0:00:00.880,0:00:03.695
I remember the very first time[br]I went to a nice restaurant,

0:00:03.719,0:00:05.336
a really nice restaurant.

0:00:05.360,0:00:07.496
It was for a law firm recruitment dinner,

0:00:07.520,0:00:09.976
and I remember beforehand[br]the waitress walked around

0:00:10.000,0:00:11.856
and asked whether we wanted some wine,

0:00:11.880,0:00:14.000
so I said, "Sure,[br]I'll take some white wine."

0:00:14.800,0:00:16.536
And she immediately said,

0:00:16.560,0:00:19.000
"Would you like sauvignon blanc[br]or chardonnay?"

0:00:19.680,0:00:21.616
And I remember thinking,

0:00:21.640,0:00:24.496
"Come on, lady,[br]stop with the fancy French words

0:00:24.520,0:00:26.240
and just give me some white wine."

0:00:27.400,0:00:29.016
But I used my powers of deduction

0:00:29.040,0:00:31.456
and recognized that chardonnay[br]and sauvignon blanc

0:00:31.480,0:00:33.376
were two separate types of white wine,

0:00:33.400,0:00:35.816
and so I told her[br]that I would take the chardonnay,

0:00:35.840,0:00:38.698
because frankly that was[br]the easiest one to pronounce for me.

0:00:39.960,0:00:42.056
So I had a lot of experiences like that

0:00:42.080,0:00:44.760
during my first couple of years[br]as a law student at Yale,

0:00:45.480,0:00:48.720
because, despite all outward appearances,[br]I'm a cultural outsider.

0:00:49.240,0:00:50.816
I didn't come from the elites.

0:00:50.840,0:00:55.176
I didn't come from the Northeast[br]or from San Francisco.

0:00:55.200,0:00:57.296
I came from a southern Ohio steel town,

0:00:57.320,0:01:00.056
and it's a town that's really[br]struggling in a lot of ways,

0:01:00.080,0:01:02.536
ways that are indicative[br]of the broader struggles

0:01:02.560,0:01:04.000
of America's working class.

0:01:04.720,0:01:06.056
Heroin has moved in,

0:01:06.080,0:01:08.120
killing a lot of people, people I know.

0:01:08.680,0:01:12.640
Family violence, domestic violence,[br]and divorce have torn apart families.

0:01:13.400,0:01:17.576
And there's a very unique[br]sense of pessimism that's moved in.

0:01:17.600,0:01:20.216
Think about rising mortality rates[br]in these communities

0:01:20.240,0:01:22.416
and recognize that[br]for a lot of these folks,

0:01:22.440,0:01:24.016
the problems that they're seeing

0:01:24.040,0:01:27.736
are actually causing rising death rates[br]in their own communities,

0:01:27.760,0:01:30.160
so there's a very real sense of struggle.

0:01:31.160,0:01:33.696
I had a very front-row seat[br]to that struggle.

0:01:33.720,0:01:37.840
My family has been part of that struggle[br]for a very long time.

0:01:39.080,0:01:43.416
I come from a family[br]that doesn't have a whole lot of money.

0:01:43.440,0:01:45.856
The addiction that plagued my community

0:01:45.880,0:01:49.000
also plagued my family,[br]and even, sadly, my own mom.

0:01:49.760,0:01:53.896
There were a lot of problems[br]that I saw in my own family,

0:01:53.920,0:01:56.776
problems caused sometimes[br]by a lack of money,

0:01:56.800,0:02:01.136
problems caused sometimes by a lack[br]of access to resources and social capital

0:02:01.160,0:02:03.200
that really affected my life.

0:02:04.400,0:02:07.176
If you had looked at my life[br]when I was 14 years old

0:02:07.200,0:02:10.256
and said, "Well, what's going[br]to happen to this kid?"

0:02:10.280,0:02:13.136
you would have concluded[br]that I would have struggled

0:02:13.160,0:02:15.680
with what academics call upward mobility.

0:02:16.560,0:02:19.536
So upward mobility is an abstract term,

0:02:19.560,0:02:22.296
but it strikes at something[br]that's very core

0:02:22.320,0:02:24.016
at the heart of the American Dream.

0:02:24.040,0:02:25.256
It's the sense,

0:02:25.280,0:02:27.056
and it measures whether kids like me

0:02:27.080,0:02:30.096
who grow up in poor communities[br]are going to live a better life,

0:02:30.120,0:02:35.496
whether they're going to have a chance[br]to live a materially better existence,

0:02:35.520,0:02:39.056
or whether they're going to stay[br]in the circumstances where they came from.

0:02:39.080,0:02:41.496
And one of the things[br]we've learned, unfortunately,

0:02:41.520,0:02:45.456
is that upward mobility isn't as high[br]as we'd like it to be in this country,

0:02:45.480,0:02:49.480
and interestingly,[br]it's very geographically distributed.

0:02:50.080,0:02:52.040
So take Utah, for instance.

0:02:52.840,0:02:56.376
In Utah a poor kid is actually doing OK,

0:02:56.400,0:03:00.536
very likely to live their share[br]and their part in the American Dream.

0:03:00.560,0:03:02.416
But if you think of where I'm from,

0:03:02.440,0:03:06.376
in the South, in Appalachia,[br]in southern Ohio,

0:03:06.400,0:03:10.616
it's very unlikely[br]that kids like that will rise.

0:03:10.640,0:03:12.896
The American Dream[br]in those parts of the country

0:03:12.920,0:03:14.960
is in a very real sense just a dream.

0:03:15.960,0:03:17.160
So why is that happening?

0:03:18.120,0:03:20.936
So one reason is obviously[br]economic or structural.

0:03:20.960,0:03:22.496
So you think of these areas.

0:03:22.520,0:03:25.136
They're beset by these[br]terrible economic trends,

0:03:25.160,0:03:27.776
built around industries[br]like coal and steel

0:03:27.800,0:03:29.840
that make it harder[br]for folks to get ahead.

0:03:30.320,0:03:31.896
That's certainly one problem.

0:03:31.920,0:03:35.416
There's also the problem of brain drain,[br]where the really talented people,

0:03:35.440,0:03:37.816
because they can't find[br]high-skilled work at home,

0:03:37.840,0:03:39.096
end up moving elsewhere,

0:03:39.120,0:03:42.136
so they don't build a business[br]or non-profit where they're from,

0:03:42.160,0:03:45.136
they end up going elsewhere[br]and taking their talents with them.

0:03:45.160,0:03:47.816
There are failing schools[br]in a lot of these communities,

0:03:47.840,0:03:49.896
failing to give kids[br]the educational leg up

0:03:49.920,0:03:53.456
that really makes it possible for kids[br]to have opportunities later in life.

0:03:53.480,0:03:55.016
These things are all important.

0:03:55.040,0:03:57.456
I don't mean to discount[br]these structural barriers.

0:03:57.480,0:03:59.816
But when I look back at my life[br]and my community,

0:03:59.840,0:04:02.720
something else was going on,[br]something else mattered.

0:04:03.840,0:04:07.120
It's difficult to quantify,[br]but it was no less real.

0:04:08.120,0:04:11.776
So for starters, there was[br]a very real sense of hopelessness

0:04:11.800,0:04:13.576
in the community that I grew up in.

0:04:13.600,0:04:16.736
There was a sense that kids had[br]that their choices didn't matter.

0:04:16.760,0:04:19.416
No matter what happened,[br]no matter how hard they worked,

0:04:19.440,0:04:21.536
no matter how hard[br]they tried to get ahead,

0:04:21.560,0:04:23.200
nothing good would happen.

0:04:24.160,0:04:27.216
So that's a tough feeling[br]to grow up around.

0:04:27.240,0:04:30.416
That's a tough mindset to penetrate,

0:04:30.440,0:04:34.720
and it leads sometimes[br]to very conspiratorial places.

0:04:35.240,0:04:39.176
So let's just take one[br]political issue that's pretty hot,

0:04:39.200,0:04:40.696
affirmative action.

0:04:40.720,0:04:44.016
So depending on your politics,[br]you might think that affirmative action

0:04:44.040,0:04:47.416
is either a wise or an unwise way[br]to promote diversity in the workplace

0:04:47.440,0:04:48.736
or the classroom.

0:04:48.760,0:04:50.776
But if you grow up in an area like this,

0:04:50.800,0:04:54.536
you see affirmative action[br]as a tool to hold people like you back.

0:04:54.560,0:04:57.816
That's especially true if you're[br]a member of the white working class.

0:04:57.840,0:05:01.256
You see it as something[br]that isn't just about good or bad policy.

0:05:01.280,0:05:03.976
You see it as something[br]that's actively conspiring,

0:05:04.000,0:05:06.256
where people with political[br]and financial power

0:05:06.280,0:05:07.896
are working against you.

0:05:07.920,0:05:12.840
And there are a lot of ways that you see[br]that conspiracy against you --

0:05:13.520,0:05:16.416
perceived, real, but it's there,

0:05:16.440,0:05:18.080
and it warps expectations.

0:05:19.040,0:05:22.256
So if you think about what do you do[br]when you grow up in that world,

0:05:22.280,0:05:24.016
you can respond in a couple of ways.

0:05:24.040,0:05:26.216
One, you can say,[br]"I'm not going to work hard,

0:05:26.240,0:05:29.136
because no matter how hard I work,[br]it's not going to matter."

0:05:29.160,0:05:30.816
Another thing you might do is say,

0:05:30.840,0:05:34.056
"Well, I'm not going to go[br]after the traditional markers of success,

0:05:34.080,0:05:36.416
like a university education[br]or a prestigious job,

0:05:36.440,0:05:39.336
because the people who care[br]about those things are unlike me.

0:05:39.360,0:05:40.980
They're never going to let me in."

0:05:41.004,0:05:43.481
When I got admitted to Yale,[br]a family member asked me

0:05:43.505,0:05:46.816
if I had pretended to be a liberal[br]to get by the admissions committee.

0:05:46.840,0:05:48.616
Seriously.

0:05:48.640,0:05:52.656
And it's obviously not the case[br]that there was a liberal box to check

0:05:52.680,0:05:54.176
on the application,

0:05:54.200,0:05:57.856
but it speaks to a very real[br]insecurity in these places

0:05:57.880,0:06:00.256
that you have to pretend[br]to be somebody you're not

0:06:00.280,0:06:02.480
to get past these various social barriers.

0:06:03.080,0:06:04.604
It's a very significant problem.

0:06:05.640,0:06:08.056
Even if you don't give in[br]to that hopelessness,

0:06:08.080,0:06:09.896
even if you think, let's say,

0:06:09.920,0:06:13.536
that your choices matter[br]and you want to make the good choices,

0:06:13.560,0:06:16.456
you want to do better[br]for yourself and for your family,

0:06:16.480,0:06:19.656
it's sometimes hard[br]to even know what those choices are

0:06:19.680,0:06:21.776
when you grow up[br]in a community like I did.

0:06:21.800,0:06:23.416
I didn't know, for example,

0:06:23.440,0:06:25.680
that you had to go[br]to law school to be a lawyer.

0:06:26.360,0:06:30.296
I didn't know that elite universities,[br]as research consistently tells us,

0:06:30.320,0:06:32.096
are cheaper for low-income kids

0:06:32.120,0:06:34.696
because these universities[br]have bigger endowments,

0:06:34.720,0:06:36.896
can offer more generous financial aid.

0:06:36.920,0:06:38.176
I remember I learned this

0:06:38.200,0:06:41.016
when I got the financial aid letter[br]from Yale for myself,

0:06:41.040,0:06:43.736
tens of thousands of dollars[br]in need-based aid,

0:06:43.760,0:06:45.896
which is a term I had never heard before.

0:06:45.920,0:06:48.576
But I turned to my aunt[br]when I got that letter and said,

0:06:48.600,0:06:51.896
"You know, I think this just means[br]that for the first time in my life,

0:06:51.920,0:06:53.520
being poor has paid really well."

0:06:55.360,0:06:58.176
So I didn't have access[br]to that information

0:06:58.200,0:07:01.856
because the social networks around me[br]didn't have access to that information.

0:07:01.880,0:07:05.536
I learned from my community[br]how to shoot a gun, how to shoot it well.

0:07:05.560,0:07:08.016
I learned how to make[br]a damn good biscuit recipe.

0:07:08.040,0:07:11.200
The trick, by the way,[br]is frozen butter, not warm butter.

0:07:12.080,0:07:13.976
But I didn't learn how to get ahead.

0:07:14.000,0:07:16.576
I didn't learn how to make[br]the good decisions

0:07:16.600,0:07:18.456
about education and opportunity

0:07:18.480,0:07:21.176
that you need to make

0:07:21.200,0:07:24.376
to actually have a chance[br]in this 21st century knowledge economy.

0:07:24.400,0:07:28.536
Economists call the value[br]that we gain from our informal networks,

0:07:28.560,0:07:32.176
from our friends and colleagues[br]and family "social capital."

0:07:32.200,0:07:36.016
The social capital that I had[br]wasn't built for 21st century America,

0:07:36.040,0:07:37.240
and it showed.

0:07:38.360,0:07:41.296
There's something else[br]that's really important that's going on

0:07:41.320,0:07:43.496
that our community[br]doesn't like to talk about,

0:07:43.520,0:07:45.096
but it's very real.

0:07:45.120,0:07:47.016
Working-class kids are much more likely

0:07:47.040,0:07:49.776
to face what's called[br]adverse childhood experiences,

0:07:49.800,0:07:53.520
which is just a fancy word[br]for childhood trauma:

0:07:54.280,0:07:57.856
getting hit or yelled at,[br]put down by a parent repeatedly,

0:07:57.880,0:08:00.296
watching someone hit or beat your parent,

0:08:00.320,0:08:03.696
watching someone do drugs[br]or abuse alcohol.

0:08:03.720,0:08:06.256
These are all instances[br]of childhood trauma,

0:08:06.280,0:08:08.360
and they're pretty[br]commonplace in my family.

0:08:08.960,0:08:12.376
Importantly, they're not just[br]commonplace in my family right now.

0:08:12.400,0:08:14.416
They're also multigenerational.

0:08:14.440,0:08:16.000
So my grandparents,

0:08:16.640,0:08:19.416
the very first time that they had kids,

0:08:19.440,0:08:22.136
they expected that they[br]were going to raise them in a way

0:08:22.160,0:08:23.776
that was uniquely good.

0:08:23.800,0:08:25.056
They were middle class,

0:08:25.080,0:08:27.461
they were able to earn[br]a good wage in a steel mill.

0:08:27.485,0:08:28.816
But what ended up happening

0:08:28.840,0:08:31.856
is that they exposed their kids[br]to a lot of the childhood trauma

0:08:31.880,0:08:34.576
that had gone back many generations.

0:08:34.600,0:08:39.360
My mom was 12 when she saw[br]my grandma set my grandfather on fire.

0:08:40.120,0:08:42.936
His crime was that he came home drunk

0:08:42.960,0:08:44.176
after she told him,

0:08:44.200,0:08:46.360
"If you come home drunk,[br]I'm gonna kill you."

0:08:47.240,0:08:48.440
And she tried to do it.

0:08:49.440,0:08:52.920
Think about the way[br]that that affects a child's mind.

0:08:53.520,0:08:56.456
And we think of these things[br]as especially rare,

0:08:56.480,0:09:00.456
but a study by the Wisconsin[br]Children's Trust Fund found

0:09:00.480,0:09:06.160
that 40 percent of low-income kids face[br]multiple instances of childhood trauma,

0:09:06.800,0:09:10.096
compared to only 29 percent[br]for upper-income kids.

0:09:10.120,0:09:12.776
And think about what that really means.

0:09:12.800,0:09:14.536
If you're a low-income kid,

0:09:14.560,0:09:19.016
almost half of you face multiple[br]instances of childhood trauma.

0:09:19.040,0:09:20.856
This is not an isolated problem.

0:09:20.880,0:09:23.000
This is a very significant issue.

0:09:23.800,0:09:26.920
We know what happens[br]to the kids who experience that life.

0:09:27.920,0:09:31.216
They're more likely to do drugs,[br]more likely to go to jail,

0:09:31.240,0:09:33.536
more likely to drop out of high school,

0:09:33.560,0:09:34.976
and most importantly,

0:09:35.000,0:09:37.216
they're more likely[br]to do to their children

0:09:37.240,0:09:39.080
what their parents did to them.

0:09:39.640,0:09:42.736
This trauma, this chaos in the home,

0:09:42.760,0:09:46.216
is our culture's[br]very worst gift to our children,

0:09:46.240,0:09:48.760
and it's a gift that keeps on giving.

0:09:50.280,0:09:52.096
So you combine all that,

0:09:52.120,0:09:54.816
the hopelessness, the despair,

0:09:54.840,0:09:57.176
the cynicism about the future,

0:09:57.200,0:09:58.440
the childhood trauma,

0:09:59.440,0:10:01.336
the low social capital,

0:10:01.360,0:10:03.656
and you begin to understand why me,

0:10:03.680,0:10:05.256
at the age of 14,

0:10:05.280,0:10:07.616
was ready to become[br]just another statistic,

0:10:07.640,0:10:09.960
another kid who failed to beat the odds.

0:10:10.640,0:10:13.336
But something unexpected happened.

0:10:13.360,0:10:15.096
I did beat the odds.

0:10:15.120,0:10:17.256
Things turned up for me.

0:10:17.280,0:10:21.016
I graduated from high school,[br]from college, I went to law school,

0:10:21.040,0:10:22.640
and I have a pretty good job now.

0:10:23.320,0:10:24.520
So what happened?

0:10:25.320,0:10:27.856
Well, one thing that happened[br]is that my grandparents,

0:10:27.880,0:10:30.416
the same grandparents[br]of setting someone on fire fame,

0:10:30.440,0:10:32.680
they really shaped up[br]by the time I came around.

0:10:33.320,0:10:36.376
They provided me a stable home,

0:10:36.400,0:10:37.696
a stable family.

0:10:37.720,0:10:38.936
They made sure

0:10:38.960,0:10:42.096
that when my parents weren't able[br]to do the things that kids need,

0:10:42.120,0:10:44.000
they stepped in and filled that role.

0:10:44.880,0:10:47.536
My grandma especially[br]did two things that really matter.

0:10:47.560,0:10:51.056
One, she provided that peaceful home[br]that allowed me to focus on homework

0:10:51.080,0:10:53.696
and the things that kids[br]should be focused on.

0:10:53.720,0:10:56.096
But she was also[br]this incredibly perceptive woman,

0:10:56.120,0:10:58.496
despite not even having[br]a middle school education.

0:10:58.520,0:11:01.176
She recognized the message[br]that my community had for me,

0:11:01.200,0:11:03.256
that my choices didn't matter,

0:11:03.280,0:11:05.096
that the deck was stacked against me.

0:11:05.120,0:11:06.336
She once told me,

0:11:06.360,0:11:10.336
"JD, never be like those losers who think[br]the deck is stacked against them.

0:11:10.360,0:11:12.696
You can do anything you want to."

0:11:12.720,0:11:15.936
And yet she recognized[br]that life wasn't fair.

0:11:15.960,0:11:17.576
It's hard to strike that balance,

0:11:17.600,0:11:19.616
to tell a kid that life isn't fair,

0:11:19.640,0:11:24.896
but also recognize and enforce in them[br]the reality that their choices matter.

0:11:24.920,0:11:27.040
But mamaw was able[br]to strike that balance.

0:11:29.040,0:11:32.336
The other thing that really helped[br]was the United States Marine Corps.

0:11:32.360,0:11:35.856
So we think of the Marine Corps[br]as a military outfit, and of course it is,

0:11:35.880,0:11:38.736
but for me, the US Marine Corps[br]was a four-year crash course

0:11:38.760,0:11:39.976
in character education.

0:11:40.000,0:11:42.376
It taught me how to make a bed,[br]how to do laundry,

0:11:42.400,0:11:44.656
how to wake up early,[br]how to manage my finances.

0:11:44.680,0:11:46.856
These are things[br]my community didn't teach me.

0:11:46.880,0:11:49.833
I remember when I went[br]to go buy a car for the very first time,

0:11:49.857,0:11:54.176
I was offered a dealer's[br]low, low interest rate of 21.9 percent,

0:11:54.200,0:11:56.800
and I was ready[br]to sign on the dotted line.

0:11:57.680,0:11:59.536
But I didn't take that deal,

0:11:59.560,0:12:01.576
because I went and took it to my officer

0:12:01.600,0:12:03.736
who told me, "Stop being an idiot,

0:12:03.760,0:12:06.256
go to the local credit union,[br]and get a better deal."

0:12:06.280,0:12:07.736
And so that's what I did.

0:12:07.760,0:12:09.176
But without the Marine Corps,

0:12:09.200,0:12:11.456
I would have never had access[br]to that knowledge.

0:12:11.480,0:12:13.680
I would have had[br]a financial calamity, frankly.

0:12:14.720,0:12:17.856
The last thing I want to say[br]is that I had a lot of good fortune

0:12:17.880,0:12:19.456
in the mentors and people

0:12:19.480,0:12:21.616
who have played[br]an important role in my life.

0:12:21.640,0:12:24.696
From the Marines,[br]from Ohio State, from Yale,

0:12:24.720,0:12:25.976
from other places,

0:12:26.000,0:12:27.656
people have really stepped in

0:12:27.680,0:12:30.496
and ensured that they filled[br]that social capital gap

0:12:30.520,0:12:32.920
that it was pretty obvious,[br]apparently, that I had.

0:12:33.480,0:12:35.040
That comes from good fortune,

0:12:35.840,0:12:39.136
but a lot of children[br]aren't going to have that good fortune,

0:12:39.160,0:12:42.856
and I think that raises[br]really important questions for all of us

0:12:42.880,0:12:44.642
about how we're going to change that.

0:12:45.600,0:12:49.576
We need to ask questions about[br]how we're going to give low-income kids

0:12:49.600,0:12:53.136
who come from a broken home[br]access to a loving home.

0:12:53.160,0:12:54.416
We need to ask questions

0:12:54.440,0:12:56.776
about how we're going[br]to teach low-income parents

0:12:56.800,0:12:58.936
how to better interact[br]with their children,

0:12:58.960,0:13:00.456
with their partners.

0:13:00.480,0:13:04.936
We need to ask questions[br]about how we give social capital,

0:13:04.960,0:13:08.336
mentorship to low-income kids[br]who don't have it.

0:13:08.360,0:13:11.416
We need to think about[br]how we teach working class children

0:13:11.440,0:13:13.936
about not just hard skills,

0:13:13.960,0:13:16.056
like reading, mathematics,

0:13:16.080,0:13:17.416
but also soft skills,

0:13:17.440,0:13:20.280
like conflict resolution[br]and financial management.

0:13:21.440,0:13:24.656
Now, I don't have all of the answers.

0:13:24.680,0:13:27.600
I don't know all of the solutions[br]to this problem,

0:13:28.360,0:13:29.560
but I do know this:

0:13:30.600,0:13:32.336
in southern Ohio right now,

0:13:32.360,0:13:36.136
there's a kid who is[br]anxiously awaiting their dad,

0:13:36.160,0:13:38.536
wondering whether,[br]when he comes through the door,

0:13:38.560,0:13:40.960
he'll walk calmly or stumble drunkly.

0:13:42.000,0:13:43.200
There's a kid

0:13:44.560,0:13:46.896
whose mom sticks a needle in her arm

0:13:46.920,0:13:48.416
and passes out,

0:13:48.440,0:13:51.336
and he doesn't know[br]why she doesn't cook him dinner,

0:13:51.360,0:13:53.160
and he goes to bed hungry that night.

0:13:54.400,0:13:58.336
There's a kid who has[br]no hope for the future

0:13:58.360,0:14:01.616
but desperately[br]wants to live a better life.

0:14:01.640,0:14:03.840
They just want somebody[br]to show it to them.

0:14:04.680,0:14:06.536
I don't have all the answers,

0:14:06.560,0:14:11.496
but I know that unless our society[br]starts asking better questions

0:14:11.520,0:14:13.616
about why I was so lucky

0:14:13.640,0:14:16.696
and about how to get that luck[br]to more of our communities

0:14:16.720,0:14:18.376
and our country's children,

0:14:18.400,0:14:21.656
we're going to continue[br]to have a very significant problem.

0:14:21.680,0:14:22.896
Thank you.

0:14:22.920,0:14:25.320
(Applause)