Our Art and Our Protest
Remarks delivered at the 46th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
I want to first acknowledge God who is the head of my life; He is just and righteous and gives me the courage to fight for a country and world that is just, wise, and redemptive.
Thank you to the MLK Planning Committee for inviting me here today and I’m grateful to my fraternity brother, Bro. King, who spoke out many times whether it was when his government allowed the disenfranchisement of himself and his people or when his government committed war crimes in Vietnam. His truth telling practice inspires my own. And I’m grateful that my parents’ are with me here today.
As much as I am the son of a minister and a scientist, I am likewise the child of the Mattaponi and the people who were forced from their homelands thousands of miles away, forced into a society that dehumanized them, enslaved them, and who persisted. So as much as I am proud to have studied in the halls of MIT, I also recognize that I am only able to stand here because of those who stood before me, because of those who laid the foundation of a place they never had the chance to stand on, I honor them and their traditions of love and grit today.
To speak at this time on February 12, 2020 is to speak at a time when purported common values of humanity, leadership, and integrity are not commonly practiced; it’s to speak at a time when the occupant of the White House is daily and systematically dismantling protections, rights, and resources for millions of people, people in this room here today; it’s to speak at a time when there is utter disregard for fairness and integrity at all levels of authority; it’s to speak at a time of senseless violence in this country and the world that affects mothers and sons, fathers and daughters; it’s to speak at a time when our immediate future as humans is uncertain due to the climate change of which we are the driving force; it’s to speak at a time when police are using weapons to kill innocent people, kill their person, kill their aspirations; it’s to speak at time when it feels like no one is listening.
Read full remarks here.
