Young People Must Create "Transformational Legacy" of Leadership

Washington - Young people must create a "transformational legacy" of leadership to improve the lives of people in Africa, the United States and worldwide, a White House official says.

Michael Blake, deputy associate director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, made that point June 3 as he spoke to students at the "Teach Africa" Leadership Summit, held at the U.S. Department of State.

"You have a moment to not just change a city, not just change a state, but change a world," he told the 300 young people gathered for the one-day meeting. "What happens in Africa, what happens in the world impacts what is happening here," he told the students, 10 of whom were selected from throughout the United States after writing essays on why they were interested in Africa.

"Don't let today be the only day where you learn about Africa," he told the students.

Very often, he said, Africa is talked about negatively and unfairly. He went on to tell part of his personal story to illustrate how inaccurate stereotypes are.

Blake, who is of Jamaican ancestry, said: "Jamaica is not just about Air Jamaica or the vacations that you see ... and it is not about the violence that you see on TV. It is about a beautiful country with beautiful people.

"I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. The Bronx is not just about the Yankees [baseball team]. It is not just about hip-hop. It is a place that has now produced the first Hispanic [U.S.] Supreme Court justice [Sonia Sotomayor] in our history. It is a place ... like Jamaica, but more importantly like Africa, that so many times people think negative things [about] first."

That has to change, he said. "You are the ones, we are the ones that have to be part of changing that dynamic and what happens here in this country because if we don't do it, who will? I am here today to tell you that I see a world of what we can be and I see that world because I see you."

Blake, who is 27 years old, was born with a heart murmur on Christmas night, 1982. "My mother was too sick to have me," he told his audience.

"I don't just stand here before you in a nice suit to tell you it is going to be easy and speaking as if I just came from some rosy circumstance.

"I stand before you to tell you that you may hear these things - that you are young, and that you may be inexperienced or not ready. Well, then tell them that you saw this young brother named Michael Blake who just a few years ago was leaving the Bronx to go to school, figuring out where my path would be.

"For some reason, as mama would tell me, 'we went from no house in Jamaica to the White House in [Washington] D.C."

Blake told the students, "Global problems require global solutions, but to have global solutions, you need global leaders." He called on the students to take away four key words from his remarks: "I see a world."

"What is the world that you see?" he asked rhetorically.

Responding to his own question, he said: "I see a world of economic prosperity, where the only time someone talks about Africa should not just be Blood Diamonds, the movie. It should be about the investments that we make, like the African Growth and Opportunity Act [AGOA] Forum that is going to be happening this summer and how we have trade and investment relations between the United States and Africa so that we can expand and do new things."

But more important, he said, "I see a world and I see an Africa in peace and prosperity. I am tired of seeing the pain and I am tired of seeing the heartache." But for this to happen, he said, there must be "transformational leadership," leadership that transforms the world.

He called on the students to keep their heads up and have the confidence to see the job through. "I am tired of seeing our heads down. ... You can't see a world with your head down. You cannot move forward and progressively with your head down. Everyone here in this room has been called here because you are a leader. Not just a regular leader but a transformational leader."

Blake worked on the campaign trail with President Obama as the deputy political director and constituency outreach director in the key Midwestern state of Iowa. "When ... people were wondering if we would make it," he said, "President Obama addressed his staff saying 'When I win' and not 'If I win.' He said, 'When I win, children who come after our children will truly believe that they can be anything they want to be.'"

That, he said, is the kind of "transformational leadership" thinking that is required of young people today.