On Wednesday evening, Elon University effectively kicked off its Winter Term celebration of diversity with the MLK Commemorative Keynote, delivered by Melissa Harris-Perry. This much anticipated event left McCrary Theater teeming with students, faculty, staff and community members, eager to hear what the thought leader and author had to say. Harris-Perry’s self-titled weekend show on MSNBC dissects news and popular culture through a social and political science lens. A self-described academic, Harris-Perry presents her show much like an educational course, offering an online syllabus for each episode. This may be due, in part, to the fact that Harris-Perry admits she “never left” college – she is now in her second year as a politics and international affairs professor at her alma mater, Wake Forest University. |
Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.
She certainly showed her professor chops at Wednesday evening’s keynote.
Harris-Perry began her talk with a couple of disclaimers: “I have too many slides,” and a trigger warning though “I know they’ve been mocked lately.” With or without the disclaimers, she had the audience in the palm of her hand.
She began by quoting Maya Angelou – the late poet, Wake Forest faculty member, Elon convocation alumna (fall 2013) and Harris-Perry’s mentor: "Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently."
MHP followed it with a quotable statement of her own: “You can be honest, but not consistently honest, unless you are courageous.”
To conclude her introduction, she vowed not to start with Martin Luther King, Jr., but to end with him.
Harris-Perry began her talk with a couple of disclaimers: “I have too many slides,” and a trigger warning though “I know they’ve been mocked lately.” With or without the disclaimers, she had the audience in the palm of her hand.
She began by quoting Maya Angelou – the late poet, Wake Forest faculty member, Elon convocation alumna (fall 2013) and Harris-Perry’s mentor: "Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently."
MHP followed it with a quotable statement of her own: “You can be honest, but not consistently honest, unless you are courageous.”
To conclude her introduction, she vowed not to start with Martin Luther King, Jr., but to end with him.
You can be honest, but not consistently honest, unless you are courageous.
Immediately, she dove into the build-up of her keynote, describing all the things she noticed and loved about Elon, all the realities of the university that made it great. Then she honed in on the class of 2016, those who will graduate from Elon (but not “Under the Oaks”) on May 21. For the rest of the keynote, she would chart the course of this class’s coming of political and social age.
Say Their Names
Harris-Perry began in 2008 with the election of President Obama, when ’16 was too young to vote, but could see the unprecedented influence of young people.
She then moved into 2009, with the unlawful arrest of Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, a Harvard professor who was apprehended for trying to get into his own home, having forgotten his key. She noted that this was the first controversial, race-related case of President Obama’s first term. It was clear the police had acted incorrectly, hastily and, as Obama put it, “stupidly.” Harris-Perry noted that it was almost comical to her at the time that Gates was arrested. Little did anyone know, she said, the unlawful arrest and unthinkable mistreatment of “Black bodies” would underscore Obama’s presidency and, therefore, the coming of age of the class of 2016.
In a sobering list, Harris-Perry proceeded to chronicle the most high-profile cases of tragic violence against Black bodies from 2009 to now:
#TroyDavis
#TrayvonMartin
#HadiyaPendleton
#MiriamCarey
#RenishaMcBride
#JohnCrawford
#EricGarner
#AkaiGurley
#TamirRice
#WalterScott
#EricHarris
#SandraBland
#LaquanMcDonald
#QuintonioLeGrier
#BettieJones
Dropping the Mic
In the climax of her keynote, Harris-Perry explained, using a single term, the mistreatment of Black, brown, female, transgender, queer, immigrant, and other bodies society may deem problematic.
She called it “ontological Blackness,” the act of making oneself “the least of these.” She went on to explain that while all humans experience problems, “Blackness is not having a problem, it is being perceived as a problem. When we say, ‘Black lives matter,’ we really mean problematic or marginalized lives matter.”
Say Their Names
Harris-Perry began in 2008 with the election of President Obama, when ’16 was too young to vote, but could see the unprecedented influence of young people.
She then moved into 2009, with the unlawful arrest of Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, a Harvard professor who was apprehended for trying to get into his own home, having forgotten his key. She noted that this was the first controversial, race-related case of President Obama’s first term. It was clear the police had acted incorrectly, hastily and, as Obama put it, “stupidly.” Harris-Perry noted that it was almost comical to her at the time that Gates was arrested. Little did anyone know, she said, the unlawful arrest and unthinkable mistreatment of “Black bodies” would underscore Obama’s presidency and, therefore, the coming of age of the class of 2016.
In a sobering list, Harris-Perry proceeded to chronicle the most high-profile cases of tragic violence against Black bodies from 2009 to now:
#TroyDavis
#TrayvonMartin
#HadiyaPendleton
#MiriamCarey
#RenishaMcBride
#JohnCrawford
#EricGarner
#AkaiGurley
#TamirRice
#WalterScott
#EricHarris
#SandraBland
#LaquanMcDonald
#QuintonioLeGrier
#BettieJones
Dropping the Mic
In the climax of her keynote, Harris-Perry explained, using a single term, the mistreatment of Black, brown, female, transgender, queer, immigrant, and other bodies society may deem problematic.
She called it “ontological Blackness,” the act of making oneself “the least of these.” She went on to explain that while all humans experience problems, “Blackness is not having a problem, it is being perceived as a problem. When we say, ‘Black lives matter,’ we really mean problematic or marginalized lives matter.”
Ontological Blackness (n): the act of making oneself the least of these.
The class of 2016, Harris-Perry says, came of age in a time when ontological Blackness was both publicly threatened and eloquently defended on a regular basis. She cited the SAE controversy, blackface college parties and the senseless attack of Martese Johnson on the one hand, then viral whiteboard campaigns like #itooamHarvard on the other. According to Harris-Perry, these are the all too familiar realities that have underscored the young adulthood of the class of 2016. Her question for the audience: what will we (college students, faculty and staff) learn from this world?
Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
Her answer: “College is supposed to be hard,” she said. “If no one ever said something you didn’t agree with, your college has failed you. But college is supposed to challenge you, it is not supposed to harm you.”
Harris-Perry underscored this approach, as promised, with King’s words, “almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
She ended with her own words, inspired by Angelou, “do not be afraid, because courage is the most important virtue of them all.”
Once again, Melissa Harris-Perry has delivered a thoughtful and thought-provoking lecture to her pupils – this time at Elon. This time, it seems, specially crafted for the class of 2016.
Harris-Perry underscored this approach, as promised, with King’s words, “almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
She ended with her own words, inspired by Angelou, “do not be afraid, because courage is the most important virtue of them all.”
Once again, Melissa Harris-Perry has delivered a thoughtful and thought-provoking lecture to her pupils – this time at Elon. This time, it seems, specially crafted for the class of 2016.
College is supposed to be hard. But college is supposed to challenge you, it is not supposed to harm you.