today I’m going to be talking about
something that I’m sure that you’ve all
experienced or heard about and that is
stereotypes imagine walking into a
clothing store to do some shopping
you’ve been here a thousand times before
with your family and friends and never
had an issue you have plenty of cash in
your credit card and have no reason to
feel uncomfortable yet as you look
through the clothes for something that
catches your eye you get the
all-too-familiar feeling of someone
watching you you stand up and you see a
store employee quickly turning away from
you acting as if they weren’t monitoring
you as soon as you enter the store for
fear of unwanted theft let me present
you with another example you have to
deliver a presentation for your history
class on a certain topic the day the
project is due you wear a button-down in
khakis because you want to look
especially nice for your presentation
you get to school and you give your
exposition to the class fairly confident
in your preparation and your conveyance
of your topic despite your success you
feel as if something’s wrong the rest of
the day your classmates tease you about
acting white and dressing white many of
your friends even characterize your
diction as talking white because of how
intelligent you sounded these scenarios
and countless others like them are
resultant of one of the most powerful
and ubiquitous types of influence in our
society today stereotypes stereotypes
are everywhere and created for every
distinctive characteristic there is
religion gender socioeconomic status age
place of origin etc and arguably the
most divisive characteristic in our
society racial or ethnic background now
I’m sure that you’re all aware of the
importance of a first impression
according to recent studies it shows
that it takes approximately seven
seconds for someone to make an
impression of you in these seven seconds
people will ultimately make up their
mind about who you are and the kind of
relationship that you’re likely to have
with them but what you may not know is
that
stereotypes have a great effect on your
perceptions of others even if
unintentionally we create ideas about
who people are before we even get the
chance to meet them because of initial
misconceptions that we have about the
demographic that they belong to these
stereotypes are unstated all throughout
of sistah all throughout society and I
myself have experienced them in school
in the real world and in multiple other
situations now I’m sure that all of you
have some sort of some type of social
media snapchat Instagram Twitter and for
the older folks in the room Facebook and
even if you don’t have some type of
social media you likely use the Internet
play on the computer call others on your
phone you know you use electronics in
some sort of way and even though this
technological interconnectivity has
granted us so many new opportunities in
the real world
they have also contributed to the
reiteration and the development of
stereotypes against everyone in our
society no matter how flawless you or
others may deem you to be there are
stereotypes directed against you even if
you’re not aware of them now am I saying
that all stereotypes are negative of
course not
there are numerous positive stereotypes
as well as negative for nearly every
group within a population am I saying
that only young african-american men
have to cope with negative pre-existing
perceptions of themselves of course not
I’m sure that there are so many of you
who aren’t who also experience negative
stereotypes but I am an informed young
black man and the country of the United
States of America and it is my job to
inform you of what I know to be true and
what countless others are oblivious to
now I am constantly constantly
surrounded by other people in their
conflicting ideals about Who I am and
who I should be why do you act so white
why do you dress so white why do you
talk as if you’re white
you can all see me I’m clearly not white
I don’t understand why this continued
perception follows me everywhere I go
the idea that my intelligence my
demeanor my poise or the life that God’s
blessed me with and someone makes me
separate from my own identity that being
someone who is intelligent or ambitious
somehow is only identified as white that
being black and possessing these same
traits is inconceivable is insulting
ignorant and frankly instilled in the
minds of so many people in the United
States today the majority and minorities
now this idea of blackness has been has
been perpetuated through our society
since the early 1970s in the birth of
early modern rap and hip-hop the origins
of the genre of music was to talk about
the struggles in the real life
situations of blacks in America and a
creative outlet for a creative outlet
for the voices of a people now as time
has progressed the genre has become more
and more centered towards less redeeming
ideals
although hip-hop and rap aren’t the only
genres of music that black culture is
pioneered they are the culture that most
people affiliate they are the that is a
genre that most people affiliate black
culture with and as music has progressed
to today we have as you probably know
her lyrics and popular rap music that
don’t contain positive or affirming
messages but rather are centered towards
violence or sex or abusive substances
now I’m not saying that this transfer of
self-expression to demoralisation and
material goals materialistic goals is
absolute I mean there are numerous
rappers out there who still believe that
music can be used as a voice of a people
and the power of music itself one of my
personal favorites being Kendrick Lamar
this is way too crazy eh I do not know
maybe a hey Obama pays me a and you know
maybe a this is a grey poupon the
beyond that TED talk now unfortunately
artists such as Kendrick Lamar are
considered outliers in the hip-hop
industry today
now this over this overarching
identification of african-americans
through music has led to the
perpetuation of stereotypes against our
people a powerful powerful example of
how hip-hop music has of how hip-hop
music has affected the lives of multiple
many young black men in this country is
the United States prison system now only
12 to 13 percent of this in United
States is composed of African Americans
yet 37% of the 2.2 million men in the
United States prison system is composed
of black men according to the n-double
a-c-p approximately 1/3 of the 7 million
people in prison are African American
and the incarceration rate for blacks in
this country is nearly six times that of
whites well well you might be thinking
maybe African Americans commit more
crimes maybe that’s why the imprisonment
rate is so high well according to the
new york times sentencing sentencing for
nearly identical crimes and nearly
identical circumstances for a black man
and a white man is two to three times as
long for the african-american who
committed the crime than the white man
under the duration under the formula for
the duration of one sentence of a black
man and a white man score the same
number of points a black man is
sentenced to longer jail time in 60% of
felony cases 68% of first-degree crimes
and 45% of burglaries now I tell all of
you this why you may ask why it’s
important to us how can this affect us
well systemic racism is too broad of an
answer and neglects to a neglects to
address why it’s still so prevalent in
the justice system today well apart from
lack of representation in the courts and
when it comes to law the answer is that
the answer is that it’s created this
overarching identification of young
black men as criminals and society
that’s that’s society society’s
perception of us which takes away from
our opportunities and our abilities to
be successful in this we are in
proportion that we are
disproportionately imprisoned and
wrongly robbed of our lives which
doesn’t make any sense because we’re not
able to show what we’re capable of in
this world which everyone should have an
opportunity to do another common
misconception about young African
Americans is what we can and can’t do
when they go into the world who already
knows what they want to do when they
grow up you what do you want to do when
you grow up be a surgeon that’s
wonderful when you ask someone when you
ask someone in of African American
descent what they want to be many people
will expect them to say an athlete or an
actor and actress but few people expect
us to as a people to pursue something
intellectual or something that uses your
brain so I’m very glad that you said
surgeon I am a junior in high school and
a Miss Tudor leadership in school in
church and multiple nonprofit
organizations I aspire to pursue a
profession in international business
following graduate school who is the
world to tell me that I cannot achieve
that simply because of the color of my
skin in the world today we see so many
images of powerful black men and women
on television and in social media and
they depict us but we always seem to
follow a certain path in nearly all
situations we are actors we are
actresses but we’re athletes but where
is our representation in the world of
academia and knowledge there are so many
bright young black people in this
country and likely in this room who
would refuse to embrace their
intellectual curiosity rather to pursue
a more glorified path which is success
on the big screen or some athletic
endeavor I instead I instead encourage
you all to I instead encourage you all
to pursue your dreams no matter what you
look like no matter no matter what
gender you are
matter what race you are no matter what
category you may fall into because
success is not success is not contained
to a certain category of people if the
young african-american man says he wants
to be an engineer or a lawyer or
anything that uses his mind and caught
contrary to what society expects him to
pursue who are we to say that he cannot
achieve this it is our goal as society
to encourage him through determination
and perseverance to be able to achieve
anything that he wants to I’m sure that
you all have experienced misconceptions
about who you are and stereotypes about
who you are and I’m sure that not all of
them have been bad and you might have
experienced good ones as well but I am a
young african-american man and I am
constantly being monitored and watched I
am being watched to see if I trip up if
I make a mistake I’m watched to see if I
will fail because that’s what I am
expected to do but I will continue to
pursue my goals and nothing can deter me
from the task at hand I have I have so
many dreams and so many aspirations and
I refuse to let the color of my skin
impede my success stereotypes are away
stereotypes are away that society
creates opinions about who we are rather
than you getting the opportunity to
understand who people are themselves if
you have this bias within your mind you
couldn’t possibly understand how many
amazing people there are in the world
and the amazing opportunities for
relationships that you can build and so
I challenge you all to follow your dream
no matter what the circumstance is and I
challenge you to go out into the world
with a lack of bias and an open heart
and an open mind because you can develop
relationships no matter where you go and
who you talk to because the situation of
who someone is is never truly as simple
as black or white thank you
[Applause]
something that I’m sure that you’ve all
experienced or heard about and that is
stereotypes imagine walking into a
clothing store to do some shopping
you’ve been here a thousand times before
with your family and friends and never
had an issue you have plenty of cash in
your credit card and have no reason to
feel uncomfortable yet as you look
through the clothes for something that
catches your eye you get the
all-too-familiar feeling of someone
watching you you stand up and you see a
store employee quickly turning away from
you acting as if they weren’t monitoring
you as soon as you enter the store for
fear of unwanted theft let me present
you with another example you have to
deliver a presentation for your history
class on a certain topic the day the
project is due you wear a button-down in
khakis because you want to look
especially nice for your presentation
you get to school and you give your
exposition to the class fairly confident
in your preparation and your conveyance
of your topic despite your success you
feel as if something’s wrong the rest of
the day your classmates tease you about
acting white and dressing white many of
your friends even characterize your
diction as talking white because of how
intelligent you sounded these scenarios
and countless others like them are
resultant of one of the most powerful
and ubiquitous types of influence in our
society today stereotypes stereotypes
are everywhere and created for every
distinctive characteristic there is
religion gender socioeconomic status age
place of origin etc and arguably the
most divisive characteristic in our
society racial or ethnic background now
I’m sure that you’re all aware of the
importance of a first impression
according to recent studies it shows
that it takes approximately seven
seconds for someone to make an
impression of you in these seven seconds
people will ultimately make up their
mind about who you are and the kind of
relationship that you’re likely to have
with them but what you may not know is
that
stereotypes have a great effect on your
perceptions of others even if
unintentionally we create ideas about
who people are before we even get the
chance to meet them because of initial
misconceptions that we have about the
demographic that they belong to these
stereotypes are unstated all throughout
of sistah all throughout society and I
myself have experienced them in school
in the real world and in multiple other
situations now I’m sure that all of you
have some sort of some type of social
media snapchat Instagram Twitter and for
the older folks in the room Facebook and
even if you don’t have some type of
social media you likely use the Internet
play on the computer call others on your
phone you know you use electronics in
some sort of way and even though this
technological interconnectivity has
granted us so many new opportunities in
the real world
they have also contributed to the
reiteration and the development of
stereotypes against everyone in our
society no matter how flawless you or
others may deem you to be there are
stereotypes directed against you even if
you’re not aware of them now am I saying
that all stereotypes are negative of
course not
there are numerous positive stereotypes
as well as negative for nearly every
group within a population am I saying
that only young african-american men
have to cope with negative pre-existing
perceptions of themselves of course not
I’m sure that there are so many of you
who aren’t who also experience negative
stereotypes but I am an informed young
black man and the country of the United
States of America and it is my job to
inform you of what I know to be true and
what countless others are oblivious to
now I am constantly constantly
surrounded by other people in their
conflicting ideals about Who I am and
who I should be why do you act so white
why do you dress so white why do you
talk as if you’re white
you can all see me I’m clearly not white
I don’t understand why this continued
perception follows me everywhere I go
the idea that my intelligence my
demeanor my poise or the life that God’s
blessed me with and someone makes me
separate from my own identity that being
someone who is intelligent or ambitious
somehow is only identified as white that
being black and possessing these same
traits is inconceivable is insulting
ignorant and frankly instilled in the
minds of so many people in the United
States today the majority and minorities
now this idea of blackness has been has
been perpetuated through our society
since the early 1970s in the birth of
early modern rap and hip-hop the origins
of the genre of music was to talk about
the struggles in the real life
situations of blacks in America and a
creative outlet for a creative outlet
for the voices of a people now as time
has progressed the genre has become more
and more centered towards less redeeming
ideals
although hip-hop and rap aren’t the only
genres of music that black culture is
pioneered they are the culture that most
people affiliate they are the that is a
genre that most people affiliate black
culture with and as music has progressed
to today we have as you probably know
her lyrics and popular rap music that
don’t contain positive or affirming
messages but rather are centered towards
violence or sex or abusive substances
now I’m not saying that this transfer of
self-expression to demoralisation and
material goals materialistic goals is
absolute I mean there are numerous
rappers out there who still believe that
music can be used as a voice of a people
and the power of music itself one of my
personal favorites being Kendrick Lamar
this is way too crazy eh I do not know
maybe a hey Obama pays me a and you know
maybe a this is a grey poupon the
beyond that TED talk now unfortunately
artists such as Kendrick Lamar are
considered outliers in the hip-hop
industry today
now this over this overarching
identification of african-americans
through music has led to the
perpetuation of stereotypes against our
people a powerful powerful example of
how hip-hop music has of how hip-hop
music has affected the lives of multiple
many young black men in this country is
the United States prison system now only
12 to 13 percent of this in United
States is composed of African Americans
yet 37% of the 2.2 million men in the
United States prison system is composed
of black men according to the n-double
a-c-p approximately 1/3 of the 7 million
people in prison are African American
and the incarceration rate for blacks in
this country is nearly six times that of
whites well well you might be thinking
maybe African Americans commit more
crimes maybe that’s why the imprisonment
rate is so high well according to the
new york times sentencing sentencing for
nearly identical crimes and nearly
identical circumstances for a black man
and a white man is two to three times as
long for the african-american who
committed the crime than the white man
under the duration under the formula for
the duration of one sentence of a black
man and a white man score the same
number of points a black man is
sentenced to longer jail time in 60% of
felony cases 68% of first-degree crimes
and 45% of burglaries now I tell all of
you this why you may ask why it’s
important to us how can this affect us
well systemic racism is too broad of an
answer and neglects to a neglects to
address why it’s still so prevalent in
the justice system today well apart from
lack of representation in the courts and
when it comes to law the answer is that
the answer is that it’s created this
overarching identification of young
black men as criminals and society
that’s that’s society society’s
perception of us which takes away from
our opportunities and our abilities to
be successful in this we are in
proportion that we are
disproportionately imprisoned and
wrongly robbed of our lives which
doesn’t make any sense because we’re not
able to show what we’re capable of in
this world which everyone should have an
opportunity to do another common
misconception about young African
Americans is what we can and can’t do
when they go into the world who already
knows what they want to do when they
grow up you what do you want to do when
you grow up be a surgeon that’s
wonderful when you ask someone when you
ask someone in of African American
descent what they want to be many people
will expect them to say an athlete or an
actor and actress but few people expect
us to as a people to pursue something
intellectual or something that uses your
brain so I’m very glad that you said
surgeon I am a junior in high school and
a Miss Tudor leadership in school in
church and multiple nonprofit
organizations I aspire to pursue a
profession in international business
following graduate school who is the
world to tell me that I cannot achieve
that simply because of the color of my
skin in the world today we see so many
images of powerful black men and women
on television and in social media and
they depict us but we always seem to
follow a certain path in nearly all
situations we are actors we are
actresses but we’re athletes but where
is our representation in the world of
academia and knowledge there are so many
bright young black people in this
country and likely in this room who
would refuse to embrace their
intellectual curiosity rather to pursue
a more glorified path which is success
on the big screen or some athletic
endeavor I instead I instead encourage
you all to I instead encourage you all
to pursue your dreams no matter what you
look like no matter no matter what
gender you are
matter what race you are no matter what
category you may fall into because
success is not success is not contained
to a certain category of people if the
young african-american man says he wants
to be an engineer or a lawyer or
anything that uses his mind and caught
contrary to what society expects him to
pursue who are we to say that he cannot
achieve this it is our goal as society
to encourage him through determination
and perseverance to be able to achieve
anything that he wants to I’m sure that
you all have experienced misconceptions
about who you are and stereotypes about
who you are and I’m sure that not all of
them have been bad and you might have
experienced good ones as well but I am a
young african-american man and I am
constantly being monitored and watched I
am being watched to see if I trip up if
I make a mistake I’m watched to see if I
will fail because that’s what I am
expected to do but I will continue to
pursue my goals and nothing can deter me
from the task at hand I have I have so
many dreams and so many aspirations and
I refuse to let the color of my skin
impede my success stereotypes are away
stereotypes are away that society
creates opinions about who we are rather
than you getting the opportunity to
understand who people are themselves if
you have this bias within your mind you
couldn’t possibly understand how many
amazing people there are in the world
and the amazing opportunities for
relationships that you can build and so
I challenge you all to follow your dream
no matter what the circumstance is and I
challenge you to go out into the world
with a lack of bias and an open heart
and an open mind because you can develop
relationships no matter where you go and
who you talk to because the situation of
who someone is is never truly as simple
as black or white thank you
[Applause]
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