Did you hear the news about the brand new constellation up in the Florida sky? Some Bethune-Cookman graduating seniors showed us they are ready to enter the world and be counted above the clamor of the going along to get along. They reminded us how to resist the polite, and the neatly packaged " learn from those you disagree with." These fierce honorable students marched into the assembly today wearing In Bloom & Fully Woke Graduation Attire. Oh yes they did. They did not "leave their (proud and sacred) arena to the fools" (Toni Cade Bambara did you see them?). They did their part. They did what they felt was necessary. Only the essentials. They refused to allow a very rich and well positioned thief and a liar into Miss Bethune’s good house. With sweet togetherness they organized and displayed the courage to stand up and refuse the distorted view from the back seat that Betsy DeVos wanted them to occupy. "I’m fighting every day on your behalf." No you are not. "Nah! Nah! We Out!" Not even the Black and the beautiful attending Omarosa could keep them in their seats and turned the "right" way.
What a beautiful sight to see these students all in sweet protest. I’m sure they probably just wanted to graduate and get on with it, just thank mama and ‘nem but then they realized they had to do more. For the students they were leaving behind. What about their own legacies? Their fearless leaders would not leave well enough alone when considering who should speak at graduation. They had to invite the dream-killer, the disbeliever, the out-of- touch principal, who flew in from the gilded cage, into the arena, just to show and prove how gracious Black people can always be with people who want to see Black people dead and gone. They had to invite someone with no respect or knowledge of Black college history into the sacred graduation arena to be applauded – to show how big we can be. But she could not enter without the proud backsides of these students flying like flags at no-attention in loud and clear protest. I’m so proud of them. Will someone help me get this love letter to each and every one of them? Will someone send it to them through the airwaves that I am mostly disconnected from? They need to know how much it mattered. To me. To more than me.
To the students who resisted today. I salute you. May I tell you something? I want you to know that I saw you there today, standing up to that old southern tradition with its bully pulpit polite manners, standing up to the call for silence and the dutiful ritual of the pomp and circumstance dance, with your louder, truer call for truth and justice.
I saw you, standing there like an ancient firewall, between the distortions and the self-serving human beings who wanted a remake of "look whose coming to graduation." Yes, those who profess to lead you but who are really quite afraid and disconnected from your great clear- eyed power. They did not think you had the nerve to do what you did. You had the nerve.
You had more than nerve. You had the Mary McLeod Bethune will. You turned your back to the woman who publicly and intentionally lied on you, and then lied on the proud history of Black colleges in America, reporting erroneously that Black colleges were the "real pioneers" of school choice. Boulderdash. Hogwash. Bullshit. I was so proud of you today. Many of us were proud of you and loud about it, too.
Be not afraid smart courageous young people. You not only graduated from Bethune-Cookman today but you also graduated into lane No. 1 of real life action and decision-making. Two diplomas in one day! Keep your faith in truth and honesty close. Stay true to what you know about your history and your people and the power of telling the truth, no matter what is at stake or who has the microphone, not even in the face of those who try and threaten you with dismissal from the party. You don’t need a party to stand up for yourself.
You know who you are. You cannot and will not be dismissed. You are the descendants of a Black woman whose mama and daddy were enslaved in the United States of America – who then went on to become the greatest educator, stateswoman, philanthropist, and civil rights activist – that Mayesville, S.C. ever dropped into the world. You know the story. She was a woman who founded a school because nobody else cared about black kids going to school. Hello!!!! She started her school with broken and discarded furniture that she had hauled out of a garbage dump – a school that you have now graduated from.
You are living your bloodline and your lineage. You are raging righteous proof that young people at Black colleges don’t have to take the blood money and then entertain the dictator nor his staff in hopes of whatever will be thrown out the parade route window. Shiny beads? Tootsie roll pop? You are proof that young people at Black colleges are engaged, thoughtful, informed, and studying the horizon and the stars, just as their ancestors did.
Nikky Finney