This TED talk features mayor of the city of Stockton, California, Michael Tubbs, recorded live at TED 2019.

So I know for sure there's at least one thing I have in common with dentist, I absolutely hate the holiday of Halloween.

Now, this hatred stems not from a dislike of cavities, nor was it a lifetime in the making. Rather, this hatred stems from a particular incident that happened nine years ago. Nine years ago, I was even younger. I was 20 years old, and I was an intern in the White House, the other White House. And my job was to work with mayors and councils nationwide. November 1st, 2010 began just like any other day. I turned on the computer, went on Google and prepared to write my news clips.

I was met with a call from my mother, which isn't about the norm. My mom likes to text, call, email, Facebook, Instagram all day. So I. I answered the phone and expected to hear maybe some church gossip or maybe something from world star hip hop she had discovered.

But when I answered the phone, I was met with a tone that was unlike anything I've ever heard from my mother.

My mother's loud, but she spoke in a hushed, still muffled tone that conveyed a sense of sadness. And as she whispered, she said, Michael, your cousin Danielle was murdered last night on Halloween at a house party in Stockton.

And like far too many people in this country, particularly from communities like mine, particularly that look like me, I spent the better part of a year dealing with anger, rage, nihilism, not a choice to make. That choice was one between action and apathy. The choice was, what can I do to put purpose to this pain? I spent a year dealing with feelings of survivor's guilt. What was the point of me being at Stanford? What was the point of me being at the White House if I was powerless to help my own family and my own family was dying quite literally?

I didn't begin to feel a little selfish and say, well, what's the point of even trying to make the world a better place? Maybe that's just the way it is. Maybe I will be smart to take advantage of all the opportunities given to me and make as much money as possible. So I'm comfortable and my immediate family is comfortable. But finally, towards the end of that year, I realized I wanted to do something.

So I made the crazy decision as a senior in college to run for city council that that decision was unlikely for a couple reasons and not just my age.

You see, my family is far from a political dynasty.

More men in my family had been incarcerated than in college. And in fact, as I speak today, my father is still incarcerated. My mother, she had me as a teenager and government wasn't something we have warm feelings from. You see, it was the government that redline the neighborhoods. I grew up in full of liquor stores and no grocery stores or lack opportunity and concentrated poverty.

It was the government and politicians that made choices like the war on drugs and three strikes have incarcerate far too many people in our country. It was the government and political actors that made the decisions that created the school funding formulas that made for the school. I went to receive less for gas per pupil, spending the schools in more affluent areas. So there was nothing about that background. They made it likely for me to choose to be involved in being a government actor and at the same time, starting with a very unlikely place, something my hometown, the city of 320000 people.

But historically it's been a place people run from rather than come back to. It's a city that's incredibly diverse. Thirty five percent Latino. Thirty five percent white. Twenty percent Asian. 10 percent African-American, the oldest Sikh temple in North America.

At the time I ran for office, we were also the largest city in the country at that time to declare bankruptcy.

At the time I decided to run for office. We also had more murders per capita than Chicago.

At the time, I decided to run for office with a twenty three percent poverty rate, a 17 percent college attainment rate and a host of challenges, an issue beyond the scope of any twenty one year old. So after I won my election, I did what I usually do, I feel overwhelmed, I realized the palms of Stockton were far bigger than me and I might need a little divine intervention. So as I prepared for my first council meeting, I went back to some wisdom.

My grandmother taught me a parable. I think we all know that really constitutes the governing frame we're using to reinvent Stockton today. Remembrance Sunday School, my grandmother told me that one time a guy asks Jesus, who was my neighbor, who was my fellow citizen, who am I responsible for? And instead of a short answer, Jesus replied with a parable. He said there was a man on the journey walking down Jericho Road. As he was walking down the road, he was beat up.

He was left on the side of the road, stripped of all his clothes, everything stolen from and left to die.

And then a priest came by, saw the man on the side of the road, maybe said a silent prayer. Hopes and prayers, our prayers gets better. Maybe he saw the man on the side of the road and surmise that it was ordained by God for this particular man, this particular group, to be on the side of the road. And there's nothing I could do to change it. And then after the priest walked by, maybe a politician walked by.

A 28 year old politicians, for example, saw the man on the side of the road and saw how beat up the man was, saw that the man was a victim of violence, are fleeing violence. And the politician decided, you know, but instead of welcoming this man, then let's build a wall. Maybe a positive said maybe this man chose to be on the side of the road, that if he just pulled himself up by his bootstraps, despite his boots being stolen and got himself back on the horse, he could be successful.

There's nothing I could do. And then finally, my grandmother said a good Samaritan came by, saw the man on the side of the road and looked and saw not centuries of hatred between Jews and Samaritans.

So I saw looked and saw not. His fears reflected now economic anxiety, not what's going to happen to me because things are changing. But I looked and saw a reflection of himself. He saw his neighbor. He saw his common humanity. He didn't just see it. He did something about it.

My grandmother said he got down on one knee. He made sure the man was OK. And I heard even gave him a room with that nice FERMA that things to Pan-Pacific one.

And and as I prepared to govern, I realized that given the diversity of Stockton, that the first step to making change will be to again answer the same question who is our neighbor?

And realizing that our destiny as a city was tied up in everyone, particularly those who are left on the side of the road.

But then I realized that charity is injustice, that acts of empathy is injustice, that being a good neighbor is necessary but not sufficient. And that was more that had to be done. So looking at the story, I realized that the road, Jericho Road has a nickname.

It's known as the bloody pass that's in the red because the road is structured for violence. This Jericho Road is narrow. It's conducive for ambushing, meaning a man on the side of the road. Wasn't that normal, wasn't strange. And in fact, it was something that was structured to happen. It was supposed to happen. And Jonathan Gool, take a piece. There is talks about structural violence in our society. He said structural violence is the avoidable impairment a basic human needs.

Paul Farmer, Dr. Paul Farmer talks about structural violence and talks about how the way our institutions, our policies, our culture creates outcomes that advantage some people and disadvantage others. And then I realized, much like the road in Jericho, that in many ways stopped in our society has been structured for the outcomes we complain about that we should not be surprised when we see that kids and poverty don't do well in school, that we should not be surprised to see wealth gaps.

And by race and ethnicity, we should not be surprised to see income disparities between genders, because that's what our society historically has been structured to do and it's working accordingly. So.

So taking this wisdom, I rolled up my sleeves and began to work and there's three quick stories I want to share that point to, not that we figured everything out, not that we have arrived, but we're trending in the right direction. The first story about the neighbor, when I was a city council member, I was working with one of the most conservative members in our community on opening a health clinic for undocumented people in the south part of the city.

And I loved it. And as we opened the clinic where we had the resolution to sign, he presented me a gift. It was an O'Reilly Factor lifetime membership in. Mind you, I didn't axe what he did to get such a gift, the blood of I had no idea how he got it. But I looked at him and I said, well, how are we working together to open a health clinic to provide free health care for undocumented people?

And you're an overriding factor member.

He looked at me and said, Councilman Turps, that's this is for my neighbors.

And he's a great example of what it means to be a good neighbor, at least in that instance, the robbers.

So after four years on city council, I decided to run for mayor, realizing that being a part time councilman wasn't enough to enact the structural changes we need to see in Stockton. And I came to that conclusion by looking at the data from my own council district where I grew up is ten minutes away from a more affluent district and 10 minutes away in the same city. The difference between ZIP Code nine five two zero five and nine five two one to a nine and life expectancy is 10 years.

Ten minutes away, four point five miles, ten years, life expectancy difference, and not because of the choices people are making, because no one chose to live in an unsafe community where they can exercise. No one chose to put more liquor stores and grocery stores in their community. No one chose these things. But but that's the reality. I realized as a councilman to enact a structural change. I wanted to see where between the same zip codes, there's a 30 percent difference in the rate and unemployment.

There's a seventy five thousand dollars a year difference in income that being a councilman was not going to cut it. So that's when I decided to run for mayor. And as mayor, we've been focused on the robbers and the road. So in Stockton, as I mentioned, we've historically have had problems with violent crime. In fact, that's why I decided to run for office in the first place. And my first job as mayor was help in our community to see ourselves, our neighbors, not just the people victimized by violence, but also by the perpetrators.

We realized that that those who in that pain in our society, those who are committing the homicides and contributing to gun violence are oftentimes victims themselves. They have high rates of trauma. They have been shot. They know people who have been shot that excuse their behavior. But it helps explain it to us as a community. We have to see these folks as to that they, too, are our neighbors. So for the past three years.

So, so so for the past three years, we've been working on two strategies cease fire and advance peace, where we give these guys as much attention, as much love from social services, from opportunities, from tattoo removal, in some cases even cash, as a gift from law enforcement. And last year, we saw 40 percent reduction in homicides and a 30 percent reduction in violent crime.

And now the road I mentioned that my community has a 23 percent poverty rate as someone who comes from poverty, it's a personal issue for me. So I decided that we would just do a program or we wouldn't just do something to go around the edges, but we would call into question the very structure that produces poverty in the first place. So starting in February, we launched a basic income demonstration where for the next 18 months as a pilot, 130 families randomly selected who live in zip codes at or below the median income of the city are given five hundred dollars a month.

And we're doing this for a couple of reasons. We're doing it because we realize that something is structurally wrong in America. When one in two Americans can afford one 400 dollar emergency, we're doing it because we realize that something is structurally wrong. When wages have only increased six percent between 1979 and 2013, we're doing it because we realize something is structurally wrong. When people are working two or three jobs, doing all the jobs no one in here wants to do and can't pay for necessities like rent, like lights, like health care, like like child care.

And so so I would say Stockton, again, we have real issues, I have constituent emails on my phone now about the homelessness issue, about of the violent crime we're experiencing. But I would say I think as a society, we would be wise to go back to those old Bible stories we were taught growing up and understand that No. One, we have to begin to see each other as neighbors, that when we see someone different from us, they should not reflect our fears, our anxieties, our insecurities, the prejudices we've been taught, our biases.

But we should see ourselves. We should see our common humanity. I think once we do that, we can do the more important work of restructuring the road, because, again, I understand some listening are saying, well, Meritage are talking about structural violence is structural this, but you're on the stage that the structures can't be too bad. If you could come up from poverty, have a father in jail, go to Stanford, work in the White House, may come there.

And I would respond by saying the term for that is exceptionalism, meaning that we recognize it's exceptional for people to escape the structures, meaning by our very language, we understand that the things we seeing in our world are by design. I think the task for us as testers and as good people, just people and world people as really do the hard work necessary of not just joining hands as neighbors, but using our hands to restructure our role. The role that in this country has been rooted in things like white supremacy.

A role like in this country has been rooted in things like misogyny, a road that's not working for far too many people. And I think today, tomorrow and 2020, we have a chance to change that.

So as I prepared to close. I started with a story from nine years ago now in Ireland with one, so after my cousin was murdered, I was lucky enough to go on the Freedom Rides with some of the original Freedom Riders, and they taught me a lot about restructuring the road. And one guy in particular, Bob Singleton, asked me a question I want to leave with us today. He we're going through Anniston, Alabama, and he said, Michael, I said, yes, sir, he said I was arrested on August 4th, 1961.

Now, why is that important? And I said, well, you were arrested, you weren't arrested with me on this bus if you weren't on this bus. People have the rights we enjoy. And he rolled his eyes and he said, no, son. He said on that day Barack Obama was born. And then he said he had no idea that the choice he made to restructure the road would pave the way for a child born as a second class citizen who wouldn't be able to even get a cup of water on the counter.

We'll have the chance 50 years later to be president. Then he looked at me and he said, What are you prepared to do today so that 50 years from now a child born has a chance to be president. And I think that's the question before us today. We know things are jacked up. I think what we've seen recently isn't that abnormally, but the reflection of a system that has been structured to produce such crazy outcomes, but I think is also an opportunity because these structures we inherited aren't acts of God for the acts of men and women, their policy choices made by politicians like me and approved by voters like you.

And we have the chance and the awesome opportunity to do something about it. So my question is, what are we prepared to do today so that a child born today, 50 years from now, isn't born in a society rooted in white supremacy, isn't born into a society riddled with misogyny? Is it born into a society riddled with homophobia and transphobia and anti-Semitism and Islamophobia enablers? I mean, all the phobias and isms? What are we prepared to do today to have 50 years from now?

We have a road in a society that's structured to to to reflect what we hold to be self-evident, that all men, that all women and even all trans people are created equal and are endowed with their creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thank you. For more TED talks, go to Ted Dotcom. PR ex.