Fighting for the Voiceless, Keynote Address Delivered at Stanford University's Black Graduation Celebration
Dean Barker-Alexander, friends, family, and members of the Class of 2006, thank you for that warm reception. To the Class of 2006, I offer you my heartfelt congratulations. I address you tonight with the most profound sense of honor and pride.
Many sons and daughters of this great institution are among those who have changed lives all around the Globe. Very soon, you will join the ranks of Stanford alumni all over the world. Wherever you find yourselves after tonight, you follow a long line of great pioneers. Those who have preceded you include the likes of Dr. Mae Jamison, the first female African American astronaut, and my friend, whose brilliant guidance I cherish, Dr. Charles Ogletree.
So naturally, as I look out into the crowd, I can’t help but think that sitting somewhere in the third row is the next Mae Jamison; or, that nestled in the seventh row is someone who may one day revolutionize how we fight cancer. I salute each of you for what you’ve accomplished and I marvel at all that you are about to do. Whatever great promises the future holds, however, tonight we pause to celebrate what you have accomplished here. I thank you for inviting me to join you.
You leave Stanford as recipients of a tremendous education. When you walked across the commencement stage to receive your diplomas you carried with you not just the degrees you’ve earned, but the aspirations of your family, friends and community. Along with these aspirations and high hopes, great opportunities also await you. Yet, with the opportunity afforded by a world class education comes a world of responsibility.
All of you will undoubtedly go on to do great things. Some of you will be going to medical schools and law schools; others right into your careers. But whether you become great statesmen and women, doctors, lawyers, or teachers, it matters little what you do to earn a living. What matters is what you do with your life. And I deeply believe that what is important is that you be fighters for the rights of others.
It is my deepest hope for each graduate here that you resolve to leave a legacy. You can make the choice to use the eloquent voices, power of persuasion and logical reasoning that you’ve learned here at Stanford, to advocate for the voiceless and powerless.
Never stand idly by while injustice is suffered. The great author and humanitarian, Ellie Wize-zell, who recently stood at this very podium, once swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation; he swore to always take sides. I am asking you to do the same. “Neutrality,” as Wize-zell said, “helps the oppressor, never the victim.” “Silence,” he said, “encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
The generation that lead the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s worked in a time of immense social change. Ours is a time of unparalleled prospect. We know that the opportunities before us were won for us by the sacrifice of many, including heroes we lost this year, Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks. Because of them, we will never again be made to sit in the back of the bus or beaten for registering to vote. Because of them, we are in this room tonight. Yet all the progress we have made does not suggest that we have signed a peace accord in our struggle against injustice and inequality. No, far from it. The contours and frontlines of the battle have merely shifted.
Injustice: Today, our public schools are segregated along socioeconomic lines. Injustice: Too many African American children grow up surrounded by violence instead of hope. Injustice: Our prisons are full of Black people but our universities are not. Today, there are approximately 600,000 African Americans in institutions of higher learning, but more than 800,000 African Americans are behind bars. Injustice: On the streets, our communities are being told to choose between their safety and their civil rights while poor neighborhoods are terrorized by our own people. In my city of
These are some of the new frontlines of our battle against injustice. My hope is that you will embrace the fight to address these and many other conditions that we must together change. My vision is that each of you will become beacons to illuminate our society’s shortcomings and guide us to a better shore.
Committing yourself to the struggle for civil rights, will, as Dr. Martin Luther King said “enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can.” Dr. King said that making a career of humanity will make you a greater person. And it will also make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, and a better teacher. So for your sake and for all of our sakes, do not stand in the middle of the road while the struggle continues.
By graduating from Stanford, you have elevated yourselves to the status of role models. This can be a burden. As role models other people are going to be watching you very closely. Like it or not, you now have a fan club. So, the question is what are you going to do with your new status as role models? As role models you have to live beyond reproach; you have to work harder than everyone else and you have to persevere. Use the same tenacity, intelligence and vigor that propelled you through Stanford to fight for the rights of others.
When you choose to fight for others, prepare yourself for a difficult task. Wonderful though it is, standing up for the marginalized can be risky. It can feel lonely when you stand firm for what you believe. This may be the last time you’re in a room surrounded by people who look like you. Very soon you’re going to look around and there will not be anybody like you sitting in the room and you will feel alone in your struggle. But you will not be alone. You will not be alone in this fight because you will be standing upon the shoulders of the giants who forged our people’s history and great legacy. And you will not be alone because, as you stand, you will begin to hear a chorus of voices around you, a chorus of others who are fighting injustice too.
I am asking you to be fighters for civil rights in spite of the difficult road ahead because I truly believe that you are the generation that can turn the Dream into reality. Your generation has already shown the spark in spirit to carry the flame of social change begun by earlier generations. I know that this class has worked to fight injustice by serving in the community. Just a few days ago I was told the story of your classmate Daniel Stringer. After Hurricane Katrina, Daniel packed his bags and relocated to the Gulf Coast where he spent weeks building houses for the displaced and helping the victims recapture some sense of normalcy and dignity. This Class has done thousands of hours of community service here in the Bay Area and around the nation. You have taught people how to read; helped young artists in
Many of you are dedicating the next few years of your lives to the struggle for a more just world. Among you, for example, is Chioke Borgelt-Mose who will be teaching English in
The great men and women of our times and of times past were great because they dared to take sides even when doing so was not fashionable. In this sense, they were all considered troublemakers. If speaking for the voiceless and powerless requires you to be a troublemaker, then I urge you to do so. I am proud to be a troublemaker. I grew up in
June 17, 2006
In 1966, amid the height of apartheid rule in
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Tonight, I am asking each member of the Stanford class of 2006 to send forth a tiny ripple of hope; I am asking you to embrace our ongoing struggle, to advocate for justice and, in so doing, shape human history. If you chose to take the seemingly safer road, the magnificent social changes your generation is destined to lead will teeter on dream’s outer edges. So rise up and steady yourselves for the fight because you are the Dream. Thank you.