The turmoil in riot-torn Baltimore — sparked by the
death of a man from injuries he sustained while in police custody — is rooted in economic depression in the impoverished black community, not anger, according to entrepreneur John Hope Bryant, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE.
In a Newsmax Prime interview on
Newsmax TV Wednesday, Bryant, a member of President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, said black youth in Baltimore are "depressed," and "worse, without hope."
Economic recovery, he says, "has to happen for America."
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"You need to move credit scores to 700 block by block in Baltimore," Bryant declared. "Nothing changes your life more than God or love than moving your credit score 120 points. These neighborhoods are 500 credit-score neighborhoods.
"Raise the self-esteem, raise the confidence, create job-seekers and job-creators by raising the financial well-being of people," Bryant said.
The entrepreneur noted that he began his foundation promoting financial know-how among young blacks in the wake of the Rodney King riots in 1992.
"Today is the 23rd anniversary of the Rodney King riots," he said. "As Ambassador Andrew Young would say, I believe rainbows can follow storms, just like it did in South Central L.A.," adding that in Baltimore, the riots have "everything to do with economics."
"They're depressed. Worse, they have no hope," he said of young blacks in that city. "The most dangerous person in the world is a person with no hope. So poverty has nothing to do with money… If you don't believe in yourself in this country, you are toast."
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