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I was a principal and Bay was a summer intern,
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and he comes into my office and he says,
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"I want to talk about all these things, like how I make
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"my slides and my analysis." And then he said,
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"I also want to talk to you about racism."
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And I said, "Oh, that's interesting."
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And Bay proceeded to open up
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a conversation with me that
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was analytical and thoughtful and
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personal about his life
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and his thoughts and what he's committed to.
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And it struck me as different for
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a white person to raise the topic and to
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have such fluidity and clarity and
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confidence in that conversation.
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Ellen was one of the people that
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when I sort of said, "Hey, would you be
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"up for talking about this?"
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She said, "Yes."
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And then over the years,
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I kept picking up the phone, checking in,
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"How are you doing?"
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"Can we keep talking?"
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And she just kept saying "Yes."
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And so it would just go, year after year.
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And she would introduce me to
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other people, and we would stay connected.
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And then when that
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opportunity to work came up,
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I was the one that said yes, because it was a no-brainer.
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So it's been a great journey, great coming together.
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And there's no doubt BCG was a huge part of it.
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What we do at the Groundwater Institute is something that I
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have wanted to do for a long time professionally.
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And that is,
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what I call leveraging or harnessing the power of business,
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and the wisdom and the staying power of social movements,
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racial justice movements in particular,
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and bringing those things together so that we could really
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move the ball forward in the country and in the world in
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terms of moving towards racial equity.
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What I think distinguishes us in this work
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is that we bring a framing and a lens
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for structural racism that helps
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leaders develop a more sophisticated
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analysis to respond to a problem that has a depth and a
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complexity to it that I think is easy for us to ignore.
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Our work is based on the idea that
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diagnosis determines treatment.
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And so we do spend time talking with people about what
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causes racial inequity, what causes gender inequity,
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what causes any kind of inequity that's not desired,
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because our view is if we're not aligned
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about what the underlying causes are,
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then even people who agree that inequity is a problem can
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end up working across purposes.
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We have had the tremendous opportunity to work with BCG
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recently on building leadership
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and DEI racial equity work amongst BCG's senior leadership.
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And we continue to be inspired by the caliber of leadership,
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by the brainpower in BCG, and by the commitment of the folks
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that we've worked with. And it gives me hope in this work.
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I'm donating my prize to
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the Indigenous Resurgence Institute: Honor the Old Ways.
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The organization is just coming together,
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but building on a history of work
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that's going to include working with indigenous ceremonial
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elders and doing work that is important to them.
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But key projects are going to include
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the work of international repatriation,
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which is actually repatriating remains and sacred objects
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of people, things,
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and human remains that were literally stolen and
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exported all over the globe.
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And the work of international repatriation
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is actually about repatriating those things home.
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I'm donating my gift to
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the Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative.
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The Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative
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is a group of committed community people,
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academic leaders,
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and medical professionals who have worked together for
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decades to study how racism operates in the health system
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and to work to eliminate disparities in outcomes
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in cancer care rates and in outcomes for
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breast and lung cancer in Greensboro, North Carolina.