- I brought some stuff with me.
You know last year, Mercedes Hall gave the address.
It was beautiful and she brought up
a little something with her, you know,
like something to help her get through it
so I brought my little horocrux.
(crowd cheers)
Yeah!
Yeah!
Yeah!
You know, I'm nervous.
I thought it was going to help.
I'm going to need a little help to get through this
so will the graduating class of 2018 please stand up?
That includes all graduating class of 2018, everybody,
undergrads, graduate students, continuing students.
So exercise has really helped me
so I was hoping we could do a little call and response.
So I'm going to actually split us in half.
I want this half, I'm going to start
and I want ya'll to repeat after me.
Is that okay?
I like the energy in here today.
So, I'm a say it first, and then ya'll go.
Ready?
♪ We, we, we made it. We, we, we made it. ♪
Alright, now ya'll do it, ready?
♪ We, we, we made it. We, we, we made it. ♪
Ya'll sound beautiful, ya'll sound beautiful.
Now this side, what I want ya'll to do,
I want ya'll to say, we made it, we made it,
we made it, we made it, we made it.
We made it, we made it, we made it, we made it, we made it.
Alright.
Hey.
Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on.
So when I do this, we gon cut it.
What I'm a do is, we gon start with this side first
and then I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna cue ya'll
and ya'll gonna add in, and we just gonna vibe for a minute
so we can get the energy cause I need it
in order to get through this.
(crowd cheers)
Oh my hair looks great.
Shout out to Brandy, she did my hair.
Wow, that's HD, that is retina display.
Okay, this side.
♪ We, we, we made it. We, we, we made it. ♪
♪ We, we, we made it. We, we, we made it. ♪
We made it, we made it, we made it, we made it, we made it.
We made it, we made it, we made it, we made it, we made it.
Ay, we made it, we made it,
we made it, we made it, we made it.
(crowd chants)
Gon and dab on em.
Gon and dab on em.
Hey, hey, get silly, hey, hey, hey, milli rock.
Hey, hey, hey.
Ya'll thank ya'll so much for that.
Ya'll can sit now.
Good morning to family, friends, faculty, staff
honorary degree recipients, alumnis, supporters,
and of course the graduating class of 2018.
Ya'll can clap, ya'll can clap.
Now I recognize today's a special day,
as many have said before, it's Mother's Day.
So, to all the mothers with us today,
be it physically or in our hearts,
to those who have mothered, and those
who have been mothered, I celebrate you.
Happy Mother's Day.
(crowd cheers)
And that brings me to a really special point.
Mommy will you please stand up?
(crowd claps)
Isn't she lovely?
Please remain standing.
I wrote this down cause I felt like
I was going to get shaky for real.
I want to take this moment and appreciate you, ma.
I wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for you,
for your resilience, for your sacrifice.
From buying your own apartment when I was two,
our own apartment when I was two,
to waking up at that first pink light
so you could take me to the babysitter's
so you could work construction as a women electrician,
to putting yourself and taking me with you
through Queens College, to putting up with
my suspensions and switching schools
and living in mildew for seven years,
sharing a room that leaked whenever it rained,
while commuting to work in Manhattan from Long Island
just so you could give me the best
education that we had access to.
I love you, I love you, I love you, Momma.
You inspire me every day and thank you for bringing me
in this world and not taking me out as a moody teenager.
Happy Mothers Day.
You can sit now.
This speech is written for, for first
generation students, for students with vouchers.
I write this for students of color with no scholarship
cohort, sports teams, or support programs,
for students whose high school curriculums
failed to prepare them for intro level college courses,
for students who dropped pre-med,
co-si, and financial accounting.
I see ya'll.
For the students who had tutors,
for the students who feel disconnected
from their peers, the students with
multiple intersecting identities
for whom no affinity groups exist,
the students for whom English was a second,
third, or fourth language, the students for whom,
the students who's non-English home language,
failed to exempt them from foreign language requirements,
the students who borrowed books on reserve,
the students whose textbooks were stapled packets
of photo-copied excerpts, the students who
ran out of pass-fails, the students who needed the curve,
the students who never made Dean's list,
the students on academic probation,
the students who had to petition the committee
on academic standards, the students who never got
first choice of courses because financial holds
on their Sage account halted registration,
the students who endured ghostly grounds,
closed dining halls, and empty dorm rooms,
because going home over break was too expensive,
for the students for whom home didn't exist,
the students left at the airport before orientation,
whose documentation status meant
they could not study abroad, whose shifts
conflicted with office hours, restatations,
and once in a lifetime lectures from honorable guests,
the students for whom work-study didn't cut it,
the students who met ends by illicit means,
who sent money home, who relied on guest meals,
who had break downs, who took time away,
the students who had no professional network,
no friends, no love, the students who experienced loss,
the students who beat the odds no one knew of,
for the students who struggled.
One thing that all these students have in common,
aside from struggle, is negotiation.
For these students, for me, everyday decisions
contained within them consequences.
I hold these students up, not only because their stories
deserve telling, but because from them
I have learned a great lesson
and I wish to impart that with you all today.
Though it needs no reminding we live in
an increasingly political and politicized era
where lines are constantly drawn between opposing factions.
These lines help mark that which we oppose
from that which we support and help weigh that,
and help weigh, excuse me, what we view as beneficial
against what we view as harmful.
Through our maturation into adults,
our lines took cues from our immediate areas of influence,
our home, school districts, spiritual
institutions, and local communities.
As our minds and curiosities grew, so too did the lines.
Often, they became more complex and nuanced, more personal.
You see, we take our cues from our immediate areas
of influence, our homes, school districts, spiritual
institutions, and local communities, as a few examples.
From the moment our deposits were collected
we became members of the Brandeis community,
so you see, our lines were drawn there too, as well,
even before we set foot on campus.
As we would later come to discover,
through our relationship with the ambiguous
and amalgamated entity known as the administration,
Brandeis was either a friend or a foe.
You see that title is dependent upon the decisions
made by said administration and their
perceived effects on the student body.
I'm a break it down for you real quick.
Thank you, Kiki, thank you, Kiki.
Meatless Mondays in the dining hall, foe.
Online streaming of live and on demand shows,
complimentary with campus residency,
alright, pretty cool, you my friend.
Three point nine tuition increase yearly,
yeah that's going to be a foe for me, dog.
T-Pain, Metro Boomin, The Internet
and A$AP Ferg for spring fest, yeah we cool again, we cool.
I can go on and on, but I think ya'll
are starting to get the idea.
The lines drawn between friend and foe is really
the line between what we will accept and what we will not.
When discontent some take their opinions
to Facebook and Twitter, others mobilize
their voices on the pages of opinion editorials
in the following week's issue of The Hoot
or The Justice, Bradeis' student run publications.
Still, the outlet for change presents itself in the form of
electoral representation for many among us
and when egregious enough, the administrative undertakings
can inspire the kind of action that gets
black and brown students to put their education
and bodies on the line in protest.
I'm speaking about Ford Hall, 1969.
I'm speaking about For Hall, 2015.
(crowd cheers)
Yeah, let's respect that.
You know, I work for the archives,
and we've been working very diligently on releasing
resources to help students understand exactly
what Ford Hall was, for those of you who don't know,
those were two, Ford Hall 69 and Ford Hall 2015,
were two student, black student occupations held
in our administrative buildings of
Bernstein Marcus and Ford Hall
for which it was named, where students,
black students demanded access,
demanded equity, demanded fair treatment,
and right to an education on this campus.
(crowd claps)
We want you all to be able to access that information.
We want you all to be able to research it.
We want you to be able to know so that if you ever
need to stand up for your rights again,
you know were to go, you know what
we did, and you know how we did it.
So, it's my pleasure to announce
that the website that we have been working on
which has primary documents from Ford Hall 69
has actually just gone live, and you can find it at,
thank you for the love, you can find it at
blackspaceportal.library.brandeis.edu.
Now this effort came about, actually,
let me, matter of fact, this an infomercial,
let me do that one more time, that is
blackspaceportal.library.brandeis.edu.
I know that's a long URL.
This came about through the BBAC
between Kari Caloway, Queen White, myself,
and Maggie McNealy, we continued addition with Mercedes Hall
who gave the commencement speech last year,
Asia Antoine, and Marian Gardner, my coworker this year.
(crowd cheers) Yeah, shout out Marian.
If it wasn't for Marian, I promise you this would not have,
the website would not be what it is now.
Thank you Marian, thank you.
Also, known her since freshman year.
That's love.
Now to be clear, as stakeholders belonging to
our own smaller communities, we don't always agree.
Whether it's over honorary degrees,
on campus Black Lives Matter demonstrations,
or freedom of speech debates,
Brandeis students are not afraid
to engage controversy, even amongst ourselves.
I'm a wipe holding twenty dollar bill.
Though we came from different walks of life,
and our presence here today marks our first step
on our new journeys, what has connected us
for the last several years, what makes us Brandeisian
is our commitment to defending our own notions of fairness.
Even when conflicted the frameworks, languages,
and ideologies that we have learned here
have contributed to and helped guide
our own notions of justice, but outside of this campus
where that which links us to our neighbors
is far less obvious, those lines begin to shift.
What happens when we leave this environment then?
When we enter territories where the lines
are constantly advancing and retrenching,
intersecting and tangental, ambiguous yet visible,
how does one maintain their convictions
against supporting fossil fuel investment,
when a lack of public transportation
and a long work commute necessitate owning a vehicle?
How do we uphold the stance against gentrification
and displacement within predominantly black
and brown neighborhoods when an offer
from the firm of our dreams means
relocating to a new expensive city?
I mean, I hear they talking about
Brooklyn is where it's at, right?
Do we live lavish, and buy produce
from our local farmers market,
or shop sales at the chain retail corporations
notorious for under paying its staff?
Many of us leaving here today will travel vast distances
while some may stay a little more local
yet regardless of what our immediate plans are,
all receiving their degrees today will be met with change.
Much like our entrance into college,
orienting to post graduate life will take time.
Old conclusions are sure to be challenged, reformed,
or replaced, as new relationships and perspectives emerge.
Like the changeover from high school to college,
several of the core facets that make up our
identity may be lost in translation.
The journey to self rediscovery is long and hard
and if seeing you here has been any indication,
it is going to be rife with confusion
yet what's important is that we not permit
temporary disorientation stir us into
indefinite complacency, that as we struggle
to make sense of the ever shifting world around us,
our position within it is asserted, not appointed,
that our progressive potential, not be determined by
our access to, or lack therefore of resources,
but rather, our intentional, intentional,
intentional positioning of them.
As we become the catalysts we have been trained to be
we must remember that love is a practice
and practice entails performance
and performance demands action.
That loving thy neighbor requires
proximity and engagement, that loving they neighbor
ain't enough because the housing market is stratified
and neighbor denotes residency,
so original occupants who would be neighbors,
are now the displaced, marginal.
We must remember that Gittler Prize winner,
Kimberlé Crenshaw taught us that for liberation
to be effective, it must be intersectional,
that is, it must account for, address,
and include those vulnerable to multiple
overlapping systems of inequity and oppression,
that those most vulnerable are disproportionately
poor, and queer, and women of color,
that those are disproportionately black women.
We must remember the teachings of Treva Lindsey
who during Brandeis's 2017 Black Lives Matter symposium
reminded us that despite how our society
renders those who neither have nor can produce capital,
those who harm and those who have been harmed,
they too, deserve to be held.
Lastly, we must remember that equity
requires resource reallocation,
and reallocation requires sacrifice,
and the best offering in our possession is privilege,
and maybe asking what do love got to do with the point,
it's the soothe in the water, it's the truth in your joint,
all that gold is overrated, what do you do with your coin,
we gon try to spread some love with it,
spread some love, we gon try to spread some love,
ain't nobody gotta know, buying water by the jug,
I'm the plug, what you want, what you need,
not that hate, if you hatin people don't now,
spread love, spread love, spread love.
If ya'll know the words, come on,
sing again, I'm a do it again.
And maybe asking what do love got to do with the point,
it's the soothe in the water, it's the truth in your joint,
oh that gold is overrated, what do you do with your coin,
we gon try to express some love with it,
spread some love, we gon try to spread some love,
ain't nobody gotta know, buying water by the jug,
I'm the plug, what you want, what you need,
not that hate, if you hatin people don't now,
spread love, spread love, spread love.
Thank you.
(crows claps)
Ya'll ain't know I could do that?
I've been practicing a little bit.
The word commencement's first known
usage was during the 14th century.
According to Marriam-Webster, the word
can be tracked from Middle English
to Anglo-French, up through Vulgar Latin,
and down and out of initiare which is Latin for to initiate.
Conventional definitions include, to have
or make beginning, and to enter upon.
However cliche, I believe our graduation ceremony
cannot have a better name, for this moment
marks the beginning of something new, negotiations.
From where we live and how we shop,
to the leaders we elect and the acts we pass,
attached to every choice is a consequence,
some negligible and others life altering,
what we most negotiate is our ability
to live with the consequences
of the decisions that we make.
Choice is power, and with it comes great responsibility.
To skip a shift for office hours or make rent and fail,
to buy textbooks or purchase groceries,
to send money home or go out with friends,
to buy clothes appropriate for the interview,
or a cap and gown, the students whose experiences
are named at the start of this speech have already
had to negotiate the terms of their survival, daily.
These students have made choices and reckoned
with consequences many of us have yet to imagine,
yet they stand here, beside us.
Appreciate them, appreciating their struggle
teaches us that the consequences of
tough decisions can yield high rewards.
Through their perseverance, they demonstrate
how the setback of one action can serve
as a stepping stone for another.
They instruct us that mindfulness
can overpower negative consequence,
and that the power of our work lies in our intention.
From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank you
for the honor of selecting me as
your commencement speaker, Will Jones.
(crows claps and cheers)
Hey, hey, hey, real quick, real quick, real quick.
Real quick, real quick, real quick.
If ya'll like that speech, then you ain't seen nothing yet.
This school has some incredibly talented students of color.
If ya'll want to see more students like me up here,
more students like we've had the last three years,
then you've got to support the resources
that support us get to this position.
Getting us here is nice, but it ain't enough.
I would not have graduated on God if it was not
for Alaina Lewis and Student Support Services,
and I'm not alone in that, you can hear
by the folks cheering in this room, I am not alone in that.
Admissions bring us through the door,
but it's Academic Services and possey mentors
and TYP Directors and SSP advisors that get us through.
Support them.
Thank you.
Oh!
One last thing, I swear, I swear,
I swear, I'm almost done.
So I reactivated my Facebook and Instagram just for this,
so Communications Department, at me.
My Twitter and Instagram handles are blackquinoa,
that's spelled B L A C K Q U I N O A,
again that's B L A C K Q U I N O A,
and my name on Facebook is Will Jones
so when the video came out, just add that tag.
Alright, thank you.
For more infomation >> Grout types for Mosaic Art with Ayhan Keser - Duration: 12:03. 
For more infomation >> Passion for service, passion for people - Duration: 0:28. 
For more infomation >> 13 rzeczy, o których nigdy ci nie mówiono-Healthy For Life 24h - Duration: 7:39. 
For more infomation >> FCL Monday May 14th Planning for your Pets - Duration: 4:05. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét