Jackie’s Speech to OHIO NAACP

and qualified certified thank you so much for that uh wonderful welcome I don't think they come uh any better than that I just want to say good afternoon to everybody it's so great to be here with the NAACP the oldest and one of the most important organizations in the fight for civil rights and social justice and the women therein so nice to meet all of you Miss D I loved hearing that story about how uh when was um was formed there's never been a cause where women hadn't played a significant part absolutely and you all are lovely to boot with all these wonderful hats you look so good today I'm so happy to have you all here fighting this fight every day and I'm so glad to be with you as you heard I'm Jackie Dalton um that wonderful introduction I'm the Chief Financial Officer uh for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and a couple very important things first of all the views I expressed today are my own and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland or the Federal Reserve System and as Tom talked a little bit about um you all may know you know that the Federal Reserve Bank uh sets uh does monetary policy so absolutely they big meetings next week which means as Tom said this is our blackout period so I can't talk talk a lot about the FED but I can um invite you all to visit our website Cleveland fed.org there's a lot of good information on that site uh about what we do how we support our communities including our work and diversity equity and inclusion so as I Was preparing uh for today I had a great conversation with um Mo'Nique early on and she shared with me your theme we are all in thriving together in Ohio and what a great theme for the conference so I thought that I would share uh a few perspectives um with you today on thriving together so while we may be all in there's work to do to ensure that we're actually all thriving together many of us are thriving but more of us should be I um only got to sit in I got to sit in a little bit on one of the session before this one but I took a look at the agenda and I recognized that you are you know that and you're working on that um it sort of reminds me of our first trip to Africa we were taking um a tour of Soo and there was an area that they took us to where they were building uh middle class homes and I remember standing on the street and to my right were these very nice new houses and then as I shifted my head to the left left I saw this big cavern of land on the other side of which was a big area with literally metal shacks and no running water and electricity so if you can imagine standing there in that dichotomy from left or right uh that was going on if you do take the opportunity to visit the Cleveland fed.org website you will find research that shows that our community the minority Community does not thrive or even survive equitably in this country and there's a lot of other research that describes the same thing empirically telling us what we already know and it might not be as Stark as what I as I described in Africa but it's definitely prevalent now you all at the NAACP know that and you are attacking the reasons for that disparity broadly and systemically so I'd like to add a little bit today by providing some thoughts on how I think we might individually work to thrive together from the bottom up along with sharing a little bit uh of my story so the first thing I'll offer is inspired by my husband and you all met him um we have known each other for almost 30 years he's an entrepreneur he has built wonderful relationships in this city and across the world he's a founding member and current president of the president's Council here in Cleveland and there is not one thing that I've watched him do to help himself that also didn't include helping other black people or other black all right if he makes a connection or has a door opened he's looking for who else might benefit from walking through that door and it's a normal part of his everyday life to buy black it's not a campaign or a book or radio ad supporting fellow black entrepreneurs is how he lives all right and as soon as he hears of a black business that's getting off the ground he's sending me the website or something you got to buy something from them and we have to figure out how to support it because supporting each other's economic Endeavors helps us Thrive together right the next thing I'll share is pretty basic and I don't mean to insult anyone's intelligence but you have to strive to thrive great things Don't Come Easy you have to put in the work and hold on to the faith that you can make those great things happen people look at me and they see what they think I am now and I appreciate you reading that lovely bio but people find it hard to believe when I tell tell them I was born in West Virginia I moved to Cleveland when I was six with my mom who as my brother described came to Cleveland with three little kids and a purse oh Lord all right I was raised on the east side of Cleveland and what we used to call the ghetto that's all right and that's usually surprise enough for people so I usually don't even get to the part that I'm about to tell you but I didn't eat every day as a child and I once spent an entire summer without shoes and by the time I was approaching College I was to be a young mother but I went amen Life For Me wasn't easy my mother did the best she could she was a great woman she loved us and I wouldn't change a thing but you just have to strive to that's right I heard Miss sophilia just say the struggle continues and it definitely does in many ways amen but we don't like to tell the stories of struggle anymore that's right we don't to be seen as or associated with that we live in a world of social media facades and riches today who cares about tomorrow oh my good but I say all right if you don't tell the story of struggle then how do you tell about how we got over that's right that's right that's right how does the Next Generation really learn the formula for Success if we spend all of our time trying all trying to look successful instead of actually being successful what examples do we set and what kind of Legacy do we which leads me to my next Point what do we pass on to our children thriving together includes your family defin however is Meaningful to you and I said I wouldn't change a thing about how I was raised but maybe that's not entirely true there's one thing I might change and I actually did change and that's being poor strong and lack I didn't want that and I didn't want that for my children right but my children were born into poverty and they got to see their mothers scratch crawl and climb to get us over all right so they learned to work hard and be smarter about money but my grandchildren don't and won't so long as grams has breath in her body see the struggle of poverty so from where will they get their lessons and that makes me think about another important part of thriving and this is how we share our gifts and passions with our children as um was noted I am a certified a few things one of them being a certified financial planner I am great with money and it dawned on me a few years ago that while my life has been an example for my children I i' not really shared with them the financial tools and techniques that I understand so clearly so I started a financial club for my family where we met monthly and discussed Financial Concepts and ways that they should be thinking about financial health wealth and success and there are several of my family members that still talk about how those lessons change the trajectory of their financial situations all right and I know you all have a wealth session coming up I think maybe after this one um and I think about one of the challenges to our community really being able to thrive is the lack of generational wealth transfer I mean I don't know about any of you but it cost me money when my mother died for so many of us every generation has to start over for the quest in the Quest for wealth I was thinking recently about our plumber and our electrician I think I talked to my husband about this very talented Tradesmen black of course and how they've built up very lucrative businesses with their skills but they themselves are the business I believe both of them have involved their children to try to be able to pass the businesses on but the children haven't really grasped it with the same veracity as their dads and it strikes me that when those gentlemen stop working the wealth building opportunity for those businesses like ceases when I retire in a few years my highest income earning opportunity ceases with no business so to speak to keep the wealth generation going on now I just told you I'm good with money and I got it all worked out but that wasn't always the case and it might not be the case for many others one of the things to fostering wealth in our community is ensuring that we're leaving some kind of foundation for the Next Generation to keep building mhm and if you can't pass on a business or rental properties or something like that pass on a passion for something all right or better yet find out your children's passions and do everything you can to Foster that in them because if they're doing what they love they'll be good at it and thriving will come so one last thing before I go and I will remind you at this point that these views are mine and not those at the Federal Reserve Bank incl or federal system um we've got the vote Yes and I will add to that we've got to vote right that's right there was a time where all we had to worry about was getting the people out to vote and that's still important but I've been a little worried by some of the perspectives I've been hearing in our community now I must necessarily acknowledge that everybody gets to determine who they vote for and why but now more than ever we've got to be smart with our vote amen you might think that you want to vote for somebody because of one particular issue or you might think it sounds cute to get behind something radical but this is not a game that's right the adversary is serious roaming this country seeking whom he may devour that's right right we must be all in with our vote all right all right and cast it for those people are most likely to create an environment where we can continue our pursuit of thriving together all right may you all be well thank you all right all right [Applause] that's