While answering questions at his town hall in Estero, Florida, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) was asked if he has read "Caste," leading to his response citing his own life experiences.
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00:00Not to be controversial, but let's jump into the EI, shall we?
00:06Sure.
00:07I overheard a Trump-supported man announce oddly in very corporate terms that he would never vote for Byron Donalds before Donalds has said a word.
00:17And in spite of the endorsement from President Trump, he has lost his vote because of his race alone.
00:22What would Donald say to a young black man who haven't lost a vote yet, but who have lost jobs and they've lost professional associations, et cetera, because of their race?
00:33Isn't there some value to programs that seek to provide opportunities for every young man?
00:37So, it's fine.
00:51It's fine.
00:52You do this long enough, don't worry about it.
00:55Here's the deal.
00:57So, I'm 46.
00:59Obviously, I'm a member of Congress now.
01:01Before Congress, I was in finance.
01:03So, I don't know if I went to the bottom of my way up, essentially.
01:05They fell, and they go, and I'm going to do that.
01:13So, 46 years old will mobilize and finance before policy, before everybody knew about it, before Twitter, before Facebook.
01:19When I was coming up at Parking America at the time, we had diversity programs.
01:26Everybody agrees with diversity.
01:27I agree with diversity.
01:28That makes total sense.
01:30The issue with BEI is not diversity.
01:34It's equitable.
01:35You cannot have a system, you cannot. You can have a cohesive, harmonious culture around diversity.
01:49I think we all celebrate diversity. I think we all do.
01:53The DEI piece of this thing really just started showing up from my recollection about five, six years ago.
01:59Maybe seven times. Maybe eight. My last stop in corporate America was at Wells Fargo.
02:06And this was around 2015. And so I had to do the training courses being an employee of Wells Fargo.
02:14In the training courses at Wells Fargo back in 2015, there was no mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
02:20It was diversity. That's what it was in 2015.
02:23So if you're going to ask me as a black man, 46 years old, that it's possible for a younger black kid, 21 years old, to find a way to get ahead in America, I will say, yes, those opportunities fully exist.
02:38If we're going to have a real conversation, let's have a real conversation about networks and relationships.
02:45Because let's be honest. How am I being intellectually honest? I do.
02:52Coming up from New York City, coming to the state of Florida, graduating from Florida State, attending family university, when I moved to Naples, Florida, I did not have relationships and connections.
03:06My first job came out of the one pass. I went and interviewed through six different people to find a job.
03:13And the mission at the time when I got that job, back in 2003 when I moved to Southwest Florida, when I was just saved in Southwest Florida, you know, it was, man, I don't even go there.
03:23It was 2003 at the time. All right? But at that time, at that time, my mission was, let me get my foot in the door, let me work hard and prove myself.
03:33And prove that I had the intellect, the capacity, and the drive to get promoted and move my way up to Latin.
03:40That's what I did. And it's not just me. There's a lot of white people that did that.
03:45A lot of Spanish people that did that in the United States of America at the same time.
03:49But now we have this false premise that if you don't have these three initials existing in every corporate boardroom, in every college classroom,
03:58and somehow minority kids cannot get ahead, it is a lot. It is a lot. And I believe it. That's a kind of unprofessional.
04:10But I fall on finding it to be disrespectful to other young black kids trying to find a way to get up in this world to say they can't get ahead if it's not for PEI.
04:18That is a lot. You don't have to admit it. You don't have to admit it.
04:23I know the history of America that is not a perfect history, and that is a fact.
04:30But you can't tell me that America today is the same America from 60 years ago or 120 years ago. It's not. It is not. It's not.
04:42You can disagree with me if you want to. You can disagree with me and I will respectfully disagree with you.
04:47But I will tell you this. There are going to be black kids that graduate from FSU this year, UF this year, Harvard this year, Princeton this year.
04:56They're going to have an opportunity to go into the working world and exceed and excel.
05:01And if your whole belief is it is not possible without a three-letter word in every training manual, then I'm sorry we don't agree.
05:10We don't agree. I'm sorry. We agree with others.
05:14Now. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm still going. I got this.
05:21Now. Now. Let's talk about this one.
05:34For the people who believe that it's not a love and claim to their life, guess what? There's no love or claim to their life. It's called life. It doesn't exist. Let's be real about it.
05:49I'm glad somebody talks about love or claim to their life. Let's talk about relationships.
05:55My children. Let's be honest now. My children have more of an advantage today because they are my sons than I had when I was their age.
06:07Because my mother didn't have the relationships that I had. And he's NBA right now.
06:12This is going to go by it. The movie is going to love this one. Turn the camera so he won't like this one.
06:16In the NBA right now. LeBron James Jr.
06:21Bron. Bron. Is in the NBA right now on the playoff roster for the Los Angeles Lakers. And he can play basketball.
06:30But his dad is also the seventh greatest player that ever lived. Sorry, MJ is still the best.
06:35Let's be honest. Let's be honest about this. Let's be honest about this. In the world of athletics, if you look at high school recruited right now, the top ten being recruited in high school basketball are the sons of former players.
06:52Why? They have more access. They have more resources. They have more training opportunities. They have more thriving talent.
06:59So access and relationships is a fact of life. It is a fact of life.
07:05So if you're going to ask me about equity, I will tell you equity is an impossible standard to achieve.
07:14Because every child starts at a different point in life because of the relationships of their parents. That is the truth. That is the truth.
07:24Every player in professional form right now, every actor right now, who is a great actor right now, Ice Cube son, O'Shea Jackson. O'Shea is a great actor. I love watching him act. I love watching O'Shea.
07:36Well, let's be honest. O'Shea had a leg up because of his dad and Ice Cube. That's a good thing.
07:42What you want is for everybody that has upward mobility in the United States. And if you firmly believe that upward mobility is impossible without equity, then we don't agree.
07:54That's a good opportunity for you.
07:57Right. Jack Price with four of the nerves. Jack Nutz? Jack Nutz. Jack Nutz can four of the nerves.
08:04Jack Nutz, all right. Jack Nutz can four of the nerves.
08:06David Finance, if you turn over a company in the red, would you gut the account for this?
08:09With mom, and by the way, Ronny can't four of them. So I'm happy for Roger James. Ronny can't four of them.
08:18Make sure, make sure Ronan Williams has one side. I think Ronny can't four of them.
08:21Sports is an example of what I'm saying.
08:25What I'm saying is that you have fathers and mothers right now in America who are black, white, and Hispanic.
08:36Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Peruvian, El Salvador, whatever.
08:39And the ones who are now, and the ones who have now achieved success in America today, you know what they're doing, man?
08:45They're doing the same thing I know you have done for your family, my mom did for me.
08:49It's we are trying to set up our pits to be successful.
08:53We're not letting our pits go out in the world and be like, well, I had to start from London, so good luck, kid.
08:57We're not doing that.
08:58If you've achieved a model of success in America, everybody's trying to help the next generation rise to the next level.
09:05That is what families have always done.
09:07And the beauty of the family in America is that you do have black families in America who have achieved a model of success in this generation of America.
09:17And they are now helping their kids achieve a higher level of success.
09:22That is a fact.
09:23And we should celebrate that.
09:25We should celebrate that.
09:28What about the white kids that don't even have opportunities?
09:31Actually, let's go to the sports kids.
09:33You have four black kids, four black kids, four Spanish kids who are all starting at the bottom.
09:39They're all starting at the bottom.
09:40For American business.
09:41All I'm saying is, everybody in life rises and falls on merit, opportunity, chances, and yes, luck.
09:49Those are the ways.
09:50That's the way it works.
09:51It's all those work out there.
09:53But if you want to tell me that the country today is the same when my mother was going through high school,
10:00we fundamentally disagree.
10:02It is not the same in America.
10:04It's not even close.
10:04It is not.
10:09It is not.
10:09It is not.
10:10Peace.
10:11It's not.
10:12Let's get back to Jack.
10:13Fellas.
10:14Did I find Jack?
10:15Have you read the book?
10:16Jack.
10:18Fellas.
10:18Have you read the book?
10:19All right.
10:21Hold, hold, hold.
10:21Stop, stop, stop.
10:22Don't educate me about my life, sir.
10:24Don't do that.
10:25Don't, don't.
10:26Sir, hold on.
10:27Hold on.
10:27Please, hear me on this.
10:29I like how everybody's shouting at me in the black line of the stage of a microphone on this hand saying,
10:32have you read this book, read this book, read this book, read this book, read this book?
10:35Don't marginalize my life and what I've done.
10:38Don't do that.
10:38Don't marginalize the land of other black people in this country that have done well.
10:42Don't do that.
10:43Don't marginalize their city.
10:44We should know how many black men in America today run private equity funds, run hedge funds,
10:49have done something marvelous.
10:51They've done something really political, but they've done marvelous.
10:54Don't do that.
10:54Don't do that.
10:57Don't do that.
10:58Don't do that.
10:59We should celebrate the success in our country, not push them down because we have to have D.C.
11:05Now that we're ready to understand.
11:08Thank you, Jack.