I'm going to tell a story about the damaging effects of performative call outs, and then I'm going to move on with this day. [Thread]
I went to Harvard's graduation this year to see a close family friend of mine graduate. The undergrad commencement speaker was this black kid, son of African immigrants, who talked at length about BLM and specifically, Mike Brown.
The audience is largely stuff older white people. Harvard is more diverse now obvs, but all the reunion classes are there, & there are still hella legacy parents and others associated with the Harvard community. It's a rather hallowed, traditional environment. There are top hats.
This guy could have made a compelling case for why black lives matter. But something about the tone of his remarks was off. The more he spoke, the more I felt the audience tense up around me and shut him out.
I felt he made a disrespectful spectacle of Brown's memory, evoking abt his body lying on the ground--repeating over & over again "4 hours, 4 hours." This didn't have the rhetorical power he thought it did. It was gruesome. It was shaming --not those responsible, but the audience
It's hard to describe, you should watch it. But it felt obvious that he felt he was brave by getting up in front of these white people and making such a bold political statement. But it wasn't brave. Not really. It was Harvard -- a liberal bastion. A bubble of agreement.
What it felt like to me was an attempt to exploit a real tragedy -- a real political and cultural touchstone -- to make his HARVARD graduation speech spicy.
Even worse, when I checked the program to see what he's doing after graduation, he's working for like, Goldman Sachs.
Even worse, when I checked the program to see what he's doing after graduation, he's working for like, Goldman Sachs.
I don't mean to shade this kid, who I'm sure meant well, but here he is, a recent immigrant who, though subject to American racism, came from a different racial and cultural tradition entirely, using American racism for rhetorical purposes b4 heading off to work for a bank.
Meanwhile, even those who shared his politics in the audience were put off by his choice to make his point in the LEAST persuasive way possible. It's hard to describe, you can watch it online. But believe me -- it wasn't great. What WAS great was Pete Davis's follow up speech.
And not just because he's @curaffairs family.
Anyway, I see alot of white people especially who think they're helping by "calling out" racism, but what would be more helpful is actually helping people understand why their beliefs are bad, and why they should change. Put outcomes before your personal catharsis/brand.
Stuffy*
Here's the kid's speech. He compares himself, son of two business people and a Harvard graduate to Mike Brown -- exploiting a weak Langston Hughes analogy. The only thing they have in common is being black. No class analysis.
Then he goes on to make the point that it's important to do something good w your degree. Again: he's going to work at Goldman Sachs.
Alot of us do this. I'm not trying to harp on this one kid -- I went & became a corporate lawyer. But lets not pretend we aren't privileged too.
Alot of us do this. I'm not trying to harp on this one kid -- I went & became a corporate lawyer. But lets not pretend we aren't privileged too.
We've got to do better than this overly simplistic diagnosis of what's wrong with the world.
At at least as a black American, my parents and grandparents lived the legacy he's leveraging here for validation. His own history/family legacy as an immigrant/African is rich and important too. Why didn't he choose to talk about that? It was odd.
