awesome so for this presentation I want
to make a talk about why each and every
one of you in this room can be an
activist and change Hopkins for the
better so before I start I’m going to
throw back to kindergarten I don’t know
if you guys remember that far but do
y’all remember how in preschool a kid
would steal your juice box or push you
down the slide and the very first thing
you would do is run to the teacher do
you remember how you would stomp your
foot so adamantly until you thought you
got your justice well if you don’t I
definitely do you can ask my mom there
was not a day in kindergarten that I was
not complaining about some perceived
injustice that I thought I was getting
and judging by my memory most of you all
were probably the same because we are
all born with such a strong sense of
justice no one is born wanting to be
disrespected but as time progresses
society begins to unravel our desire for
equity suddenly bad things happen to us
we get disrespected instead of being
that kid stomping in the corner asking
for justice we become the other kid the
one sitting in the corner is being
silent counting the minutes until their
parent picks them up and this is
something that I see it Hopkins all the
time every day I see my amazing peers
here people who are literally going to
change the world you guys are kind of
changed the world and I see you guys
accept situations instructors that
debase your integrity and it breaks my
heart it really really does and I
haven’t been a flaming social justice
warrior all my life like I didn’t do
activism at all in my cave through 12
years in fact there was a time in my
life where I was almost a black
Republican and I say that I say that now
I feel it now because I’ve recovered
thank God but oh whoops my bad
but I mean to say that in a sense that I
I was not annotating the Autobiography
of Malcolm X in kindergarten and
everyone thinks you have to have done
that to make change but that’s not true
you just have to want to make the world
a better place ok um so Hopkins my high
school environment was radically
different from Hopkins I came from a
very liberal County a very progressive
County I have been around people of all
races ethnicities orientations all my
entire life so I’ve grown up kind of
knowing how to respect people and how to
treat people with dignity and coming to
Hopkins was kind of a culture shock
because it was one of the first times I
realized that I was going to be around
people who hadn’t been raised that way i
was going to face racism here I was
going to face sexes in here and I was
going to learn how to deal with it I
remember coming to Hopkins and this
being such a culture shock for me this
was such a radically different place for
me and I almost thought I didn’t know
how I was gonna make it I remember one
of the most jarring episodes of my life
was freshman year this boy in my dorm he
he posted on Facebook that he thought
black girls were ugly and my first
instinct was that he’d been hacked I was
like no he had gotten some virus like
some like something else was going on
because I couldn’t believe that someone
who lived just a couple doors away from
me could spew something so hateful I
remember orientation week my friends had
said that they’d gotten spin on outside
of a frat party and my first instinct
was no they must have misconstrued the
situation this couldn’t have happened
because I didn’t want to believe racism
like that could still happen at Hopkins
but I had to and the difference is that
racism comes in so many different forms
and ways there’s systemic racism and
there’s personal racism systemic racism
permeates every aspect of American
culture but it’s so easy to ignore it
you can turn off your TV you can stop
watching the news you can avoid making
eye contact with the homeless person on
the street you can pretend that it
doesn’t exist but when you get something
personal with someone says something to
you or does something to you that
becomes embedded in your bones and
that’s something you cannot
forget you just can’t forget so about
this time three years ago so about right
before thanksgiving break in my freshman
year I actually had a transfer
application to another school ready like
signs seals waiting to be delivered
because I thought I couldn’t make it at
Hopkins I wanted to leave and go back to
an environment that was more like where
I came from and I thought leaving was
going to be the cure for that but as you
can see I’m standing right in front of
you guys because I realized that wasn’t
the truth see I had gotten a bitter
taste of reality at Hopkins but it was
reality there was no other institution
in this world I could run to where
things would be glossy and happy if
there was a school in this world where
there was no racism or sexism or
homophobia transphobia we would all
transfer there in a heartbeat but it
doesn’t exist so in the meantime we have
to work on dismantling those structures
in our own institutions so I decided
that I was going to stay and the
question began now what was I going to
do in my time here I could just stay in
Brody study be quiet have a calendar
marking down the dates until my
graduation but I couldn’t do that I
would have been unhappy I’d have been
miserable I would have hated this place
so i decided that i was going to do what
I could to try and make this place
better for students from marginalized
populations and to the ways I did that
was won by joining the Black Student
Union and to by taking classes with dr.
Floyd Hayes so my sophomore year I
joined the Executive Board the Black
Student Union which is an organization
i’m still very proud to be a part of and
i remember one of the most monumental
things that happen was we had a VP who
she sent an email of her grievances
directly to president Daniels and I
remember thinking what are she doing you
you can’t just email the president and
she did she was like is he human I said
yes she’s like does he get email
notifications she said yes can he answer
them the answer is yes he can and it
taught me that if someone is doing
something indirectly or directly that
affects you it doesn’t matter what their
pay grade is what their role is where
they come from you can tell them what
they’re doing is wrong and one thing
I’ve learned at Hopkins is if you make
your voice large enough people will be
willing to listen and another thing that
I really loved about
use I’ve been able to work with the
group of students on my exec board who
care so deeply about making Hopkins a
better place and I feel like at Hopkins
there’s that apathy and so just being
around people who want to make it better
it’s just very intoxicating and very
very something I’m so thankful and
blessed to have had the second thing I
did was take classes with dr. Floyd
Hayes and anyone who’s taken a class
with Hayes can tell you it’s literally
life-changing he’s just such an
enigmatic person et to do so much about
the history of society and culture and
something he always stressed to us was
the power that college teams have and
how there are so many structures in our
institutions that would not be here if
our predecessors hadn’t paved the way
for that so I went out to everyone a
question raise your hand if you’ve ever
been to Office of Multicultural Affairs
okay that’s a lot of you okay awesome oh
yeah that’s the second question raise
your hand if you knew that that building
on thirtieth Street was built in 2006
because a predominantly white fraternity
on hopkins through a racist themed
halloween in the hood party and the
students of color at the time banded
together protests and demanded a safe
space minorities on campus yeah see only
like three people knew that and people
always like i said before people always
wanted Hopkins is a pathetic but just
ten years ago students were like no this
is not right I’m going to do something
to make a change and now for me I
couldn’t imagine Hopkins without OMA and
I feel like a lot of people raise their
hands probably couldn’t have and I hear
people talk about wanting a woman’s
Center an LGBTQ Center well if enough of
you guys band together and say this is
what we want and talk to administration
it can actually actually happen and I
think that’s a power that a lot of us
forget we have but we all do contain now
when I think of activism I think the
most core aspect of it is the
realization that if you are breathing
your human being and that means you
deserve respect in every aspect of your
life that means that no one has the
right to ever place limitations on your
achievement no one has the right to ever
invalidate aspects of your identity
nobody has the right to dehumanize you
in any capacity when I really learned
that when I really embedded that into my
life into my lifestyle it
change the way interacted with other
people it changed the way I react to
situations I remember one day just
looking in the mirror and saying look
I’m Nigerian I’m black I’m a woman I’m
Christian my hair is not straight my
laugh is really loud and that’s who I am
and that’s not going to change but more
importantly I don’t want it to change in
a society we’re loving yourself in an
authentic way unfiltered way it’s
radical fighting for your rights makes
you a radical and that’s okay it’s okay
to love yourself so much you will not
accept any disrespect for yourself or
the community you belong to that’s a
really beautiful thing to have and a lot
of people want to say that to be an
activist you need to know how to speak
loudly or right well you need to be
Martin Luther King or Malcolm X and
that’s a lie literally anyone can be an
activist like I told you from my
background I was far far different from
who I am and the reason I say this
because a lot of you guys I feel like
had similar backgrounds I don’t know how
many be freshman feel but I know in my
year many people felt lost at Hopkins
felt like they didn’t belong wanted to
transfer and what I want to say is that
those feelings are valid but if
something upsets you you cannot accept
the status quo you have to go out you
have to seek change because you deserve
to have a great time of this institution
you all pay tuition you deserve to be
happy here and that’s something that
everyone really needs to hammer down and
even if you are not a part of a
marginalized population maybe you’re a
rich white male whose dad plays golf
with Bill Gates you can still be an
activist you can be an ally you can be a
voice that conservative media’s won’t
show you can donate that Bill Gates
money people who need it like you can do
so so much to help so don’t ever feel
like because of where you came from or
if you had privileged you can’t make a
change and a lot of people ask well I
don’t know what to do I don’t know where
to get started and I’m like we are in
baltimore there is so much pain in this
city but there’s so many ways you can
help and it doesn’t matter who you are
or what you do if you’re pre-med go
volunteer at a clinic where people skip
lunch for two weeks so they can afford
their co-pays if you’re a business major
make
a startup that donates money to starving
kids in Africa and Asia but also the
starving kids down the street no
starving kids of some of the workers who
protect us of cook our food if you’re an
art history major teach art classes to
kids in Baltimore because Baltimore City
always has money to build a juvenile
detention center but doesn’t have money
to give kids art supplies which is
inhumane that’s what I’m saying is
figure out what you want to do figure
out a way you can do it if it’s
volunteering do that if it’s
letter-writing do that if it’s burning
down Brody do that just figure out what
works for you college is the last okay
also don’t don’t print out Brody I need
to graduate guys I need to graduate um
so college this is the last step before
the real world how we navigate this
space is going to largely dictate how we
navigate the rest of our lives and we
are always going to be in situations
where people are not giving us the
respect we deserve we are always going
to see populations that are not going to
get the respect they deserve and we just
cannot be I pathetic everyone here if
you’re getting a degree from here you
have a moral obligation to try and make
this place a better place because you
are very lucky there are millions of
kids in Baltimore who would kill to have
been born of the opportunities you guys
have now so you have to get out there
when you are being disrespected or you
see other people being disrespected you
have to return to your kindergarten self
you have to be that pesky annoying kid
whose stomping and storming and being a
pain in the behind until they get the
fair treatment that they damn well
deserve thank you [Applause]