Thanks for that really generous introduction. I really appreciate it. I'm really honored and and humbled to be here today to talk to you about something that is in my opinion really important.
Something that that I'm really passionate about social justice and To set the stage a little bit, I'll tell you why I thought this was important to talk about. So working at a university, I interact almost on a daily basis with engineers and physicians and scientists and scholars in the social sciences and humanities and the arts and students who just want to be just like them. And we often meet, because that's what you do, you have lots of meetings, and at some point in the meetings we often talk about what are the things that they're researching, what are the things that they're interested in, what are the faculty working on. And at times people will turn to me and say, well Charlie what's your passion, what do you work on, what's your research interest? And I'll look at them and pause for a minute and then I'll say, well I'm interested in social justice.
I care about racism and homophobia, and I care about gender and masculinities, and I care about poverty and income inequalities, and I get a lot of different reactions. Some people look at me and say, Haven't we done that already? Isn't that what the 1960s and 70s were about?
Isn't that over? Others are a little bit more hostile, like the radio talk show host who thought the best insult that he could make a of me was to say, well, you know, he has a background in social justice, like there was something wrong with that. But others will say, but you're an administrator.
What is an administrator talking about social justice? And I tell them that it really has nothing to do with what position you're in. Because everything I do looks through a lens of social justice.
And then finally, that most people, the biggest kind of reaction I get, is sort of this metaphorical kind of like tap on the head saying, oh that's nice dear. And then they really just glaze over as I continue to talk. So what is social justice? So to me, social justice is a place where everybody's free to achieve everything that they're capable of doing, where there's an even playing field for everybody, where every child who's born... ...is allowed to dream, is allowed to dream really big.
Maybe they could give a TEDx talk one day. And it doesn't matter what their background is. It doesn't matter what their gender is.
It doesn't matter what their language is. It doesn't matter where they are, and it even doesn't matter how much their parents earn. But unfortunately, I believe we're not there yet. So what I'm going to do is just take a couple of minutes and tell you some of the things that I'm passionate about. about, some of the things that I think we need to start to pay more attention to.
And I believe that they'll resonate with you. I believe that you'll want to join me in the struggle to make a difference. So first is the issue of racism, racism in human rights.
And people will say to me, but we have a black president. He's been elected twice. So we live in a post-racial society.
And I sort of have to look at them and. and scratch my head a little bit and say, well, do you really think that Michael Brown's family in Ferguson, Missouri thinks we live in a post-racial society? Do you think that Eric Gardner's family in Staten Island, New York believes that?
And what about Trayvon Martin's parents down in Florida? I don't think they'd agree that we live in a post-racial society. But racism and human rights violations takes many forms.
Another practice that's happening in our country... today is voter suppression. So across the country in many places there are attempts to limit the rights particularly of people of color and poor people to vote. Our most fundamental right as Americans is being limited by people.
Another issue that I care about is gender. So, I have to ask you, when feminism became the new F-word, why are we afraid to say it? Why are we afraid to talk about it? There are gender issues in this country as well as around the world.
So, in our country, we can't pass an Equal Rights Amendment. We can't guarantee that women earn the same amount for equal work with men. It's currently around 77 cents on the dollar. That doesn't seem right. Globally, it's also a problem.
So why do women have more of a chance to be illiterate around the world than men do? In part, it's because there are cultures in which girls aren't even allowed to attend school. Can you imagine if half your people, half the future, isn't allowed to attend school?
And women around the world also are still subjected against their will to female genital mutilation. It goes on every day. In our country we have politicians paying renewed attention to issues around birth control and abortion.
That's one ship I thought had sailed already, but obviously not. But don't be mistaken that gender is just an issue for men, women, excuse me, because it's also an issue for men. Because what does it mean to be a man in the 21st century?
What is masculinity really about? What's the price that men pay to be stuck in that square with all of the expectations for what it takes to be a man? Something we need to think about and unfortunately we can't talk much about gender today without talking about gender violence. So one in four, one in four women in this country at some point in their lives are impacted by violence or assault by someone they share an intimate relationship with. A current or former boyfriend or husband.
One in four. Did you know that in the United States today, three women are murdered every single day by their husband or boyfriend or someone they share an intimate relationship with? Three women every day.
Seems like a problem to me. And we've talked about how sexual assault, harassment, rape has infiltrated institutions. So it's not that long ago we heard about the impact of rape and sexual assault and harassment in our military. Yet we're still waiting for Congress to do something about it.
And most recently we hear about rape and sexual assault on college campuses. So the White House estimates that one out of five women who attend college are impacted by sexual harassment, assault, or rape. In case you didn't hear me, it's one out of five of every female student.
So does it seem right that along with your acceptance letter, you're getting an increased chance of being sexually assaulted? I don't see the connection. A few months back, we heard about what was going on in the NFL.
Headlines in every newspaper, the lead story on every nightly newscast. And then something happened. The season started, and we started watching games again. So we stopped talking about it.
It went away. The NFL got exactly what it wanted. It went away. And most recently there are allegations at a high school here in New Jersey, Sayreville, New Jersey, the high school football team that the senior students sexually assaulted the freshman students in the locker room. Allegedly all the other students knew about it.
It went on every year. So you ask yourself, how did this happen? How can this keep happening?
And the truth is that they are just symptoms. They're symptoms of the fact that we live in a rape and violence culture. So not all men, clearly not all men, But there still are men who believe that they can get what they want, when they want it, from whomever they want it.
And when you talk about violence of any kind, you can't help but talk about guns. So think about the debate that's going on in this country about gun control and protection. Oh, wait a minute, there really isn't a debate.
We said there was going to be a debate. We said there'd be a debate after Virginia Tech. We said there'd be a debate after Congressman Gabby Giffords was shot. We said there'd be a debate after the shooting in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. And absolutely we knew there would be change after the shooting at an elementary school.
After we saw the children and their teachers trying to protect them massacred at Sandy Hook, there'd be a change. We'd be better. Unfortunately, it never happened.
We couldn't even pass language about background checks. We couldn't make it happen. So Sandy Hook came and went.
We don't talk about it much. But did you know that every three days, three days in this country, more teens and children die from gun violence than died at Sandy Hook? Every three days.
And we don't talk about it. We don't talk about the fact that one-third of US homes have guns. One-third, mostly illegal guns for protection. Only it doesn't work that way because if you have a gun in your home, it's three times more likely that a homicide will take place in your home.
If you have a gun in your home, it's five times more likely that a suicide attempt will be successful. And it's four times more likely that there'll be an accidental murder in the home. One of the areas I mentioned that I'm concerned about is poverty.
Poverty in this country, extreme poverty around the world. So in the United States today, there are more than 46 million people who live below the poverty line, the federal poverty line. 46 million people. Within that population, 20% of all the children in the United States live below the poverty line. One out of five.
Did you know, I don't think you know this, did you know that the United States has the second highest rate of child poverty in the entire developed world? Second only to Romania. Every other country has a lower rate of child poverty than we do.
Second highest rate of child poverty. richest country in the world. How do you put that together? What do we think of ourselves as people if that's the truth? Because being poor is more than not having money.
Being poor means that often there's no food on the table and all of the nutritional complications of that. Being poor unfortunately goes hand in hand with poor education. And isn't that ironic when we know that education is the surest way to get people out of poverty?
But poor kids don't have the advantage of that. And then there's violence, and then there's alcohol and drugs, and then there's overall poor health status. Because your health status and your longevity is based on how much income you have in the United States. One of the other issues I'm concerned about are LGBTQA issues. And yes, marriage equality passed and I am thrilled.
30 states, it's the law, it's legal. And that is phenomenal. And that sends a great message.
But there are still young people today who are afraid. There are still young people today subjected to bullying and violence and rejection. In fact, the largest percentage of homeless youth on the street are gay and lesbian youth who have been thrown out by their parents.
So while we celebrate marriage equality, We can't forget about Rutgers student Tyler Clemente, who committed suicide rather than being outed. We can't forget about University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepherd, who was killed because he was gay. and the countless others whose names we'll never know.
And we can't forget about recently the trans woman in Brooklyn who's fighting for her life in a New York City hospital now simply because of who she is and because she was walking down the street with a gay man. We can't forget. So the last issue I want to mention to you is criminal justice. Our criminal justice system.
The United States has more people incarcerated than any country in the world. So we're very quick to talk about all the other repressive countries and regimes that exist, but we have the most people incarcerated. Are Americans just more likely to commit crimes? I don't think so. If you were born in 2001, a black male has a one in three chance of being incarcerated.
A Hispanic male has a one in six chance. They're not any more likely to be guilty of crimes. They're just more likely to be incarcerated. Marian Wright Edelman, the founder and CEO of the Children's Defense Fund, talks about the cradle-to-prison pipeline.
It's very real. So Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long. but it bends toward justice.
But he went on to add that in fact, although it bends toward justice, it doesn't do it on its own. It bends because people put their hands on the ark to ensure that it continues to bend toward justice. So I ask you, if these facts resonate with you, If you agree with me that social justice is as if not more important today than it ever was, then stand. Then put your hand on the arc. Ensure that it keeps bending in the direction of justice.
We owe it to those who struggled before us, on whose shoulders we stand, many of whom lost their lives. We owe it to those we know, like my 11-month-old granddaughter, so that she can grow up and be anything that she is capable of being. But even more important, we owe it to all those we'll never know. We owe it to those who come after us, our students here, but all the children, all those being born, all those who are yet to be born.
We owe it to them that they can enter a world in which they can be everything they're capable of and dream as big as they want to be. Thank you.