President Biden addressed the Morehouse College commencement last weekend. Morehouse, an historically Black college celebrating its 140th commencement, has a proud tradition of graduating the best of the best in the African American community. The president was received respectfully by the graduates. Some protested his Gaza policies by turning their backs or leaving the ceremony, but even the protesters showed respect for the occasion and the president.
Biden’s eloquent address paid tribute to the graduates and their families and the sacrifices they made to make the moment possible. He described his commitment to racial equality and to living up to the values of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, whose busts grace the Oval Office. He briefly summarized some of the achievements of his first term: the highest Black employment in history, lowest levels of Black childhood poverty ever, new initiatives to remove lead paint from pipes, to connect urban neighborhoods purposefully divided by highways decades ago, the appointment of more African American justices than any president in history. He noted the high level of business startups, progress in reducing student debt, his administration’s investment in historically Black colleges and universities, and efforts to make health insurance and prescription drugs more affordable.
President Biden also warned (rightly) about the dangers of “old ghosts in new garments,” summarizing the threat posed by the new reaction (while not mentioning Trump by name). He noted the efforts to make voting more difficult, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the insurrectionists waving confederate flags who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, the venomous rhetoric that accuses immigrants of “poisoning the blood” of the country, the campaigns to ban books, distort history, strike down affirmative action and attack the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I was struck, however, by what was missing in the speech. President Biden addressed the horror in Gaza, noting his efforts to get a ceasefire and a lasting peace. Yet there was no mention of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world in the Sudan, where civil war and genocide have left half the population in need, with 8 million forced to flee their homes, the largest displacement in the world. Compared to Gaza, the crisis in Sudan gets little attention, in part because of the US arms Israel and in part because it does little to address the horror in the Sudan. Similarly, there was no mention of the crisis in Haiti, closer to our shores, where some 3 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Eighty percent of the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, is now under gang control. Over a thousand schools have been closed because of violence, leaving half a million children unable to go to school. The US, which has intervened in Haiti often to suppress democracy, seems clueless on how to save it.
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