Darren Walker:
Well, I’m inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who wrote about philanthropy the following: “Philanthropy is commendable, but it should not allow the philanthropist to overlook the economic injustice which makes philanthropy necessary.”
And so what Dr. King was calling us to was to examine our own culpability, our own complicity and engagement in creating some of the very challenges we seek through philanthropy to solve. And what I mean by that is looking at how our own behaviors, whether it’s our investments, whether it’s our way we treat the climate, the environment, et cetera, how that contributes to some of the problems of poverty and inequality.
You know, the reality of our country is that hope is the oxygen of democracy. We today, unfortunately, have a crisis of hope in America. Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and be committed to whatever our identities are. I am Black. I am gay. Yes, those are my identities, but the most important identity is that I am an American.
And we Americans share a set of values. We have very different views about many things. But we — as our founding fathers reminded us, we must share the values of consensus building, of engagement, of understanding that ultimately compromise is necessary for democracy to continue to sustain, to be vibrant.
