Last Saturday Howard University hosted its 148th graduation ceremony. I donned my (borrowed) academic robes to celebrate our graduates and hear President Obama, our commencement speaker. I’ve shared my snapshots below to convey what it was like to attend and participate. They show: workers setting up for graduation during the last week of the semester, getting through security and onto campus on the day of the ceremony, faculty waiting for the event to begin and then processing into the the yard together, President Obama being “hooded” while he receives his honorary Ph.D., and the commencement ceremony. The last photo is of Sociology graduate Diamond Crumby showing off her awesome cap. Congratulations Diamond and the Howard class of 2016!
For the full text of President Obama’s commencement address, click here. For video, click here. And for summary and analysis, try the following:
- “President Obama Embodies Blackness, Confidence, Hope at Howard University’s 148th Commencement,” by Paul Holston, The Hilltop.
- “President Obama’s Commencement Speech, Howard University,” by Clarence B. Jones, Huffington Post.
- “Obama Gets All In His Blackness at Howard“, by Leah Donnella at Code Switch, NPR
- “Sheriff Clarke Blasts Obama’s ‘Insulting’ Commencement Speech,” Fox News Insider.
- “This Young Woman Is the Reason President Obama Stays Optimistic About America,” by Lauren Duca, Teen Vogue.
- “Obama Proves, Yet Again, That He Is Our Most Black, Feminist President to Date,” Melissa Harris-Perry, Elle.
- “Seven days, three speeches: one week in the life of having a black president,” by Steven W. Thrasher, The Guardian.
- “President Obama Calls Out Safe Space Culture. Weakly,” by Mollie Hemmingway, The Federalist.
- “Tucker Carlson Slams Obama Blackness Riff: What If Romney Said ‘Be Confident in Your Whiteness’?” by Tommy Christopher, Mediaite.
Classes are over now, but next year I plan to show the President’s commencement speech toward the end of my Introduction to Sociology class. I’ll ask the students to analyze it according to sociological concepts we’ve been learning (structure, agency, social stratification, intersectionality, theories of change, American individualism, etc.). Then I’ll have them chew on a few of the wide array of responses to his speech listed above. I like doing these sorts of activities to underscore how the concepts we are learning in the classroom get used in the political world, even if they are not always referenced by the same names. If any of you do something similar with the speech, let me know how it goes. I won’t be teaching Intro to Sociology again until next spring, so there’s plenty of time to build on your experience.
Tracy Perkins 