Perspective

Charity gala

By Masako Yamada

One Thursday morning, I got a call at my desk from a senior researcher at work. Out of the blue, he invited me to a black-tie fundraising dinner that he was organizing. I was surprised by this invitation. The charity is called "100 Black Men of America" and it serves the black community. I wasn't sure I'd fit in. However, I couldn't turn him down, especially since he is one of the most respected figures at my workplace and I have a good personal relationship with him.

40年余り前に設立され、全米と海外に100以上の支援を持つ"100 Black Men of America" のサイト(http://www.100blackmen.org/)。成功した黒人男性を中心に、黒人社会の生活向上を目指す

Frankly, I would'ｖe been interested even if he hadn't extended the invitation. He told me that they managed to invite a keynote speaker by the name of James I. Cash. Dr. Cash, himself a black man, recently retired from Harvard Business School and is currently on the board of directors of Microsoft and General Electric. I was told that many esteemed members of the community would be attending the gala, including politicians, businessmen, academics and the media.

Although the organization is called 100 Black Men of America, galas are typically attended by couples, and so about half the participants are women. The senior researcher who invited me was too busy organizing the event to serve as a companion (not to mention he's married) so he put me at a table with other singles. My table had three Nigerian men, two African-American women, one white woman and myself. We had a wonderful evening together.

Well-dressed though we were, we were not there to exchange frilly pleasantries. Dr. Cash set the tone by presenting a talk on economics. He presented a brief review of economic history, his opinion on where the economy is headed in the future, and how the black community can prepare itself for these changes. He then opened the stage for questions from the audience. I was as intrigued by the questions as I was by his answers.

How do you feel about outsourcing? How do you feel about local／state／federal government providing tax breaks to businesses? Is public money better spent supporting individuals rather than businesses? How can we encourage Americans to pursue science? If science and engineering degrees are commodities in India and China, how are we going to convince our children to study science? If bioscience succeeds and we extend life, how is society going to deal with limited resources?

Dr. Cash had a portable microphone and walked among the dinner tables as he spoke. He was full of fascinating historical facts and personal anecdotes. His talk was about economics but it wasn't about money-making. It was about how one can live a rich life. Since he was a business school professor, I wasn't surprised that he valued the role of corporations, and he felt that their role in society would become larger in the future: This is a classic conservative stance.

However, Dr. Cash also brought up the importance of serving the community. He specifically commented on how happy he was to see so many non-black people in the audience, since many of the people in his life who had helped him the most were not black.

He then described playing varsity basketball for a college in Texas. He said he had to be escorted by police to play at the University of Arkansas. At the time, colleges were segregated, and there were so many protesters in Arkansas that he needed special permission to play there. It was such an unpleasant experience that he vowed never to return to the university again.

Dr. Cash went on to tell us how, decades later, he returned to the university to see a black coach leading a team of five black starters ... and he said he felt ashamed. He felt ashamed that he had run away from the university when he could have joined the countless, nameless individuals who had labored to tear down such boundaries. That was the anecdote that meant the most to me.

Shukan ST: Nov. 4, 2005

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