Racism Has a Cost for Everyone

In my TED talk, I tell stories that challenge the zero-sum paradigm of racial competition. I share for the first time how it felt to watch Lehman Brothers collapse from a crisis my colleagues and I had spent nearly a decade trying to prevent. What began with discriminatory loans to Black homeowners (three times as likely to be charged inflated mortgage rates despite good credit) eventually spiraled out to infect the entire global economy. As I say in the talk, "The financial crisis would not have happened if it hadn’t been for racism."

I tell the story of traveling the country over the past two years: visiting empty parks where the towns decided to drain their public swimming pools rather than integrate them... hearing about white factory workers voting against a union because “the Blacks are voting for it”. But I also tell stories about the magic that happens when people of different backgrounds come together to build community and feel the solidarity that’s uniquely possible in our land of all nations.

Right now, when it’s become so clear that we are all made vulnerable in a society that fails to support the common good, I hope you’ll help me share these stories.