Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia is the premier element in the historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) constellation in America, of which there are 107.
Since 1867, Morehouse College for men has been a beacon of academic excellence and leadership development. Its mission statement calls for the education and empowerment of African American men, and it boasts a history of producing leaders who shape the world, according to its website.
In 2013 then-President Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at Morehouse and spoke to these ideals. He challenged the graduates to overcome any challenges they might have or think they have.
“Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you’ve gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured—and they overcame them. And if they overcame them, you can overcome them,” Mr. Obama told the audience.
Uplifting. Inspiring. Encouraging.
If one thought that Mr. Obama’s Vice President, now President Joe Biden, might share that insight, that would be a thought widely misplaced.
At the 2024 Morehouse College commencement ceremony, President Biden reached into his bag of racism, victimhood, and identify politics to address this year’s graduates.
Mr. Biden stood behind the podium and looked into a sea of helpless, black victims, who had no chance in life. He saw no future leaders with the prospect of shaping the world: he saw an audience of black victims who should understand that America hates them and they have no future.
“You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you. What is democracy if black men are being killed in the street?”
Many pundits, on the left and right, were left scratching their heads wondering whatever happened to “hope and change”?
Like his SOTU speech, one of the most angry, loud, and mean-spirited deliveries in the SOTU history, Mr. Biden spoke to an audience to inspire fear, not hope.
Mr. Biden had to do so since his poll numbers among Black males are hemorrhaging in favor of his political opponent, former President Donald Trump. And just like the socialist Democrats threatened the Black community in 2012 that then GOP nominee Mitt Romney would “put them in chains and drag them behind a truck,” they have only fear to try to stop that migration.
No wonder, then, that Mr. Biden’s Morehouse address was worthy only as an acceptance speech for a nomination for president at a Democratic National Convention and, like most other socialist-Democrats, his is a vision of an America where identity politics defines “democracy.”
Mr. Biden embarrassed not only himself, the socialist Democrats (assuming they have a concept of shame), and Morehouse, but the nation as a whole.
He wasted an opportunity to inspire with a message that is more hopeful and an honest reflection of the country where those graduates live and seek to make their way in life, maybe even shape that country for the better.
As Rafael A. Mangual, of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, recently wrote:
“Of course, it’s hard to sell yourself as a savior to a group without first convincing its members that they need saving. Biden’s problem is that he’s telling a group of people standing in knee-deep water that they’re drowning…[and] fewer of them are buying what he’s selling. Now that’s a sign of hope and change — one that even may help detoxify American politics in elections to come.”
Telling college graduates that their country has no use for them is appalling, as well as cruel and mean-spirited.
Our country — and our children — deserve better than this.
Gary Wisenbaker, a REALTOR® with Century21 Realty Advisors in Valdosta, can be reached at (912-713-2553) or gwisenbaker@C21realtyadvisors.com