Some of you may have heard about Mamoudou Gassama, an undocumented immigrant from Africa who saved a little boy that was dangling from the balcony of an apartment building outside of Paris. For those who haven’t seen the video, Gassama, with Spiderman-like speed and strength, fearlessly scaled four stories up the side of the building in less than 30 seconds saving the four-year-old boy’s life. The video of the rescue went viral around the world, and Gassama has since met with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, who offered the 22-year-old man French residency and a job with the Paris Fire Brigade. In one of his many interviews, Gassama said immigrating to France by fleeing his native Mali through Burkina Faso, Niger, and Libya, where he was “treated like a slave”, was far more dangerous than climbing a four-story building.
Mamoudou Gassama is a humble man, and a true hero. Contrary to what some people would have us believe, there are millions of stories of immigrants who have risked life and limb to pursue a better life, and who have gone on to make remarkable contributions to their new country… This is just one of them.
With the presidential election only three weeks away, partisans on both sides are taking off the gloves with rhetoric that vilifies their opponents and fires up their minions. Most people believe that our country is more divided than ever. Indeed, the days when liberal and conservative candidates can debate their views respectfully seem like a distant memory. At the risk of oversimplifying things too much, let me cut to the chase about what is driving the divisions in the country.
NAHREP shares data at conferences to build a more accurate narrative about the Latino community from an economic perspective. Sharing that data with attendees, influential business leaders, and media at the event helps achieve that goal while arming them with information that can give them a competitive advantage with their businesses.
Terms like “great, genius,” and “world-class” are overused, perhaps because they mean something different to everyone. Greatness is subjective. Some might say you must be great just to be employed in the film business or to play professional sports, but I don’t think Will Smith or LeBron James think that way. The concept of being great also requires context. You could be a great high school athlete but only an average college player.