Former United States’ President, Barack Obama urged graduating students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to be in charge as they step into the real world. He added that if they want to see real change, it won’t come from current leaders.
Obama spoke at the virtual commencement speech on Saturday to the HBCU students.
Obama stated that the coronavirus pandemic has “more than anything … fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing.”
He added that “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge”. The U.S had the most confirmed cases and death as a result of the pandemic in the world.
According to Obama, the virus “just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country.”
Obama was specific about the disproportionate rate at which Black People are dying from COVID-19, the illness the virus caused, as well as the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black who was reported to be jogging when he encountered Gregory and Travis McMichael, both White and armed with guns.
Though Obama did not mention Arbery’s name but stated that the injustices of the world were seen “when a black man goes for a jog, and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.”
He urged the graduating students to be bold in their vision of the world.
“If the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you,” Obama added, “No generation has been better positioned to be warriors of justice and remake the world.”
Obama’s speech was part of a larger virtual event, titled “Show Me Your Walk, HBCU Edition.”
According to the former president’s office, the program was a two-hour virtual HBCU commencement program presented by Chase in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the United Negro College Fund, the National Association for Equal Opportunity, the NBA, Paul Quinn College, Howard University and JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways Initiative,
