Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
In the 50 years since the civil rights movement and Dr. King's dream, one problem (racism) has been replaced or at least matched by another -- poverty. Urban poverty, rural poverty, and poverty that hits blacks, whites, browns and others alike. As I have said previously in the Huffington Post, poverty is the new racism. If you are poor, everything pretty much sucks.
The old model of racism was based on race and the color line. The new model of racism is rooted in class and poverty. The old racism was obvious in signs that read White Only, from the southern states in the U.S. to South Africa. The new racism is more obvious in Misery Row.
Whether it is a feature on a boulevard in an urban city or a rural town, or whether it is at the entrance of a military base, the Misery Row looks pretty much the same. Predatory check cashers, next to rent to own stores, payday lending stores, title lending stores, and liquor stores.
One group of financial predators takes advantage of your financial problems and misfortune, while another associated group benefits by helping you to forget you actually have any.
Recently my Operation HOPE, Washington, DC and Operation HOPE, Maryland teams came together and had a very successful Banking on our Future volunteer event at Francis Scott Key Middle School in Silver Spring, MD. There were over 100 HOPE Corps volunteers present and involved, and included employees from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Women in Housing and Finance, Capital One, Fannie Mae, M&T Bank, Bank of India, BB&T Bank, Sandy Spring Bank, Bank of America, First Mariner Bank, FDIC, City First Bank, ETrade Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of Georgetown, and FINRA.
A special thank you to my friend and financial dignity supporter, Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot, who teamed up with US Comptroller of the Currency Barry Wides to teach a Banking on Our Future financial literacy class. Maryland Comptroller Franchot and US Deputy Comptroller Wides also spoke to the volunteers about Franchot's mission to get each county in Maryland to adopt a graduation requirement for a financial literacy class in the senior year. Severak counties have already signed on to support this financial dignity leadership initiative of Comptroller Franchot. Operation HOPE certainly supports him.
A special acknowledgement to Jackie Starr, who is our Operation HOPE market president for the Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
Operation HOPE, Washington, DC and Operation HOPE, Maryland are part of the larger mission of Operation HOPE, which is now a leading global provider of financial literacy to financial dignity empowerment services for the underserved, the working poor and the struggling middle class.
With 2 million clients served, 20,000 HOPE Corps volunteers, and more than $1.5 billion in private capital directed into America's low wealth and underserved communities, creating thousands of homeowners, small business owners and entrepreneurs over the past 20 years, Operation HOPE is making a difference. But we cannot achieve our mission alone. We cannot seek to advance the final work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., eradicating poverty and achieving a measure of economic justice for all, alone.
Operation HOPE operates the HOPE Financial Dignity Center Atlanta at Ebenezer Church, located on the campus of the King Center and as the anchor tenant of the Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Complex. Martin Luther King, Sr, or "Daddy King" as he was called, co-pastored Ebenezer Church with his son Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement, and served on the board of a bank for 40-years; a little known fact. Daddy King was also focused on making free enterprise work for all, as his son was focused in the last years of his life on poverty eradication and economic justice.
The mission of Operation HOPE is civil rights to silver rights, or making free enterprise work for all.
ATLANTA – April 18, 2013 – Financial dignity leader, Operation HOPE announced today that it has received a $200,000 grant from The UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of the UPS (NYSE:UPS) in support of Hurricane Sandy financial disaster recovery assistance and youth financial literacy programs Banking on Our Future (BOOF), Fellows Interns & Loaned Executives (FILE), and HOPE Businesses-in-A-Box (HBIAB).
"This $200,000 commitment by UPS Foundation builds from previous commitments to financial literacy and empowerment," said Latresa McLawhorn Ryan global vice president of strategic partnerships and development. “This funding will help provide us provide financial recovery assistance and guidance for small business and individuals affected by Hurricane Sandy, and continue our youth financial dignity programs.
Since its formation in 2001, the result of a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, HCA has helped more than 300,000 individuals and small business recovering from 33 disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Florida Hurricanes, tornados and flooding in southern and mid-western states and Hurricane Sandy.
An authentic, thoughtful and caring leader with a direct impact on more than $12 trillion in banking assets, is precisely the sort of transformational leader we need to see more of in inner-city, rural and under-served communities in America. For me, it is all part of a growing movement and body of work, from civil rights justice, to civil rights empowerment for all.
But the visit to Atlanta and the HOPE Center Ebenezer, located within the larger Martin Luther King, Sr. Community Resource Complex, across from the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia, was not a celebration of the vast economic progress that has been made since Dr. King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail. There has been progress, no doubt. Quite a bit in fact, but grossly uneven in its impact; even amongst African-Americans. A room full of Black prosperity is to be celebrated, but it not absent the reality of Black poverty and the unbanked which could be found less than 2 blocks away.
Frankly, much of what Dr. King attempted to deal with and address through his Birmingham Movement work, could very well be applied to the economic conditions today in both Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia.
Last year I traveled at the invitation of our Global Dignity Brazil Country Chair, Young Global Leader Ms. Christina Lopes, to participate in their Global Dignity Day celebrations in and for Brazil (more than 50 countries participated on October 17th, 2012 around the world). I had no idea what I was in for, but when you witness the spirit of the energy of these young people, you cannot help but to be moved. I actually was hesitant to watch this video, because I knew that I would be both sad, and inspired at the same time. I knew I might cry. All were true, but ultimately, I was left with an immense feeling of hope for them, for Brazil, and for our world.
Rod McGrew has personified the concept of “Spirit in Business” for the last 30 years through his company, Love & Happiness Productions. He was responsible for creating KJLH (Kindness, Joy, Love and Happiness) FM in LA, where he was radio personality, program director, and ultimately VP/General Manager. After KJLH, Rod became a CBS Records label president, and subsequently superstar manager to Stevie Wonder and Barry White. In addition, Rod was the Co-Architect and Master Marketing Strategist for the highly successful, multiyear American Express “Charge Against Hunger Campaign,” featuring Stevie Wonder, and served in a similar capacity for the United States Postal Service on behalf of the “Legends of American Music” Jazz Stamp Series.
In addition to Rod’s many entertainment endeavors, Love & Happiness Productions is currently involved in the development of various technologies. Rod has also served as participant and co-facilitator in The Call of the Time Dialogues sponsored by the Brahma Kumaris and supported by the United Nations.
ATLANTA – March 20, 2013 – Financial empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE today announced that Thomas Curry, U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, will join HOPE Global Spokesman and Civil Rights icon Ambassador Andrew Young in Atlanta, to discuss America on Reset: The Future of Banking and What Comes Next for You, at the Operation HOPE Financial Dignity Center at Ebenezer (HOPE Center) on Tuesday, April 16.
Curry and Ambassador Young will lead a dynamic forum around the important role the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency plays to ensure that America’s Federal Banking System remains safe and sound. Attendees will also have the opportunity to ask questions of U.S. Comptroller Curry.
This event follows the February forum where FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg provided remarks and had a dialogue with the Mary Beth Walker, Dean Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. This open event will become the second HOPE Forum for the center this year.
Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur
Solving Poverty: Poverty Is the New Racism
Racism use to be the worst thing that those outside America's corridors of power had to deal with. But today, racism is sorta like rain. Racism is either falling somewhere, or it's gathering. So we might as well get out an umbrella in a color we like, and start walking through it; because it's not going to change -- so we must.
In Dr. King's day the issue seemed to be one of love or hate, but today the issue is less about love or hate, and more about of what I would call "radical indifference." Today, folks don't even care enough about you to hate you.
I remember a young man, years ago, going on and on to me about how then President Reagan hated black folks. That he was a racist. I had to correct the young man. I told him that to the best of my knowledge, President Reagan didn't know any black folks (well), didn't grow up around any black folks, didn't have any real lifelong relationships with black folks, and there were no black folks in his immediate family. When he awoke in the morning, it's not that he hated black folks -- he wasn't even thinking about black folks. It was not love or hate, but simple indifference. With no real relationship with black and brown America, no rational link, and no reason to be compelled to really care, this situation doesn't so much suggest he was a good or a bad man, but rather a human one.
Today I look at what's going on in Greece, where 150 immigrants were recently attacked, and it becomes obvious that underneath the violence was a corroding economic tension. A country that was broke, and people who were quickly losing hope, and jobs too. They saw 'those immigrants' as a threat to them, their prosperity, their stability, and the future aspirations of both themselves and their families. The problem was economic. The problem, was poverty.
There is a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke was economic, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of one's spirit. And we must vow to never, ever be poor again.
This video piece from CNN, which is scheduled to air this week, clearly shows the power of financial literacy and financial dignity in the lives of inner-city youth and their decision making. The piece also features new friend to HOPE Russell Simmons, who was a closing speaker at our recenty HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summit on November 14th-15th, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Check it out and let CNN know what you think. Write them a letter and share the video through socal media with family and friends. Let's start a new conversation with and for our youth.
This is a new silver rights empowerment movement for a new generation of future leaders.
Let's go.
John Hope Bryant is a thought leader, founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author ofLOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass),the only African-American bestselling business author in America, and is chairman of the Subcommittee for the Under-Served and Community Empowerment for the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability, for President Barack Obama. Mr. Bryant is the co-founder of theGallup-HOPE Index, the only national research poll on youth financial dignity and youth economic energy in the U.S. He is also a co-founder of Global Dignity with HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Professor Pekka Himanen of Finland. Global Dignity is affiliated with the Forum of Young Global Leaders and the World Economic Forum. Mr. Bryant is a thought leader represented by the Bright Sight Group for public speaking. Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE), a specialty finance company that is managed by an affiliate of Ares Management LLC, a global alternative asset manager with approximately $59 billion in committed capital under management as of December 31, 2012.
Operation HOPE and the HOPE Team at the HOPE Financial Dignity Center Ebenezer, Atlanta were honored and pleased to recently provide an intimate tour of the new HOPE Center Ebenezer, along with the new Martin Luther King, Sr Community Center, dedicated to Daddy King, to CFPB Director Richard Cordray and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Director Cordray and the CFPB team were in Atlanta for a public hearing. Operation HOPE was pleased to play a co-convening role for a roundtable on mortgage reform.
My sense of Director Cordray is that he is a good man genuinely trying to make a difference.
