For the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson was in office, a sitting president addressed the graduating class of Howard University, the prestigious historically black university (HBCU) located in Washington D.C.
President Obama was greeted enthusiastically by the students and their guests. His speech, peppered with historical references of special significance to the crowd, was almost a love letter to America, and to black Americans in particular. Any reference to the current presidential election was subtle.
“Given the current state of our political rhetoric and debate, let me say something that may be controversial. America is a better place today than it was when I graduated from college,” Obama said.
He cited the decrease in crime, teen pregnancies and dropout rate for blacks, since the early 80s when he graduated from college, as evidence of the strides America has made. He went on to say that race relations are better as well.
“Stay with me now,” he encouraged the crowd. “Race relations are better since I graduated. That’s the truth. My election did not create a post-racial society, I don’t know who was propagating that notion. It was not mine.”
“The election itself was just one indicator of how attitudes have changed.”
While acknowledging how much better America and the world is for African-Americans, he reminded the students of their responsibility to themselves and to society as a whole.
“And that means we have to not only question the world as it is, and stand up for those African-Americans who haven’t been so lucky — because, yes, you’ve worked hard, but you’ve also been lucky. That’s a pet peeve of mine: People who have been successful and don’t realize they’ve been lucky. That God may have blessed them; it wasn’t nothing you did. So don’t have an attitude. But we must expand our moral imaginations to understand and empathize with all people who are struggling, not just black folks who are struggling — the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender person, and yes, the middle-aged white guy who you may think has all the advantages, but over the last several decades has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change, and feels powerless to stop it. You got to get in his head, too.
The speech was a powerful call to action for the young leaders of tomorrow, and for all who want America to be the best she can be for all of her citizens.
Read it here, or watch it below.
Featured image courtesy of Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Share-alike 2.0 license.
