Biden's Morehouse address was unbefitting of the White House

 I try to avoid writing about politics. I admit I touch on political issues, but I try to avoid going over the top. I call this common sense. However, it will be on the editorial page if it's done. So here we go.

This isn’t about being conservative or liberal, right or left, red or blue. It’s about being respectful. It’s about understanding the occasion and knowing you may be the only critical person in the room.

Everyone, especially the graduates, deserved better than our president's rambling divisiveness last Sunday during the Morehouse College Commencement.

The Class of 2024 and their families were supposed to be honored and revered for hard work and achievement and congratulated for studying and sacrificing. The purpose of a commencement address is to inspire graduates, not instruct them, with humor, hope and incidental instruction.

Joe Biden said a few good things at Morehouse. But, as predicted, he veered off track to selfishly twist a graduate’s biggest day into an unapologetic, self-absorbed campaign speech. He talked about race-baiting and defending democracy, which we all know is a codeword for beating Donald Trump and the Republicans.

He focused on a few of Morehouse’s successes but spent more time on himself, his campaign and dividing our society. The grads were deceitfully reminded that, as Blacks, they weren’t good enough to compete in today’s world. Why? Because exaggerating social inequity brings him votes. You can’t sell a solution if you don’t have a real problem. And if you don’t have a problem, make one up.

Our society isn't perfect.  No society is. Racists exist from both sides in every society. Our nation’s racial extremists are now the size of groups of those who wear aluminum foil hats and those who think the moon landing was fake. 

Biden found a way to say a few good things. But they were often followed by vial nonsense that had nothing to do with the accomplishments of the graduating Class of 2024. Those seniors earned better.

“This graduation day is a day for generations, a day of joy, a day earned, not given.” That was one of our president’s positive lines.

But he also talked about nine months of racial riots in Delaware following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also reminded the young graduates his wife and 13-month-old daughter were hit and killed by a tractor-trailer, his son died of cancer, the pandemic, Gaza, climate, Grand Wizards and George Floyd’s murder.

What does that have to do with graduation? What about exciting Morehouse graduates to continue their successes in the next steps of their lives?

But it only got worse with statements like these:

“It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you.”

“What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street?” (A little fact-checking: according to Dr. Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC, 88.6% of Blacks in 2019 were killed by other Blacks.)

“What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?”

“And most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?”

“Well, that’s my commitment to you: to show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way.”

“If Black men are being killed on the streets, we bear witness. For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy, to root out systemic racism.”

“I stood up for George – with George Floyd’s family to help create a country where you don’t need to have that talk with your son or grandson as they get pulled over.”

He reminded the graduates of the money he’s handed out in the Black communities, brought the internet to poor neighborhoods, and provided jobs to start businesses, buy homes, health insurance and prescription drugs. He talked about walking picket lines during strikes, removing student loan debt and investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Instead of encouraging graduates, Biden gave them a warning:

“Graduates, this is what we’re up against extremist forces aligned against the meaning and message of Morehouse. And they peddle a fiction, a caricature of what being a man is about – tough talk, abusing power, bigotry. Their idea of being a man is toxic.”

Graduates, go into the world and make something of yourself. It's difficult after hearing the poison of our Commander in Chief. But I want to say you deserve the best because you’ve earned it. Don't let the ceiling define your limitations.