ALLISON MICHAEL ORENSTEIN / CONTOUR / GETTY IMAGES
InvestigationPhilanthropy, an American history (3/5). For this 59-year-old African-American, billionaires must tackle the root causes of social inequality and not give themselves a good conscience at the end of the race by distributing part of their money.
It was five years ago. That evening, Darren Walker attended one of these New York charity galas where American high society hurries: evening dresses, tuxedos, champagne and check books to make generous donations. During the feasts, the boss of the Ford Philanthropic Foundation, which manages 12 billion dollars (10.8 billion euros), receives from its sister an SMS with photos.
This is the funeral of his aunt Bertha, in Louisiana. Mr. Walker sees in one of the images a black man in prisoner clothes: his cousin, who has been exceptionally allowed to leave prison, escorted by a white police officer, to attend his mother's funeral . Darren Walker feels deep discomfort: “I felt desperate for the unworthy and cruel manner in which my cousin had been led to these funerals. "
"I am a capitalist, but capitalism must change, otherwise it will damage our democracy" Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation
Today, this 59-year-old African American is sailing in the upper reaches of New York, but he comes from poor and segregated America. It was born in Louisiana in 1959, at the Lafayette charity hospital, "Because this is where the poor were cared for". Unknown father and three sisters, Darren Walker was fortunate as a child to benefit from a public program for black people launched by then president, Lyndon Johnson. And succeed tremendously after studying law in Austin (Texas). "There is always a certain guilt that comes with success, a fear of no longer understanding how poor people whose condition you have shared live and of being no longer close to them", He confesses.
Of course, Darren Walker is in regular contact with his mother and sisters, but he has changed his world, as evidenced by his annual salary of $ 800,000 and the sumptuous premises of the Ford Foundation, which hired him in 2013, with their huge winter garden, where he receives The world, close to the United Nations. Darren Walker does not reject his new environment or his remuneration. "I am a capitalist, he warns, but capitalism must change, otherwise it will damage our democracy. "
For a “new Gospel”
Capitalism derailed by being unequal. And he, the homosexual black man from the deep south, can have the feeling of being an alibi, the beautiful story that we are exhibiting. "Sometimes they say to me, 'See, it's possible, you've succeeded.' Let's look at the numbers! I am not an exception, in my generation. The question is whether it is still possible. If you want the American dream, move to Canada! "
