How Do I Sign New Jersey Banking Memorandum Of Understanding

How do i industry sign banking new jersey memorandum of understanding

noon everyone uh welcome to our signing ceremony of the continuance of the mou between the anti-defamation league adl and the new jersey association of the naacp um i want to welcome you i want to say that this is a fantastic opportunity for us uh and i want to turn it over to our chairperson ross pearlson um for some quick remarks thank you alex my name is ross pearlson and i'm proud to serve as adls uh the chair of adl's new jersey advisory board um it's my honor and privilege to be with you all here today especially during black history month and introduce my friend and colleague the regional director of adl's new york and new jersey region scott richmond as we are here today to reaffirm adl's historic partnership with the naacp in new jersey like me scott is a lawyer by training but he left the law decades ago to follow his passions and that led him to a series of positions with non-profit jewish organizations that focused on everything from humanitarian relief to interfaith relations to fighting against anti-semitism we are thrilled that he recently joined adl and brought this wealth of experience and connections to our mission of fighting hate here in new jersey i have watched scott hit the ground running over the last few months and he's been doing everything at both the municipal and state level to advance new jersey's anti-bias laws to push for anti-bias education and to secure a vocal statewide response against extremism at this time when our nation is so divided and hate crimes are so prevalent adl's role is critical now more than ever for more than a hundred years adl has not only responded to anti-semitism but it has also harnessed jewish values to ensure ensure justice and fair treatment for all people as it is part of adl's mission scott richman embodies all these values in his work as a regional director and so it's with great pleasure that i introduced them to you today scott thank you so much ross and and thank you so much for uh for your leadership of uh of our our work in new jersey uh it's deeply valued good afternoon everybody i am so honored to represent adl today at this historic event and i'm really very humbled to be in the company of such distinguished civil rights leaders from the new jersey naacp our goal today is to reaffirm a partnership that began a little over a year ago just before the covet 19 pandemic between adl's new york new jersey regional office and the naacp new jersey state conference our task from the very beginning was a simple one it was for the two organizations to work together to combat racism and anti-semitism here in new jersey and to speak out with a unified voice when incidents of hate and bias occur that commitment has taken on new meaning this year we are signing this agreement in the midst of a global pandemic that has had a devastating and disproportionate impact on communities of color in the united states and on the heels of a violent insurrection at our nation's capital where a broad coalition of right-wing extremists proudly donned racist and anti-semitic attire and triumphantly marched a confederate flag through the halls of congress and during the largest and most diverse civil and human rights moment as our movement in our nation's history the black lives matter movement sparked by the george floyd murder and countless other black lives taken by police brutality and systemic racism in this country we're also solidifying our partnership at a time when anti-semitic incidents in our country are at record highs and as the jewish community continues to grapple with the anti-semitic attacks in poway jersey city and muncie not to mention pittsburgh the year before in 2019 adl recorded over 2 000 anti-semitic incidents across the country the highest number ever recorded since adl began tracking this data in 1979 over 40 years ago at the same time after declining in 2018 religion based hate crimes increased in 2019 with 63 percent of the total number of reported religion-based hate crimes directed at jews and jewish institutions so the vast majority 2019 was also the deadliest year on record in terms of hate crime murders with 51 such incidents recorded 113 increase over the previous record set in 2018. as has been the case for decades race based hate crimes remain the most common type of hate crime in 2019 and anti-black hate crimes comprise the plurality of these offenses underscoring the importance of national action to counter systemic and pervasive anti-black racism the need for a renewed partnership is therefore particularly urgent but it is also coming at a time when there is reason for hope and a unique opportunity for change just a few weeks ago we all saw history being made in the white house as the first woman the first black american and the first south asian american kamala harris was sworn in as vice president and in georgia with the first jewish senator and the first african-american senator being elected from that state we also know that in this moment of national reckoning ignited by the black lives matter movement we have a unique and urgent opportunity here in new jersey to demand bold and transformative solutions from our elected leaders in order to begin to dismantle systemic racism and structural racism in our state we are living in historic times and this partnership while predicated on our joint need to fight hate is motivated by something much more positive it's motivated by our common values and our common humanity and the unprecedented needs of this moment this work is not new for adl it was what motivated our founders in 1913 to declare a mission of securing justice not only for the jewish people but for all people this was declared by an attorney from chicago named sigmund livingston starting with a 200 budget and two desks in his law office the anti-defamation league was founded with the clear understanding that the fight against one form of prejudice cannot succeed without battling prejudice in all its forms in short our founders recognize what is still true today that racism and anti-semitism are two forms of oppression that remain interconnected and self-reinforcing the display of both at our nation's capital for example was not an accident nor was it a coincidence as our communities know too well the goal of the january attack was not merely to assert political power and to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election for some it was also to assert white power and to create fear in our communities in order to truly eradicate racism and anti-semitism we must be willing to engage in meaningful dialogue about how these systems of oppression function and why they too often escalate at the same time we must be willing to work together to dismantle the foundations of white supremacy as our common enemy we must be willing to see and celebrate the exceptional diversity within the black and jewish communities and to appreciate the unique ways in which anti-semitism and racism affect jews of color and finally we must be ready to call out and vehemently reject hatred and bigotry each and every time we see it let's declare today that we are stronger when we stand when we understand one another's history when we understand one another's perspective and when that allows us to stand together a few weeks ago adl new york new jersey held a very special annual conference which we've been holding for decades it's called the stop conference stop stands for students together opposing prejudice this year's conference was held during the week of mlk day and it was dedicated to the civil rights movement of the past present and future our fight continues which was why we brought it to the students one of our goals was to light an activist spark in young people by letting them know that the giants of the civil rights movement and those still leading the fight for racial justice today people like dr martin luther king jr john lewis and stacy abrams were once teenagers too like them each had moments that led them to a life of activism and we discussed those moments these are conversations that we hope our partnership with the naacp will continue to spark not only with young people but with all but also with residents all across the state of new jersey this is because the fight against anti-semitism and racism is not a fight that is just for the adl nor is it just for the new jersey naacp it is a fight for people all people of goodwill adl got into this fight because prejudice against any one community is tantamount to prejudice against all communities anti-semitism and racism are canaries in the coal mine and we must ensure that hate does not take root and spread that is why we are so proud to sign this agreement we were so proud to sign this agreement last year at this time and unfortunately the pandemic and upheavals of this past year kept us from achieving its full potential our gathering today is meant to reaffirm our commitment and to say that the state branches of adl and the naacp will launch a series of town halls and listening sessions throughout the state to increase dialogue and raise awareness among different new jersey communities about the importance of working together to fight hate the agreement also aims to increase reporting of hate crimes harassment and discrimination across the state both online and off working in coordination with federal and state leaders and the attorney general's office i want to express my deep appreciation to my adl colleagues new york new jersey deputy regional director alex rosenberg and associate regional director alana berman for working so hard to get us to this important moment and i also want to thank new jersey naacp president richard smith and new jersey naacp communications director marcus sibley for being such great partners throughout this process the jewish people often look to a series of books called the mishnah for wisdom this is a collection of rabbinic teachings from long ago the mishnak talks about the importance of repairing a broken world in hebrew we call that tikkun olam and it speaks of the part that we must all play in doing so i greatly look forward to what our organizations can do together to help repair this broken world and to bring justice and fair treatment to all thank you so much for joining us today and with that i am so pleased to pass the virtual podium to marcus sibley the new jersey naacp communications press and publicity chair and the the southern burlington county branch president to introduce the new jersey naacp president my friend richard smith thank you so much scott uh it is an honor to be here today um it is my pleasure and my honor to introduce our state president uh richard t smith i'm excited about this opportunity because we've been doing some great work so we're very appreciative of the adl for us having real conversations difficult conversations and then agreeing to have even more difficult conversations so that we can bridge our two communities um it's very important uh in an age where since george floyd people are ready to see real work and we're excited about the work that we're doing because we understand that symbolism can win the day but the real work is how you bring in the community so i'm very excited about our president richard smith who's also on the national naacp board of directors he's a progressive president everything we're doing is because he has the vision and he puts us in a position that we can be trailblazers so our president not only has he been instrumental in this agreement here at the adl but he was instrumental in the ban the box aka opportunity to compete act which eliminated the check box on job applications um uh so people asking if one is a failing by eliminating this question it reduces discrimination and hiring practices and allowing those returning to society a fair opportunity for employment um he was instrumental in the bail bonds reform um now based on assessment of whether or not one is in danger to the community rather than his or her ability to pay he was also instrumental in the passage of the independent prosecutor bill which now requires all police killings to be investigated by the attorney general's office um and nothing by their own department voting rights restoration uh for for those who may have been on parole or probation may now again exercise their right to vote this has effectively put 83 000 voters back on the rolls and they bring us to today his fight for marijuana reform in in the state to make sure that it is just not only are we passing a legislation that has uh disproportionately impacted peop black people and people of color but also making sure that those benefits come back to the community has been harmed so i am so grateful for richard smith for his ability to connect and which actually helped form the united black agenda that's been responsible that team that collected that coalition has been on the ground fighting to make sure all the things um that i just listed were passed we're grateful for this opportunity to work with the adl but none of that would be possible if if we didn't have a progressive leader who understood that these partnerships are important they can't just be symbolic they have to be work and a person that understands that our youth are important and we have to put youth in a position where they can be leaders as well so we have a tremendous president we are absolutely grateful that we can have a person like richard smith on our team and without further ado i would like to introduce new jersey state conference nacp president and national board of directors member richard t smith thank you so much marcus i appreciate your words and your leadership to my jewish brothers and sisters i say shalom to my christian brothers and sisters i say god bless you i want to take this opportunity to say thanks so very much scott richman to alanna berman to alexander rosenberg to ross uh pearlson and to uh senator cory booker for his leadership and for all of you being a part of this important event i also want to recognize and thank my leadership uh from the naacp new jersey state conference uh my first vice president uh whose morgan who i know is on the call our political action chair richard todd edwards our religious affairs chairperson ms diane hawkins uh and of course uh our press and publicity chair and he is also environmental justice chairman uh and president of the southern burlington branch of the naacp mr marcus sibley all of this is being done by way of us being a team and i just want to pay uh the utmost respect to all of the officers and executive committee of the new jersey state conference i want to also send out if i can greetings to your former adl leadership who began this journey with us last year my dear friend evan bernstein so i bring you greetings from the naacp national board of directors where i have an honor to sit as one of the 64 members nationwide and i bring you greetings from the naacp new jersey state conference where i serve as the state conference president i say without hesitation or fear of equivocation that there is no branding none more recognizable in the country when it comes to civil rights social justice and equal opportunity none like the naacp for 112 years we have been at the forefront in the fight for freedom justice and equality even in the midst of our challenges in the midst of change confronting a fractured and divided nation we remain like no other the naacp the mission of the naacp uh is to secure political education social economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and to ensure the health and well-being of all persons our vision uh is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race the naacp fights racism wherever it rears its ugly hand even when it's within our own ranks we will call out racism and anti-semitism where we see it unfortunately in this nation hate is alive and it is well the southern poverty law center reported that white nationalist groups have grown 55 percent during the trump era and a surging racist movement continues to be driven by a deep fear of demographic change american races have fretted over what they fear will be the loss of their place of dominance as its so ial composition changes killing blacks in our churches racist cops killing us on our streets the killing of our jewish brothers and sisters in their stores and in their synagogues all motivated by the idea that white people are being replaced proud boys aryan brotherhood warrior army boogaloo boys brotherhood of clans the kkk both keepers q anon the list goes on and on hate is alive and it is well however dr king reminds us that returning hate for hate multiplies hate adding deeper darkness he said to a knight already devoid of stars darkness cannot drive out darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that we will not allow anyone or anything to drive a wedge between our communities over the long haul of the years we both have proven that we are too strong for that judaism teaches respect for the fundamental rights of others as each person's duty to guide what is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor your tradition is powerful and it is timely american jews have played a significant role in the founding and funding of some of the most important civil rights organizations including the naacp the leadership conference on civil and human rights the southern christian leadership conference and the student non-violent coordinating committee in 1909 it was henry moskowitz who joined w.e.b du bois and other civil rights leaders to found the naacp kevin kaplan the vice chairman of the union of american hebrew congregations served as the national president of the naacp from 1966 until 1975. during the civil rights movement jewish activists represented a disproportionate number of whites involved in the struggle jews made up half the young people who participated in the mississippi freedom summer in 1964. leaders of the reform movement were arrested with reverend dr martin luther king in saint augustine florida in 1964 after a challenge to racial segregation and public accommodations most famously rabbi abraham joshua heschel marched arm in arm with dr martin luther king in 1965 the march on selma so today my brothers and sisters today let's re-embrace and revitalize that spirit of oneness and leave here today committed like never before to walk march and fight arm in arm as one in the words of henry ford he said coming together is a beginning staying together is progress and working together is success again scott my adl family all of you my naacp family thank you so very very much for allowing us this opportunity for being here today for this very very important event god bless you thank you so much for uh those very powerful and beautiful remarks and uh and now to the uh the agreement so uh last year uh this agreement was signed and um maybe we can go to the the actual agreement next slide yep okay so there are actually two pages to the agreement and i just want to highlight uh some pieces of it go back to the first page so the agreement essentially talks about three areas of collaboration and the first area is providing anti-bias education to elected officials and community leaders uh adl uh has uh training programs in this area and you know together we're we're going to uh to strive to deliver that uh we've pivoted this year in a big way to be able to deliver that kind of training virtually which was not a capacity that we had before the pandemic and i'm pleased to say that we're we're certainly prepared to do that secondly uh facilitating uh dialogue sessions between the african-american and jewish communities in new jersey and actually we're going to kick that off president richard smith and and i will kick that off at the end of the month at the end of black history month i'm so pleased that we are sort of book ending black history month first with this declaration and at the end of the month the two of us will be engaged in a dialogue about these issues and really model it for uh the the new jersey community not just the african-american and uh and jewish community but really all new jersey residents and three release joint statements in response to instances of hate and bigotry in new jersey as you can imagine standing up to hate speaking out uh is uh is critical and speaking with one voice makes us so much more powerful and so much more impactful uh so the next page uh and then uh just some uh details on uh on how we'll both be working together uh and as you can see it it took effect uh last year and and was in effect until january 31st which is what has prompted us to to decide to reaffirm this and to sign a new document so with that this is the document i should point out and i i saw a question in the uh in the q a somebody asked uh uh what the changes were and there are no changes this this agreement stands as is uh it was powerful when it was created and it continues to be equally as important so the goal here is not to make any changes the goal here is to reaffirm so with that i'm going to take my virtual pen and i'm going to make a virtual signature and voila we have we have a signature that is now in the memorandum of understanding and i'm going to invite my good friend president richard smith to do the same voila great thank you very much [Music] and uh we now have a very very special treat uh senator cory booker uh who wished that he could be with us today but was not able to has sent us uh video greetings and i bring you senator cory booker senator cory booker and i celebrate this moment to extraordinarily urgently needed civil rights organizations the naacp and the adl from my region new york and new jersey joining together reaffirming their commitment with this two-year extension we are indeed in perilous times we are seeing a rise in white nationalism and white nationalist violence and challenges facing the larger nation when it comes to securing and affirming civil rights and human rights and doing the preciously valuable work of creating a more beloved community and a more beloved country thank you for your joined commitment there is incredible power and strength when we come together and we stand together as the old african saying says when spider webs are united they can tie up a lion and so i am just celebrating today grateful for you and i am committed to do the work with you to join in your efforts so that we can make a movement for justice continue in our era of american history thank you uh thank you so much senator booker and i do want to acknowledge that assemblyman holly uh is is with us from the new jersey state assembly also denali johnson fanielle are our good friend from the division of civil rights um and now we are ready for uh for q a uh again you can put your questions in the q a box and [Music] well so we had that question about what changes had been made and again it's it's being kept the same [Music] i don't see any questions um maybe give it a second in case there uh there are uh okay we do have a question uh why did this partnership start in 2020 and actually for this um i i have a sense of the answer uh but since i was not the person to sign this document and president richard smith was in 2020 i think i'm going to to pass that to him to to talk about what might have precipitated this in uh in january 2020. we had a situation we had a situation occur where right within our own organization we had someone who made anti-semitic remarks and ultimately we had many conversations with community leaders and of which was brother bernstein who came to us from the adl and we were able to sit down and have some much-needed conversations we addressed those issues within the organization but we felt that as the adl and as the naacp as african-americans as jewish americans at the time was now for us to come together and put together this memorandum of understanding for too long um we had talked around each other but not as marcus would say actually sit down and make something that is on paper alive the mou is only as good as the paper it's written on we must make that document live by way of our actions having those tough conversations those difficult conversations in regards to where our communities stand we know that there are some issues and we're going to need to to be able to have the leadership necessary to work through those issues so that was the impetus of us sitting down putting together a formal document indicating that we were going to walk arm-in-arm and work together moving forward and of course it it came in the wake of the jersey city shooting uh which uh certainly um rocked the uh every every resident of new jersey and and well beyond uh and that that certainly shook everybody up and and it prompted people to want to come together and want to speak out um and that that of course was the context since it had just happened the month before uh we have a question about the amistad law um and whether or not both organizations are going to be uh promoting that so i don't know uh president smith do you want to say anything about that uh i mean that's one of the things that we can put on uh on our agenda for the adl to work arm and arm with us i think that'll be a a great uh issue because it it it teaches our history and both of our histories are so very very important but as you are fully aware all across the state when it comes to black history which is american history our young people are not being being taught so the homicide law is so hugely important and we're going to look forward to you scott and the adl working with us to ensure that every district in this state is doing what they're supposed to do by implementing that amistad amistad law yeah and certainly part of that law is is requiring all schools to teach uh african-american history which is of course so very important um we have a question is there an opportunity for young leaders at both organizations at the naacp and at the adl to connect or participate in a listening session together and maybe i'll start obviously young leaders are very important to adl we have a new york new jersey next generation board and certainly every aspect of adl will be involved and and will be invited to participate in in any of these listening sessions and we have a matter of fact the national president for our next gen organization is here in new jersey her name is yolanda melville she is a member of our atlantic city naacp branch and uh at the end of the day we want young people to be involved um and i think that this will be a great opportunity for you to do that and i know yolanda will be eager to work with us on this as well yeah and uh yolanda and i served on a panel recently together and uh shout out to yolanda who uh uh it was great to partner with her on the youth bias task force uh which is a major effort of the office of civil rights of new jersey to counter youth bias in in the schools and and elsewhere in new jersey we have another question can the adl speak about their groundbreaking legislative efforts that are currently in the works uh i don't know if that was a plant but uh but i certainly can uh i presented testimony last week before the new jersey state assembly about hate crimes laws so certainly new jersey has hate crimes laws on the books and and very important ones but we live in a new era an era of cyber hate uh and these are uh this is an effort by uh the new jersey state assembly to uh to update their laws so that it reflects what the time we're living in it specifically refers to swatting and doxing so doxxing as you may know is uh calling out people who um for whatever reason they they're not happy with positions that they've taken but it means putting their name their address maybe their employer all kinds of personal information so that they can be attacked and i'll add that assemblyman holly is a as a co-sponsor of that bill and certainly was in support of it uh when i presented testimony on that we also have presented uh an extremism resolution uh basically for the the state of new jersey and for various town councils to stand up and say we don't tolerate extremism and extremist views in in our midst let me just see if there are any other questions um [Music] ah we we have a a question about um our work in philadelphia uh and our work with the philadelphia regional office of adl so um our office adl new york new jersey covers most of the state of new jersey but the southern part uh is connected to the the adl office in philadelphia and here shout out to my colleague the director shira goodman who's done extraordinary work with uh the naacp uh in her region and in southern jersey um and we certainly work very closely with them and they're they're a part of today's call if i can i'd like to give a shout out to assemblyman holly as well i want to thank him so very very much for his leadership one of our great young leaders in the state house who's proactive and is getting things done and we look forward to continuing uh to work with him and just want to welcome you to the call assemblyman and again say thank you for your leadership and all of your hard work we at the naacp truly appreciate you thank you mr president want to say a few words oh yeah sure i i i'm just so stunned at this coming together i mean this is what we should be doing all across this nation and it it just warms my heart in the sense that the adl and the naacp who i've worked so very closely with over the years on social justice issues coming together on this and continuing this working relationship i think now more than ever um everything that's going on in our country and in this state and even in our local neighborhoods this is a prime example of organizations who are you know bounded in our communities um coming together it it's just very inspiring to hear this call and to see this mou and i'm looking forward to working with both organizations um moving forward you have my unwavering support and if there's anything that i can do to continue the advocacy of our brothers and sisters african-americans latinos our jewish brothers and sisters i will be more than happy to assist and to partner in those efforts so thank you all again for inviting me and uh this is just a great day to see this thank you so much that's uh that's wonderful thank you so much assemblyman holly for being on and for those very important words um dr denali johnson faniel who i mentioned before is with the new jersey division of civil rights and a good partner good friend wants me to mention that they currently have an art project that they are engaged in and they're looking for people who are 25 and under to submit a slogan art or video uh that somehow talks about uh fighting hate um we can um in our follow-up email uh send around information related to that and we have a question um did i see another question come in now okay good uh oh well i did see another question i thought i did uh do both organizations want to speak about their alliance in relation to the stop hate for profit campaign uh good good question so maybe i will um i'll start that off and and then turn it to president smith so uh adl for years has been asking for uh social media to remove uh hate from their sites while it's uh while it's okay of course free speech is important and it's okay to to place thoughts and and statements on social media it's not okay to incite violence it's not okay to slander uh it's not okay to deny the holocaust and we've been asking for facebook and twitter and other social media sites to remove this content this past summer we banded together with the naacp and other organizations like color for change to say enough is enough and this is no longer acceptable and what we did is we asked companies to join us advertisers on these sites and when we began we didn't know how many companies would join by this was in in the end of june and we asked them to pause their advertising for the months of july and august and by the end we had over 1200 companies that joined us very large companies pfizer and starbucks and adidas and coca-cola who had said it's not acceptable to have hate on these sites and then we continued that with instagram so instagram is owned by facebook and there we asked celebrities to join us and pause their postings on facebook on instagram for one day sasha baron cohen led that effort and we ended up with an a list of celebrities kim kardashian justin bieb r who all paused their advertising to say no more hate and within a few weeks policies were changed and we've now seen uh so many of us that the changes that have taken place over the course of the fall and the call for for many more changes adl's role and and the naacp and really the whole stop hate-for-profit coalition that came together to uh to demand this change has has the job now of helping these companies enforce this of holding them to it it's not it's not an easy prospect but um but we've been diligent about it and with that maybe president smith you want to say a few words and and i want to thank you scott because marcus and i and uh in the meetings that we've had over the past couple weeks you and i have discussed that and the importance of of stopping it you know one of our items talks about the fact that uh we're going to offer any bias education to elected officials um i got one i know we can start with and her name is marjorie taylor green just spreading bad uh information um just heartless so you know this is very very important social media can be a great uh asset to us uh but also we we have seen um how angry people can get from uh participating in some some of these theories that they they put out so again it's a great tool but it's one that we have to watch to make sure that it's not having adverse effects on our community yeah certainly adl has uh has spoken out against marjorie taylor green and her our new the new congressman from uh from georgia uh who has uh spun conspiracy theories um some related to jews some not but but uh deeply offensive and we've asked that she not be placed on important commissions that obviously that debate is taking place right now in the congress we have a question what is the goal of the conversation between the organizations at the end of february and what are the hopes of what it could do for the communities so maybe i'll ask you president smith to start i think communication is key and this is something that we've talked about over the past uh year now it is so very very important for us to sit down and have those difficult conversations marcus you know alluded to in his introduction we have to have those conversations and they're going to be uncomfortable but at the end of the day if we don't talk if we don't communicate and if we don't come solution oriented um we'll remain where we are but the key is for us to talk through those issues find out how we can uh mend where where we can and the work that we have to do to get to where we ultimately want to be but it's so very very important for us to be able to sit down and have these open frank conversations because it's one thing for us to go in our silos and naacp can have meetings and adl can have meetings but if the adl and the end of this in the naacp aren't communicating then we're not making the necessary uh progress uh that we need to make so we're looking forward to to those dialogues and when you go all around the state you're gonna hear there's different issues might be one issue in bergen county it might be another issue in camden county but we need to know what those issues are and how we can work through this which will ultimately put us in a better place and i i would just add to that and say that uh two communities uh as you say perhaps are in silos and understanding one another understanding one another's perspective understanding one another's narrative understanding what we share in common which of course we share so much in common but we're not the same and anti-semitism and race and racism against the black community is not the same systemic racism does not uh present itself in uh in the same ways as anti-semitism does and i think there's a lot of nuance here that through a shared understanding of one another's experiences one another's uh current situation one another's concerns we can we can build a common understanding and move forward to resolve how we can uh work together to to fight hate so i mean the the overall goal of all of this is to to work together to fight hate but these conversations are meant to really build understanding and build perspective within the communities and really to be role models i would say uh so we're we're there having this conversation as leaders uh representing our two communities but we we of course hope that it will spark many many more conversations within our communities and go go much beyond just the event at the end of black history month um i do not see that there are any further questions so going once going twice going three times if there are no further questions i'm going to turn it back to our wonderful masters of ceremony emcees marcus and alex well thank you everybody for joining us i just want to reiterate how grateful we are for uh your attendance uh for the dissemination of the messages uh that you've heard here today and we hope that you will join us at the end of the month and we will start promoting the conversation pretty soon um so that we can continue not only this dialogue but our joint work you know with that alternative to marcus um thank you so much alex and i just wanted to say that uh we understand that they may there may be skepticism there there has to be there's there's history on both sides and that's why this is so important we we want us to come together we need to have these important conversations because the reality is as we've spoken about scott and i and president smith and alex and alana and and everyone else anytime there's hateful acts going on the same people who hate us hate you too so if we share a common enemy we should be coming together to fight said common enemy so i think it's very important that we have these conversations and then from the conversations we go into real work and that's why i want to absolutely applaud the legislative work that the adl is doing and that nacp soon will be joining um and and putting our name on as well because this is how you fight a beast you chip away little by little you take away their opportunities to do hateful things so again um i'm grateful as i look through the chat we have a lot of nacp leaders on we're grateful for the leaders that we have all throughout the state that are putting in the work and we're grateful for having a president who's forward thinking like i can't stress that enough you can't get anywhere unless you have leadership that allows you to make certain advances in certain steps so we're grateful for our president we're absolutely grateful for the leadership of the adl who are who are are like i can't wait for people to really see what the adl is doing like they're not playing around like they're coming at hate full force and we're all for it we're here for it so um great job we look forward to putting the work and again this this mou is just a piece of paper unless we actually come together and actually stand up for one another so when any time something happens it's important for us to be supportive of one another not just when it's beneficial but just to show support in general that's how a partnership should work and uh i'm i'm i'm confident that our current leadership is well they do that already so without a piece of paper we already have people who understand how important those friendship and those relationships are so thank you let's get forward let's get to work and i'm i'm looking forward to the amazing amazing things that's going to come out of this partnership thank you guys so much thank you everybody with that we conclude this conference