[DERRICK WHEELER-SMITH] All right,
welcome to the 2023 SOCR cookout.
I am a native son to the Seattle area.
I grew up in Columbia City, went to Asa Mercer
and then to Franklin High School.
I think that there's something important and powerful about Indigenous leadership,
like people who have grown up in the community, in this space with people.
Participation trophies for everyone!
[laughter]
As I found myself working inside of schools as a principal,
an administrator, and a teacher and working in district offices,
I can see where the educational component has impacted me.
My grandfather graduated from University of Washington. Arthur Wheeler
and actually was the first Black probation officer in the state of Washington.
The commitment for me is to build a world
that my children and grandchildren will experience that will be better.
My grandfather actually died saving the life of a cattle;
a cattle whose life was thought to have more value than his.
I like how Mary's avoiding serving. The opportunity I have
is to be engaged in work that redefines who we the people are. We also have
community engagement and community investments unit.
We are right now involved in one of the largest
participatory budgeting processes in the country, where the citizens get
a say about how resources are leveraged and allocated in their community
in ways that uplifts the prevented and the and disenfranchised.
My wife and I coach
girls basketball at Cleveland High School. Won three state championships there.
I wake up every day really with a commitment to
tie the undone things I
think from the past while building on the ennobling possibilities of the future.
If we can't have honest conversations about how we got to where we are today,
our challenges are even more pervasive when it comes to trying
to undo the challenges, mistakes and errors of the past.
Um, as our work really is, I believe in this Office
for Civil Rights about how are we building systems and structures of belonging.