Ever since the donation, there has been a steady stream of kids signing out books to take home, and then returning them with the exclamation, "This one was good!"

　　(Laughter)

　　Now when I say, "Take out a book and read," kids rush to my library. It wasn't that they didn't want to read, but instead, they'd gladly read if the resources were there.

　　Institutionally speaking, our public school system has never done right by the black and brown child. We keep focusing on the end results or test results, and getting frustrated. We get to a catastrophe and we wonder, "How did it get so bad? How did we get here?" Really? If you neglect a child long enough, you no longer have the right to be surprised when things don't turn out well.

　　Stop being perplexed or confused or befuddled by the achievement gap, the income gap, the incarceration rates,\ or whatever socioeconomic disparity is the new "it" term for the moment. The problems we have as a country are the problems we created as a country. The quality of your education is directly proportionate to your access to college, your access to jobs, your access to the future.