts of their employees to gain additional degrees
and additional university education. So co-locating adjacent
to the UNC-Charlotte campus turned out to be a very attractive
feature of our plan. It also happens to be a company that
in New York has a very large fraction of its workforce that
is African-American, and they were looking for a place that
would be hospitable to their African-American employees. And
it was an amazingly important part of their exploration of
Charlotte, and ultimately they became quite persuaded that
this was a city that was hospitable to African-Americans.
Holloway:
They were also asked about striking
a balance between targeting the social needs and economic
concerns around race.
Male Voice
One of the things we've had
happen in our company is small departments might adopt a school.
A group might adopt one of the elementary schools and then
members of that team go and do tutoring, they go out at lunch
and read to the students. They do a lot of letter writing
back and forth with the students, helping them with the skills
and expressing themselves. So I think a small business can,
either a small business or a group of small businesses can
band together and adopt a school-in particular schools in
the center city or. You know I think we have some statistic
where about 73 neighborhoods inside the city in which we have
some, let's say some threats to that neighborhood, they're
fragile. All these neighborhoods could use books, they could
use volunteers, they could use. So any thing can be done.
And so I think small business is quite capable of doing..
And also small business people are entrepreneurs, they bring
a lot of knowledge about what can be accomplished and how
to make money, and they serve as role models to kids. So I
think the more the merrier. We need lots more people engaged,
because...I thought as Dr. Broad, said, we have a growing
problem in terms of kids. And so we needs lots of volunteer
help. And you can figure out how to contribute by letting
your people have a couple hours off a week to go tutor at
a school, but keep paying them. And that's the tough part.
But we do it, so anybody can do it.
Male Voice
One of the important things
about this conference to me is the fact that we have the leaders
of the state involved and expressing their commitment to fairness.
That's extremely important. And it's not as expensive as some
people may think, for the leader to simply say, "I believe
that everybody ought to be treated fairly, and I ought to
orient my policies and programs to ensure that that is done."
You have the Governor, who's declared that he wants to make
this a primary objective of his administration. And you have
the president of the biggest bank in America. And you have
the president of the University of North Carolina saying "that's
extremely important." And even though the business is small,
the fact that the person heading that business is saying,
"I believe that people ought to be treated fairly and equally
is extremely important." So everybody, whatever their resources,
can play a significant role in this objective the Governor
has announced.
Holloway:
They were also asked about striking
a balance between targeting the social needs and economic
concerns around race.
Male Voice
Well I think they lead to each
other. You know, nothing leads to conversations more than
success together; making money is a big part of success in
American terms. And so I think economic development brings
people together, when they start talking about building a
shopping center together, or building a factory, or training
workers or whatever, this causes the kind of dialogue you
were talking about because they've got a common goal. So I
believe that it all kind of works together. You know, if most
people who say, "Well one of the reasons that African-Americans
don't have the opportunity that their white friends do is
because they don't belong to country clubs, they don't get
to find out about the deal that's coming down, you know, that
they could get a piece of the action of." Well the truth of
the matter is if you're in the business together with each
other, then you start having that happen. So I think that
economics-the economics I was talking about have, or the economics
of, the negative economics of poverty-that is, an absence
of economic growth caused by a lack of education. Now banks
are nothing but a mirror of the economy around them. In other
words, we simply reflect what is happening around is. And
so it's clear to me that it's in our interest to have all
of the citizens of North Carolina making money and building
houses and having businesses, because that'll just make my
bank get bigger and make more money. So those are pretty straightforward
things that I can see.
Male Voice
Who pays, who benefits, and
who decides? Who pays, and who decides? And the rest goes
pretty much according to _____. Walter Kronkite was on CNN
last night, and Walter Kronkite said, "It is a shame and a
disgrace that most of the black students have to go to schools
that are underfunded and have inadequate resources." But those
same students have to come out in this society and have to
compete toe-to-toe. That's not quite fair, and it the unfortunate
thing about it that is it has gotten better. So you can imagine
where it was a few years ago. So public policy is very, very
important. Public policy, though, starts at the top, and that
is who decides. People down in the middle do not decide. Most
of us in this room don't decide. We will go back, we'll have
to talk with the person who decides. If you do not have the
commitment, Hugh McCall, from the top down, you're not going
to get very much done.
Governor Hunt
The ultimate thing is not really
economic growth, it isn't even really education, as much as
I believe in those things and work hard at them. The ultimate
thing is what kind of people are we. What kind of folks are
we in our hearts and our souls? What kind of lives do we lead?
At the end of the day, what's going to be said about us? Now,
I think that's something we need to focus on more. I think
we need to appeal to people's hearts. I don't think there
are many people, who if they really understand what prejudice
and bias and hurting people does, I don't think there are
many people who would continue to do that. But we have to
explain to people what their actions may be doing, and we
have to encourage them to change. And we may have to push
them to change, and we may even have to force change. The
point is, the kind of North Carolina I want to see is the
North Carolina in which every child and every adult has the
chance to get all the education they need. A North Carolina
in which we have good jobs for everybody so they can provide
for their families. And a North Carolina that is a state of
good people who care about each other, who love each other,
and who try to help each other. That's a good state, that's
a state of good, caring, considerate people. And I think that's
the kind of state that people want to live in. And that's
the kind of place we ought to shoot to be.
Holloway:
You've been watching coverage
of Governor Hunt's Business and Education Conference on Race,
held in Charlotte, where leaders met to engage in dialogue
about race, and also share ideas and develop new strategies
for ensuring racial equality and equal opportunity for all
North Carolinians. As Governor Hunt said at the opening of
the conference, North Carolina is a state known for its bold
ideas and bold actions. But there's still more work to be
done on the issue of race relations, and it's up to each of
us to engage ourselves in continued dialogue. As Dr. William
T. Brown says about the ABCs of race relations, it's our A-Attitudes
which effect our B-Behavior, and it's our Behavior which brings
about our C-Consequences. More work is needed, and we can
do it together. Next week, please join us for Part II of the
Durham town hall meeting on race relations, hosted on the
campus of North Carolina Central University. If you'd like
more information, please contact us at the numbers or address
on your screen. Thanks again for joining us on Black Issues
Forum. I'm Jay Holloway, and you have a blessed evening and
a good night.
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