Social media buzzing over Harvard grad’s spoken-word speech
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. >>Social media is buzzing over a Harvard graduate’s poetic commencement speech, which has garnered millions of views and the attention of celebrities.
Donovan Livingston, who received his master’s degree in education, addressed his classmates Wednesday with a spoken-word poem outlining the historic obstacles that have prevented African-Americans from getting an education.
The speech begins with a quote by education reformer Horace Mann and references influential African-Americans including poet Langston Hughes and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
The Harvard Graduate School of Education posted a video of Livingston’s speech on Facebook, saying it was “One of the most powerful, heartfelt student speeches you will ever hear!”
More than 8 million have viewed the video, including superstar Justin Timberlake, who shared it on Facebook, adding the caption: “You don’t feel inspired?? Here you go.”
33 responses to “Social media buzzing over Harvard grad’s spoken-word speech”
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Wha gwan Harvard– Holumua Livingston!!!
Says the guy who probably got a free education. Please do a follow up story as to what inner city school he’s teaching at to enlighten and free the oppressed.
I agree. Instead do a full section on this guy complete with color photos. We need more inspiration from the likes of Mr. Livingston and less from desecration from the likes of Mr. dontbelieveinmyths.
You imbecile, at the most elite schools, most seats for admission are not offered unless accompanied by a full academic fellowship. But of course you would not have any knowledge or insight to that upper margin of academia, as you are a first rate pillock simp. Thus begs the question, to which vocational institution did you graduate, or in your case, do you apply your janitorial skills?
Do you have a problem with those that may not have the highest level of education? Janitors are some of the most intelligent, conscientious, hard working people I know. They are not afraid to get their hands dirty, and do the tasks that most shutter simply at the thought of doing such “menial work”.
I think you are the imbecile. I’m talking about a black guy who is a success and yet rants about how they are still in chains. My goodness, we have a sitting black president and countless other successful people of color, who have made it in today’s world. If you want this world to be color blind, then stop playing the race card at every opportunity. I am in no way putting down Mr. Livingston. I applaud him. However, instead taking jabs at race, his message should be that hard work and perseverance is key to making it. My last statement in the previous post stands. Go into the schools that need him the most and make a difference. Talk the talk, walk the walk.
Ahhhhh,you threw the first race card with the “free”education and inner city stereotype (or Bluetooth)comment. Everyone saw it.
I stand by my original comment– pillock. If you think race is still not an issue, you are either woefully naive and/or part of the existing pigment of the status quo. Moreover, as to your point about how he should be giving back, per your putative moral instruction— here is the title of his last position–Academic Advisor, Upward Bound – TRiO Programs – Carolina Higher Education Opportunity Program. Thus defeating your point all-together, he was along elevating and nurturing those underserved communities from the get go…..
As to the notion that race does not, or no longer matters–I submit the following:
Every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of poverty generates levels of despair that deepen social conflict the escalation of paranoia produces levels of distrust that reinforce cultural division. Race is the most explosive issue in American life precisely because it forces us to confront the tragic facts of poverty and paranoia despair, and distrust. In short, a candid examination of race matters takes us to the core of the crisis of American democRacy.
So tired of the race/class/gender victimization hustlers (looking at you boolkahana) who can’t see the massive, knee deep irony of a black student commencement speaker at Harvard holding forth on racial oppression. You’re nothing more than the Black Lives Matter mentality with a thesaurus.
Enough of your BS. Quantify/prove your point, or just shut up. Explain why the black community isn’t addressing its own problems–horrible graduation rates, phenomenal crime rates, and an apocalyptic percentage of single parent families. And while you’re at it, explain why African blacks, Nigerians for example, succeed at notable rates or why penniless asians come immigrate then find themselves in the top income and educational quintiles.
To say that ALL of these problems are created by external racism is not even remotely rational.
Prove my point Winston? How about this….this is a common example of why race matters, last year Emma Stone starred in a role of a dreadful movie, she played a character that was supposedly 1/4 Chinese and 1/4 Hawaiian, and to boot her last name was Ng. Have you ever seen Ms Stone, she is as fair as they come and a red head.
Winston, I could outhink on the day after my lobotomy. Every mainstream economist, every major think-tank, from the IMF to the World Bank, will say there are direction correlations and causations between the economy and race.a new report from the Pew Research Centre which found that the wealth gap deepened following the financial crisis. The ratio of median white to black wealth is at its highest level in 24 years. That’s because minorities were more affected by the housing bubble. Its inflation disproportionately boosted black minority wealth as minority homeownership rates rose. According to the Survey of Consumer Finances, between 2001 and 2007 the percent of non-whites and Hispanics who claimed their primary home as an asset increased from 47% to 52%. The figure among whites barely moved from 74% to 75.6%. Minorities also seemed more vulnerable to volatile housing prices. The average value of minority-owned primary homes increased 70% in this period, while it only increased 40% for whites. The Pew Centre points out that this may be because Hispanics are more heavily concentrated in California, Florida and Nevada—bubble hotspots. Minority wealth was especially sensitive to the housing bubble because housing is often the primary asset for non-white households.
Another thing that jumped out at me from the Survey of Consumer of Finances is the difference in education loans. From 1989 to 2007 the mean value of education debt for a minority household increased more than 200% while it only increased 130% for white households. Minority households also became more likely to have education debt. This is not surprising; minority households have less wealth to begin with so they need to take on more debt to finance their own or their children’s education. Rising education debt could be viewed as a positive sign, to the extent that it implies an increase in educational attainment among minorities; education is our best hope, over the long run, to eliminate disparities in wealth and income. On the other hand, more debt needn’t translate into greater attainment. I can’t tell from the survey when education loans resulted in an actual degree and when the student dropped out before finishing and had nothing to show but more debt.
Now, come back with an answer you poor excuse for a deviated septum..
Winston, I take it you are not a great reader of books or research. Specifically, let’s take Asians for example —
The term “bamboo ceiling” was coined by Jane Hyun in her book focusing on Asians in the workplace, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians. It is defined as a combination of individual, cultural, and organisational factors that impede Asian Americans’ career progress inside organizations. Since then, a variety of sectors (including nonprofits, universities, the government) have discussed the impact of the ceiling as it relates to people of Asian descent and the challenges they face. As described by a senior writer at Fortune magazine, “bamboo ceiling” refers to the processes and barriers that serve to exclude Asians and American people of Asian descent from executive positions on the basis of subjective factors such as “lack of leadership potential” and “lack of communication skills” that cannot actually be explained by job performance or qualifications. Articles regarding the subject have been written in Crains, Fortune magazine, and the Atlantic and Forbes all in this past year. So, you’re saying, you have greater insight or intellect than these respected journals??
The term is a derivative of the glass ceiling, which refers to the more general metaphor used to describe invisible barriers through which women and minorities can see managerial positions, but cannot reach them.
Based on publicly available government statistics, Asian Americans have the lowest —yes the LOWEST chance of rising to management when compared with blacks, Hispanics and women in spite of having the highest educational attainment. When it came to in terms of adding gender into the evaluation of the Bamboo ceiling it was revealed that Asian American women faced higher rates of promotion discrimination than Asian American men, and Asian American women faced a pay equity discrimination in comparison to payment with Asian American men.
Boolkahana (Choyd, is that you? Same defective mode of thinking. Must be Choyd)
Regarding your points (??).
Emma Stone: It’s a fre@king anecdote! Means nothing, especially when the overwhelmingly liberal nature of Hollywood is considered.
Wealth gap expanded by the economic crisis is some how racially motivated: Lost me there pal. You imply some white racists conspiracy at the core of an economic collapse relatively few saw coming. Quite a conspiracy theory—if you’re nuts and can’t think
Housing bubble bust was somehow racists because blacks may have been disproportionately affected: So sorry, but you apparently can’t think. The bubble rested on subprime loans. Why so many blacks impacted? Because the federal government pushed subprime loan quotas on banks, that’s why. Why did they do that? To end redlining (banks limiting loans in minority areas) and expand home ownership—Unfortunately, this government “help” resulted in minorities (and many whites) having loans they could not repay. To assign this is as racism is just plain $tupid. If anything, it was an ill conceived racial entitlement which backfired.
Blacks have more education debt than whites, so racism: Too illogical to even discuss. As though an over willingness to loan money to black students is backed by evil intent. Wrong/mistaken, but not racism, again.
Asian ceiling in business: Could be, but that wasn’t my argument. My point is that Asian immigrants come here with NOTHING, as do Nigerians, and move to the top of the income spectrum. Asian households earn an average of $75K/year, white families average $57K/year. Why does skin color keep African-Americans from prospering when minority skin color doesn’t seem to matter to immigrants? By your lame logic, this would clearly point to prejudice against whites.
To sum up your posts amount to a grab bag of illogical, falsely correlated junk which makes the black lives matter protesters almost look rational.
Is that so- my points are derived from the following sources: Harvard and Yale Business Reviews, Wall Street Journal, the Economist and the Financial Times.
Again, you dribble on without data cities and or developing empirical evidence to establish causation on your meandering platitudes….
“..my points are derived from the following sources: Harvard and Yale Business Reviews, Wall Street Journal, the Economist and the Financial Times.”
Your source doesn’t matter. The information you provided doesn’t support your charge of racism.
Hey boola. The Ivy League sh#theads got us into this mess. Can they get us out?
What mess? Last, I looked my net worth more than doubled in the last 7 years. Sorry, you don’t hold large equity positions in the market??? Yeah–I didn’t think so…keep on investing in hew haw and tobacco juice….
I know you are just wonderful but we aren’t talking about you. You can do that all by yourself. So I ask again can they get us out? My net worth and investments are doing fine. Thanks for asking.
Why don’t you put on your thinking cap, if you have one, and confront these facts:
Summary
Since President Barack Obama first took office:
Homicides have dropped 13 percent, but gun sales have surged.
The economy has added more than 9 million jobs, and the jobless rate has dropped to below the historical median.
The number of long-term unemployed Americans has dropped by 614,000 under Obama,
Corporate profits are up 166 percent; real weekly wages are up 3.4 percent.
There are 15 million fewer people who lack health insurance.
Wind and solar power have nearly tripled, and now account for more than 5 percent of U.S. electricity.
Hey boola..You missed the last item of your copy and paste. “The federal debt has more than doubled — rising 116 percent — and big annual deficits have continued.” Case closed. Mess, mess, mess.
Any economist will tell you–
Bottom Line: It’s not fair to blame the debt situation on Obama, singularly because the debt numerically went up more than it did under Bush. Bush inherited a booming economy at the time of his inauguration, but his handling of many events left the country absolutely devastated; Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 (two unnecessary wars), and the looming recession. Obama inherited a country that couldn’t go further down, in one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. He had to live with the Bush tax cuts for 2 years, and two long, brutal wars for 2 after that.
Bush’s rate of rise was slower, he nearly doubled the US debt ( 86% ) compared to Obama ( 49% ).
The light bulb in your brain is probably as strong as that of any other person. But you do know that you need to flip the switch ON to make it shine, right?
Caption of this poetic speech would have been a golden treasure for the hearing impaired!
Livingston now plans to support his wife Lauren as she enters her second year of medical school at Wake Forest University and start his PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro this fall.
It makes sense for the son of two educators: His father is a retired principal and his mother is a speech pathologist, working with special needs students.
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/graduation-speech-harvard-calling-powerful-youll-hear/story?id=39427065
(Aw shucks, I’m trying not to be grumpy but perhaps I’ve been listening to too many old George Carlin clips. (and of course, I applaud this young man’s accomplishments) The headline once again seems quite clumsy. I was trying really hard to imagine a commencement address that is not a “spoken-word speech” and the only possibility I could come up with is at Gallaudet University.)
Such an eloquently divisive speech. We may be looking at a future president!
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Winner!: Best two sentence summation award.
Loud and clear. Trump 2016 We don’t need multiple paragraphs. Short and to the point.
Go racist/bigot
You would know everything about it….looking in the mirror every morning.
Weak
Weak is your brain, intellect and I’m guessing your steel as a man.