Hi.
Well, right here,
these are my issues.
Right? These are my issues.
I mean, we all have them.
The people sitting out here, right next to you,
we all have issues.
You guys have issues up there too, right?
And the problem is they get in the way.
They get in the way of us relating to one another,
our issues.
I'm working too, you know.
I didn't speak to my mother for five years.
It's not something I'm proud of.
I've lost a lot of time that I wish I could have now,
that I'll never get back.
And it was because of issues.
It was because I had issues, she had issues too,
and even some of her issues she gave to me.
So, we were sharing our issues and they were in the middle.
I didn't talk to her, but she also didn't talk to me.
Fortunately, though,
fortunately, we were able to reconcile.
Fortunately, we have a wonderful,
healed and whole relationship today.
And I'm very, very happy about that,
because I'm also a mother and a grandmother
and I couldn't even bear the thought
of being separated from my children and my grandchildren
for five years.
So, some of these issues are personal
and some of them are institutional.
Some of them we can deal with,
like my mother and I dealt with because we had a relationship,
we had an association, we were connected
and, because of that initial connection,
we could reconnect and rehabilitate
our relationship.
We had an affiliation.
The problem with these issues
when you look at the institutional brand,
like racism, like sexism,
is that they're way bigger than the individual.
And the way we tend to sometimes want to deal with them
is on an individual basis,
like, we get all offended, right?
We get all offended, "The race card." Right?
We get all offended and we take it personal
the minute something comes up.
Men and women do it with one another,
racist people do it with one another,
and the problem is we don't have a relationship.
So, this idea of reconciling,
settling, compromising, having a reunion --
my mother and I have a reunion every time we get together.
That's because we have a relationship, right?
And even with the issues,
we can step over them
and deal with one another,
because we have that relationship.
Our problem with our institutional issues --
this really came to me too:
it's like you cannot redo something
until you have first done it.
You can't reconcile if you haven't first "conciled", right?
And conciliation is the process
of winning over from a state of hostility.
So, we have to first have a recognition
that we've got issues between us, and guess what?
When you're talking about race,
and racism and sexism,
you're talking about legacy,
you're talking about historic legacy,
you're talking about issues you don't even know you have,
you're talking about issues that were passed on to you
just because of the ground you're standing on.
You don't even know about them, but the idea is
that, unless you recognize them,
accept them, respect that we have those issues between us,
whether they're our fault or not our fault --
they're still between us --
instead of denying that they exist,
instead of not believing my story,
instead of when I say, "That hurt me and this is why",
"No, it didn't."
Yes, it did.
It did because of our historic legacy.
So, we have to first get to know one another,
we have to first "concile",
bring those desperate pieces back together, you know,
or to gather for the first time,
so that we can then have a relationship
that then, if issues come up,
then we can have a reconciliation.
But first, we have to have a conciliation.
I'm going to sort of put it into a context, using a story.
It's a West African fable
and it's called "The Truth and The Lie." Right?
So, one day,
The Truth went down to the river bank
to bathe in the cool, refreshing river water with The Lie.
Now, Truth was always a little bit cautious
whenever she was in the presence of The Lie,
but, on this particular day,
the Sun was out in all its glory.
So, she went.
Now, while Truth was down bathing in the cool, refreshing river water,
she didn't realize that The Lie
had stolen away with all her clothes.
So, while Truth was in the middle of the river
trying to figure out what to do,
The Lie was parading around the marketplace,
dressed up like The Truth.
Now finally, when Truth got up enough courage
to run down to the marketplace wearing nothing but the truth...
(Laughter)
...no matter how hard she tried to tell all the people
that she was The Truth and he was The Lie,
the people were so embarrassed
to look upon the naked Truth
that they believed The Lie dressed up in Truth's clothes instead.
And it is still the same to this day.
The truth may be difficult to look upon,
but it remains the truth, nonetheless. Yeah?
So, if you really care about this common unity
that we have going on today,
you've got to do the work
and "concile",
so that you can some day reconcile, all right?
So, I'm just going to take my issues
and go on, off the stage. (Laughter)
Thank you.
(Applause)