Damon Hart

"When you look at kind of where have black people come in this country, it is a striking lack of progress. Home ownership in 1976, 44% of black homes, er, black folks own their own home. In 2015, that number is 43%. So we've gone down. Median household income: In 2007, it was 40,000, 2017, 40,000. We haven't made much progress while other ethnic groups have made more. Unemployment, always significantly higher than the general population. So I say all that to say there's a lot of work to do and there is a lot of structural racism."

"I've always worked really hard within the system to advance diversity through mentoring, you know, speaking the truth to power and creating programs to reach down and develop people and bring them along, but also in leading black organizations."

"So they have studies. Even the white guys in the room talk more and more freely when there's more diversity there, there's a multiplier impact. And I think, as Dominic said, when we look at this moment that we're in as a country, I think some people's eyes were opened when they saw the horror of George Floyd in that eight minutes and 46 seconds. And one of the things I like to think about in terms of there certainly was a bad acting officer in that interaction, but him sitting there and so casually doing it was the system that empowered him."

"So I also think about racism is a creation of economics. It was created first and then to justify the economic situation of slavery. It's like my favorite author, what's his name? Ta-Nehisi Coates. He says that racism is the father of race and not the son. So I love that we're at this moment, and I think we actually do have some power to use economics to help to unwind that."

"I've said it multiple times. We're making black history by what we're doing with this [National Commonwealth] fund. We're doing things differently. We are looking to change and address the results of systemic racism, but also dismantle it at the same time through changing the narrative and creating this ecosystem of thought and connecting some of the nonprofits that might not know each other."

[Q: How do white people dismantle structural racism?] " I think, in particular in business, I think looking at your team, how diverse is your team and how can you increase the diversity within your team and then have honest conversations? I mean, one of the things I like that Dominic said is like, we're now at the corporate level, we're having a much more authentic conversation about race. It takes some groundwork, it takes some training, it takes some understanding, it takes some patience."