That data is actually being used for now, outside of obviously the federal legislative advocacy, has been to undergird a case called Monk v. US. I'd like to tell the story of Conley Monk because I think it's emblematic and it's really important.

Conley Monk is a Vietnam vet. He served two tours of duty as a Marine in Vietnam. He got into an altercation shortly after wrapping his second tour with a white superior who called him a racial epithet and [Monk] found himself on the other side of a dishonorable discharge.

Mind you, Conley volunteered to join the Marines at a time when many folks were getting drafted. He also worked at the VA prior to joining. His father actually worked at the VA as well prior too. His father's also a World War II veteran who did not get access to the GI Bill. He comes from this legacy of service, but also a legacy of obstruction. It took him over 40 years to gain access to his benefits for the PTSD that he had gotten from Vietnam. During that time, though, he became a leading advocate for veterans in the state of Connecticut, helping veterans get access to their benefits, despite the fact that he didn't have them.

When we talk about benefits, just rewinding as well, we're talking about housing loans, the ability to buy a house without putting any money down. You're talking about education benefits, of which I understand concretely the importance of because I wouldn't even be able to be in a position to do this work had I not had access to hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain an education through the post 9-11 GI bill. You're talking about vocational training. You're talking about disability payments that can add up to thousands and thousands of dollars every single month and compound it over time can drastically change the trajectory of someone's life and their family's well-being.

Conley won a landmark suit, actually about a 2015-ish, with Yale. He started working with Yale in the early '90s to try to get access to his benefits. Was finally able to win a suit in and around 2015. It was a landmark case because it also gave specifically Marines who had been diagnosed with PTSD, or traumatic brain injury, the ability to gain access to their benefits for the first time had they experienced a dishonorable discharge. Before then, it was much more difficult. He was able to get a small settlement that gave him three years of back pay.

But with the new data that we've gleaned, we're basically making the case that the VA was grossly negligent in its responsibility to address racial disparities, and that Conley is owed for the damages of compensation that he did not get since the early '70s. He's suing for a million dollars in damages. You think about the wealth that could have been accumulated had he gotten access to VA home loans. The ability of him to either send himself to college or give his children access to collegiate education, let alone all the vocational training and the disability benefits that he did not get access to over decades. When you extrapolate that outward, and I want to repeat that, he's also the son of someone who did not get access to the GI bill.

You're talking about billions and billions of dollars siphoned out of the Black community. When we talk about economic inequality, we can't have a real and honest conversation about that without talking about how inequitable access to veterans benefits has compounded economic inequality in this country. That's really what this project is about.