pandemic and a terrible recession the timing is not ideal and let's be honest

a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra

burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country.

We see it in the disproportionate impact of covid 19 on our communities

just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog and some folks

feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn't submit to their

questioning.

Injustice like this isn't new.

What is new is that so much of your generation has woken up to the fact

that the status quo needs fixing, that the old ways of doing things don't wor

and then it doesn't matter how much money you make if everyone

around you is hungry and sick,

that our society and our democracy only works when we think

not just about ourselves

but about each other.

More than anything this pandemic is fully finally torn back

the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're

doing a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge if the world

is going to get better it's gonna be up to you with everything suddenly feeling

like it's up for grabs this is your time to seize the initiative meaningful

change requires allies in common cause as African Americans we are particularly

attuned to injustice inequality and struggle but that also should make us

more alive to the experiences of others who've been left out and discriminated

against so rather than just say what's in it for me

or what's in it for my community and to heck with everyone else stand up for and

join up with everyone who's struggling whether it's immigrants refugees the

rural poor the LGBT community low-income workers of every background

women who so often are subject to their own discrimination and burdens and not

getting equal pay for equal work look out for folks whether they are

white or black or Asian or Latino or Native American as Fannie Lou Hamer once

said nobody's free until everybody's free you're the folks we've been waiting

for to come along that's the power you hold the power to shine brightly for

justice and for equality and for joy you've earned your degree it's now up to

you to use it so many of us believe in you I'm so proud of you and as you set

out to change the world we'll be the wind at your back so

congratulations class of 2020 god bless all of you