President Obama on Blackness

President Barack Obama speaks during the commencement ceremony for Howard University in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2016.  SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images (www.theroot.com)

On May 7th, 2016, President Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at Howard University, one of the nation's Historically Black Colleges. President Obama gave encouraging words to the class, stating that the world is much better today than when he graduated from college in the 1980s. He also offered advice on how young leaders can shape their future and bend it in the direction of justice. These statements come after the past couple of years have demonstrated a disproportionate use of excessive force by police officers directed at young men of color in the U.S. and the protests and rallies that erupted following these incidents. The most controversial part of President Obama's speech came when he told the graduates to "be confident in your heritage. Be confident in your blackness. One of the great changes that's occurred in our country since I was your age is the realization there's no one way to be black."  He went on to talk about how in the past couple of months he has had lunch with the Queen of England and hosted Kendrick Lamar (popular hip-hop artist) in the Oval Office. People have criticized these remarks, suggesting that the President ought to be more inclusive with the words he uses and not give so much credit to race, which is a characteristic that people do not choose, but are born with. Critics say that Obama ought to use more inclusive language. I certainly agree that President ought to use inclusive language and in this speech and many others he does. However,  given the history of injustices directed at minority groups in the US and around the world and the more recent rhetoric used in politics, unequal incarceration of minorities in the criminal justice system, and prejudices that exist which have been highlighted by cases of excessive force (often lethal) by police officers disproportionately directed at minorities, I think that Obama is correct in encouraging graduates of one of the premier Historically Black Colleges in the U.S. to be confident in their blackness. Not to feel superior because of their blackness, not make decisions based on race or ethnicity, but to be confident. This is a message that many young African-Americans need to hear and I am proud that the President of the United States of America was the one to say it.