Washington, DC
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: It is so truly wonderful, wonderful to be with you – to have caught the incredible marching band, to see the students, faculty, and leadership of Tennessee State out in force today – to know how many people are joining online and this incredible University.
I feel privileged to have heard the marching band and can't believe that that is the first marching band in history to have won the Grammy. I know the Grammy is a theme here so far this morning. But how could it not be?
I want to acknowledge, as well, His Excellency Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia. Who is Colombia's Ambassador to the U.S. He is not only the first Afro-Colombian to represent his country at Colombia's Embassy here in America, but he's also a fierce advocate for primarily black inclusions back in Colombia. And so he's just a perfect person to be there with us as we try to drive this essential agenda.
I wish I could be there in Nashville, one of my favorite cities. I'm grateful to our USAID counselor – one of the most senior officials at the agency – Clinton White, who is an incredible change maker who you will get to know; our Chief Diversity Officer Neneh Diallo, and her team.
They have represented the senior leadership of this agency. They are the senior leadership of this agency. And they are not only going to help bring your attention to what we do at USAID – programmatically and out in the world to solve some of the world's toughest problems – but I hope that after today, thanks to them and others who are there, including Clifton, that you will envisage a place for yourself in foreign affairs.
You know, better than I do, that black Americans have been driving forces in the struggle to protect and promote human dignity and not just here in the United States.
This has been true for decades, internationally, and longer, actually abroad. Black Americans from Ebenezer Bassett, to Ambassador Andrew Young, who's one of my predecessors as U.S. Ambassador to the UN, from whom I took great inspiration to my current colleague Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who's U.S. ambassador at the UN today. They have long fought for the rights of communities around the world and understood how essential it is to promote human rights in the pursuit of American foreign policy, drawing on what we know about the strength of our democracy at home, and how essential that is to have the standing to effectively promote human rights abroad. But also, you know, without civil rights and human rights here, the squandering of economic opportunities, the squandering of the kind of foundation we need to build the just society that so many people crave here in this nation. Those same aspirations, those same longings exist abroad. And our foreign policy professionals have a critical role in advancing those ambitions.
Many of you have already begun. In your high school years, your college years, if you're a faculty member, or an administrator, you are dedicated to that same fight to protect and promote human dignity.
Some of you are doing it in your own communities on the campus, some of you are already trying to make a difference abroad. You do so knowing that often your actions come at significant risk to your safety and your security and your livelihoods. Just last week, two black State House members, of course, were expelled for leading chants during proceedings on the floor of the legislature. A third State House member who joined in their protests, a white woman, managed to keep her seat.
These events, which are too familiar to routine, could lead to cynicism and despair. And at times, of course, does lead to cynicism and despair. But as we have seen right there in Tennessee, which is inspiring not only so many of our nation, but so many people around the world. Events also inspire. And they mobilize. And they can lead, in fact, to a stronger commitment to justice and to human dignity. And that commitment to justice is core to the mission of the HBCUs that are represented here today in this historic conference.
It is core to the mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development. And that's why I'm here.
For too long – notwithstanding the examples I've offered of Andy Young and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and those who came before – for too long American foreign policy has lacked your voices in real numbers and at high levels. And I know that that absence then makes it difficult probably for some of you to see a career for yourselves in development, in the cause of bringing health service, education, vaccines, support for the rule of law, support for civil rights abroad, support for climate change, resilience – makes it hard for you to see yourselves in a career in that field. Because you're not seeing others. Representation matters.
It may even be hard for you to see yourself on a path to public service. Although thankfully, again, as more people of color, as more black Americans enter into public service that becomes, maybe, more imaginable.
I was an Irish immigrant to this country. I grew up in Pittsburgh and Atlanta, Georgia, at wonderful public schools. It would have been totally inconceivable to me. That I would have something tangible to offer at a place like USAID would’ve been utterly unthinkable. And that is as a white American as part of an immigrant group that was by and large welcomed in this country in recent decades.
I can't imagine how much stronger that feeling of “what does this have to do with me” could be if I had encountered the structural barriers and the racism that so many of you have to contend with every single day.
So it is on us here at USAID and in American foreign policy institutions to help you envisage a career for yourselves in the field by recruiting talent more actively, more aggressively in more places, by naming, you know, those doubts that might be in some of your minds. But know, please, that those doubts are in a lot of people's minds. And our job is to expand partnerships with academic partners like those represented today with whom we may not have partnered before.
Now, I will not lie to you. We have not always brought this kind of intentionality to this task, but we are changing. We may not be changing as quickly as some of us would like, but we are definitely moving in a different direction.
We have recently established formal partnerships with institutions like Morehouse, Tuskegee, Florida International University, which is the largest Hispanic Serving Institution university in the country, Delaware State, and others. And I'm hopeful that these partnerships are not just going to expand our recruitment, but they're going to connect us with faculty like those gathered today – who are conducting research, developing innovations that can help us serve communities overseas.
We are working to bring in other institutions through something called Work With USAID, our web platform, which has resources that demystify the work of what can be a really complicated process of partnering with USAID.
And we have something called a New Partnerships Initiative, which provides targeted technical support to Minority Serving Institutions that want to work more closely with us.
By recruiting from these institutions and others serving black communities, we are working not only to build a more diverse team, but to be more impactful in the world. This is not just about representation, though representation is critical. It is not just about having a workforce that looks like America as it must, as it should. But it is actually about what we can do in the world. We know we will be better. We know we will bring about better results in development. We will help speed the journey to prosperity for the communities in which we work. We will tackle problems of water irrigation, problems of corruption because we have a workforce that looks more like America.
And so we need your skills. And even if you don't think that those skills would apply to international development, think again.
If you have business experience, you can help facilitate partnerships with the private sector, which USAID needs to do much more of, for example, in fighting the climate crisis.
If you have any exposure to agricultural training, you can help us support smallholder farmers who are going to help us and global hunger.
If you have worked as a clinician or as an aide in a hospital, you could contribute valuable insights to our efforts to prevent the next pandemic.
No matter your background as well, hear this – your lived experience can help you make a real impact in communities facing many analogous structural barriers, facing racism, facing exclusion, that you may have faced, and yet you found yourself making the strides that you have, getting the education that you are, doing the research that you are doing if you're a faculty member. So you can be a powerful force as we try to fight exclusion abroad and support our partners who are on the frontlines of doing that.
So I hope the rest of this conference can give you concrete examples and opportunities for you to contribute to this field.
I hope one day to see you walking the halls of our Agency headquarters in Washington or being out there in the field, tackling these tough problems, helping lead the fight for justice and human dignity in communities all around the world.
Thank you so much for having me and for this incredible opportunity for us to tell you that you belong and that we would love to have you as part of our Agency.
Thank you.