Washington – President Obama went to Howard University on Saturday, and made a speech at the graduation ceremony of the class of 2016. The objective was to give a hopeful vision of the race relations in the country.
He said that these relations have improved over the last three decades. He added that passion and outrage is a good thing, but strategy and thinking are necessary to succeed. He says that there is still a lot of work to do.
Howard University is a historically black college, which is why President Obama decided to go there and give a speech to try to channel the graduates’ passion into action.
He said, in his statement, the strategies and plans better include voting because, according to the President, when people do not vote, they are giving away their power. He also added that America is better today than it was when he graduated from college.
Nonetheless, Obama told the 2,300 Howard University graduates that racism and inequality still persist.
President Obama listed many ways in which the world has improved since he was in college. He said that in 1983, crime was a problem in the cities and the economy was bad. He said that nowadays things have changed, even though there are still some issues between African Americans and white people, in the education, employment, and gender.
The President said that he was proud of the work done by the black Civil Rights leaders, including activists from the Black Lives Matter Movement.
“This institution has been the home of many firsts, the first African American Nobel Peace Prize winner, the first black Supreme Court Justice, but its mission has been to ensure those firsts were not the last,” Obama said.
President Obama is the son of a white mother and African father and told the graduates to be proud of their racial identity. He told them to be confident and embrace it.
Source: The New York Times