Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Well, as all of
Speaker 1: you know, Monday is Martin Luther King Junior Day, a
Speaker 1: federal holiday that celebrates the life and legacy of Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Junior.
Speaker 2: Right, And just a reminder, of course, Martin Luther King
Speaker 2: Day also happens to fall on January twentieth, which is
Speaker 2: the day that President elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated.
Speaker 2: This Monday, we Tim and I will be doing a
Speaker 2: special edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek that afternoon looking at the
Speaker 2: new incoming administration and all the policies that may come down.
Speaker 2: So we want to get into that and more with
Speaker 2: our next guest, who has a certain very personal story
Speaker 2: and attachment of course to Martin Luther King Day. We're
Speaker 2: joined by Reverend doctor Bernice King. She's the chief executive
Speaker 2: officer of the Martin Luther King Junior Center for Nonviolent
Speaker 2: Social Change, which is also known as the King Center.
Speaker 2: She is the daughter of Martin Luther King Junior and
Speaker 2: her mom, Coretta Scott King, founder of the King Center.
Speaker 2: Doctor King, So nice to have you here with us.
Speaker 2: You know, Monday for many it's a holiday. Well, nice
Speaker 2: to have you here for many more. It's also a
Speaker 2: reminder of our difficult past around race relations and discrimination.
Speaker 2: What does the day mean to you honoring your dad?
Speaker 3: Well, it's an opportunity, obviously for us to not just
Speaker 3: commemorate his life, but to really look further into his teachings.
Speaker 4: He was not just a civil rights leader, he was
Speaker 4: a teacher.
Speaker 3: He left us a blueprint as to how to create
Speaker 3: a just, humane, equitable, and peaceful world.
Speaker 4: And every year.
Speaker 3: One of the things that I encourage is that we
Speaker 3: study him more because he spoke about things that we
Speaker 3: as a nation and world needed to do to fight
Speaker 3: against what he saw as a triple equals of poverty, racism,
Speaker 3: and militarism as a threat to our humanity. And so
Speaker 3: here we are once again this year, and as we
Speaker 3: inaugurate a new president. Those teachings don't change, they stay
Speaker 3: the same. What we have to do is to connect
Speaker 3: to them and to connect to the spirit of that
Speaker 3: movement so we can continue to move our nation and
Speaker 3: world forward.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you just to follow up.
Speaker 2: You said, you know, your dad leaving us a blueprint.
Speaker 2: How would you think he's doing how we are doing
Speaker 2: today with that blueprint?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, he said to us, and where do
Speaker 4: we go from here?
Speaker 3: Chaos the community in nineteen sixty seven, the book that
Speaker 3: published then that we must find a way to live
Speaker 3: together as brothers, and he meant humanity as brothers and sisters,
Speaker 3: or together we would be forced to perish as foods.
Speaker 4: And I think we've not found the way to do that.
Speaker 3: I think he further divided around different ideologies instead of
Speaker 3: trying to spend time learning in spite of our differences.
Speaker 4: How do we live together?
Speaker 3: How do we create a coexistence where we don't co
Speaker 3: annihilate one another?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: How do we create a world where everyone has decent
Speaker 3: and affordable housing and access to healthcare?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: How do we ensure that people who may end up
Speaker 3: in the homeless population, how do we ensure that that
Speaker 3: is short lived and we create a pathway to people
Speaker 3: to to to reclaim their lives. How do we create
Speaker 3: a fair distribution of wealth in this nation? He talked
Speaker 3: about having a radical redistribution of wealth. He didn't talk
Speaker 3: about it in the sense that we just have to
Speaker 3: remove wealth from someone else, but we have to figure
Speaker 3: out how do we balance our economy so that people
Speaker 3: can have enough to do well, and then of course
Speaker 3: he to talk about how do we respect who we
Speaker 3: are from different cultures and different backgrounds. We'll never all
Speaker 3: agree on everything, and we'll never all like each other,
Speaker 3: we'll never all think alike, but we certainly can spend
Speaker 3: time learning.
Speaker 4: How to live together.
Speaker 3: So that takes a lot of listening, curiosity, It takes
Speaker 3: a lot of courage, It takes a lot of humility,
Speaker 3: it takes compassion. These are all the things that he
Speaker 3: taught us through the spirit and the heart of nonviolence
Speaker 3: that he led that movement in.
Speaker 1: Well, it's that last point that I want to talk about,
Speaker 1: doctor King, because we've been talking about over the last
Speaker 1: few months the dismantling of DEI programs at many companies.
Speaker 1: If I just look at the stories that are one
Speaker 1: of our reporters, Jeff Green has written in recent months,
Speaker 1: here's some headlines. Walmart under fire from investors for cutting
Speaker 1: DEI programs, Meta retreats from diversity and inclusion, appeasing Trump.
Speaker 1: Amazon is halting some of its diversity and inclusion program.
Speaker 1: McDonald's walks back DEI goals in latest corporate retreat. Other
Speaker 1: companies including Deer and more, and we.
Speaker 2: Talked about Corporate America, you know, did hire more black
Speaker 2: workers for a while and then it stopped.
Speaker 1: How do you like, how do you in an environment
Speaker 1: such as this where seeing things seem to not necessarily
Speaker 1: be going in that direction, how do you have optimism?
Speaker 3: Well, always have optimism because there are always people, you know,
Speaker 3: like Target and Costco and others, who who choose to
Speaker 3: follow the pathway that we all know is for the
Speaker 3: best of our nation and our world. But if we
Speaker 3: don't have an inclusive economy as a nation, then we're not.
Speaker 4: Going to survive in the global economy.
Speaker 3: And so I think there are going to be some
Speaker 3: hard realities we're going to be faced with in a
Speaker 3: few years. If what those who have sought to remove
Speaker 3: DEI have done, you know, it's going to show certain results.
Speaker 3: I think it's up to certain courageous leaders to combine forces.
Speaker 4: And stand against this.
Speaker 3: It really, at the end of the day, is really
Speaker 3: not about the language anyway, you know, It's about who
Speaker 3: we are as a people. Do we have a love
Speaker 3: centered way of leading our cultures? In Corporate America, you know,
Speaker 3: in our educational institutions, when we look a lot around
Speaker 3: at our different cultures, do we have everyone that's needed
Speaker 3: in terms of representation at the table. You know, whether
Speaker 3: you call it DEI, you call it representation, or you
Speaker 3: call it a belonging culture or for us, the beloved community.
Speaker 3: How do we create beloved community cultures? Because at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, it's about the outcomes. So if
Speaker 3: they remove the names, they remove what they call DEEI,
Speaker 3: but then they are still committed to getting to certain outcomes,
Speaker 3: then maybe there's no problem. But if removing it also
Speaker 3: means that we're not going to ensure that we have
Speaker 3: cultures that reflects who we are as a nation and
Speaker 3: even as a world, then it just means those of
Speaker 3: us who practice non violence are gonna have to organize
Speaker 3: and stradle our chives and come up with plans to
Speaker 3: put pressure where is needed.
Speaker 2: Doctor King, what do you think white Americans still don't
Speaker 2: understand about Black America today and what do you believe
Speaker 2: it will take to achieve true racial equality.
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing is Black America is not trying
Speaker 3: to take anything from anybody.
Speaker 4: I think that's the first thing people need to understand.
Speaker 3: There's this threat, like you know, if Black America were
Speaker 3: in charge, they will remove us and nothing can be
Speaker 3: further from the truth. If you study the history of
Speaker 3: our race, we've always been holistically. It doesn't mean there
Speaker 3: are exceptions in every racial grouping.
Speaker 4: But if you.
Speaker 3: Study as a whole, we're very forgiving people. We are
Speaker 3: very inclusive culture. We tend to stand, you know, with
Speaker 3: what is right and what is fair and what is just.
Speaker 3: And I think there's a misnomer that if we are
Speaker 3: in these roles we may do what others do.
Speaker 4: I think there's a.
Speaker 3: Misnomer as to who we are that you know, we
Speaker 3: just get jobs or we get opportunities just because we're black.
Speaker 4: No, we're very qualified.
Speaker 3: If you spend any time on social media, you see
Speaker 3: the number of young children out of the black community
Speaker 3: who are finishing college and getting PhD degrees when they're.
Speaker 4: Not even fifteen yet. They're not even fourteen yet.
Speaker 3: So we have a very intelligent, very skilled community. And
Speaker 3: it doesn't take anything away from anybody else's community who
Speaker 3: has intelligent and skilled individuals. And so the biggest thing
Speaker 3: Daddy says a little very powerful. He said, people hate
Speaker 3: each other because they don't know each other. They don't
Speaker 3: know each other because they don't communicate with each other.
Speaker 3: They don't communicate with each other because they're separated from
Speaker 3: each other. And so as long as we keep division
Speaker 3: and separation, then the myths can continue to be the truth.
Speaker 3: So we have to find a way, as I said,
Speaker 3: to learn to live together and across some of these
Speaker 3: boundaries and not allow whatever every other commentary may say about,
Speaker 3: you know, any community to rule the day. I need
Speaker 3: to come and connect with you. I need to learn
Speaker 3: more about it. I need to spend time with you.
Speaker 3: I need to experience your culture. It doesn't mean I
Speaker 3: may embrace all of it, but I have a greater
Speaker 3: understanding of it. And I think that's what a love
Speaker 3: centered person, a compassionate person, a curious person, Right, we're
Speaker 3: doing a person more importantly who wants to see a
Speaker 3: better world.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we we think about it. We've only
Speaker 2: got about a couple of minutes left here, but we
Speaker 2: are thinking about Martin Luther King Day on inauguration Day,
Speaker 2: incoming President Donald Trump and what his administration might bring
Speaker 2: in terms of policies and what it means for Black
Speaker 2: Americans in equality in the United States. You know, we
Speaker 2: kind of get the sense that your dad, you know,
Speaker 2: tried to engage power to influence change. He seemed very
Speaker 2: pragmatic and yet took those risks. Do you think your
Speaker 2: father would try to engage with the right, the conservative right,
Speaker 2: to get them to better understand the implications of their
Speaker 2: positions or is that not even possible? And again only
Speaker 2: about a minute and a half here.
Speaker 4: Oh, it's always possible. Non violence believes in the impossibility.
Speaker 3: Non violence actually can help overcome what seems to be impossible.
Speaker 4: So through strategy and plan.
Speaker 3: When he went to see Johnson, and Johnson said, look,
Speaker 3: I've done as much as I come the civil rights right.
Speaker 3: Now I can't get the votes on voting rights. Daddy
Speaker 3: went back and said, well, we're gonna have to get
Speaker 3: him some power. We're gonna have to help him figure
Speaker 3: that out. So in this administration, we got to figure
Speaker 3: out where are the connection points. You know, who are
Speaker 3: the people in the administration we might be able to
Speaker 3: have access to who may understand that can then translate
Speaker 3: the message.
Speaker 4: It's about strategy and nonviolence helps you with that.
Speaker 2: Do you have faith in the Trump administration helping out
Speaker 2: the black community.
Speaker 3: I have faith in God, and I believe in the
Speaker 3: power of a collective conscience that is committed to freedom,
Speaker 3: justice and quality. And I believe it is possible. That's
Speaker 3: why is you know, mission possible. Protecting freedom, justice and equality.
Speaker 3: Excuse freedom, justice and democracy through the spirit of non
Speaker 3: violence three sixty five, which is Kingya. Non violence is
Speaker 3: taught and demonstrated by my father.
Speaker 4: That's what I have faith in, Doctor King.
Speaker 2: Just twenty five seconds left here. What do you hope
Speaker 2: every American kind of thinks about when it comes to
Speaker 2: our country here?
Speaker 3: I want them to remember that as a humanity, we
Speaker 3: have been to these places before. Maybe not literally us,
Speaker 3: but human beings have been in difficult, challenging times. We
Speaker 3: come from those individuals, and we too have the capacity
Speaker 3: to rise to the occasion and meet the challenges and
Speaker 3: move our nation and worw forth.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for finding time for us. Our
Speaker 2: thoughts with you, certainly as we prepare for the holiday
Speaker 2: and to mark his memory and his legacy on Monday.
Speaker 2: That is Reverend Doctor Bernice King, chief executive Officer of
Speaker 2: the King Center, joining us from Atlanta. This is Bloomberg,
Speaker 2: you know,