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The predictions of mass unrest over the Israel-Hamas conflict never materialized during President Joe Biden’s address at Morehouse College’s commencement ceremony. To the contrary, at Sunday’s graduation at one of the most vaunted men’s colleges in Black American history, there was an impassioned speech from the class valedictorian calling for an immediate cease-fire, which the president applauded, and a smattering of individual protests.
As for Biden’s actual remarks in Atlanta, there were two sections in particular that I noted as smart and sensitive speechcraft. First, there’s the following excerpt, which subtly addressed reports that disaffected Black men might sit out this year’s election.
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? What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave Black communities behind? 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? ...
Faith asks you to hold on to hope, to move heaven and earth to make better days. Well, that’s my commitment to you: to show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way.
If Black men are being killed in the street, we bear witness. For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy, to root out systemic racism.
As concrete examples of his administration’s efforts to curb racism, Biden listed infrastructure, his record of job creation among Black folks and his promotion of police reform. But perhaps more importantly, I thought it was smart to show empathy with people who might be feeling discouraged by the grinding pace of democracy and wondering whether staying home in November, or voting for Trump, might serve them well. Although I think media outlets overestimate how large this group is, I also think Biden showed sensitivity in addressing these voters.
Another part of the speech that stuck out was Biden’s call for the graduates to reject Trump’s style of toxic masculinity. Biden framed such masculinity as being at odds with what it means to be a “Morehouse Man,” a title that has carried clout in Black communities because of Morehouse’s list of esteemed alumni.
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. I ran into them all the time when I was younger. They got — all right, I don’t want to get started.
But that’s not you. It’s not us. You all know and demonstrate what it really means to be a man. Being a man is about the strength of respect and dignity. It’s about showing up because it’s too late if you have to ask. It’s about giving hate no safe harbor and leaving no one behind and defending freedoms. It’s about standing up to the abuse of power, whether physical, economic or psychological. It’s about knowing faith without works is dead.
I continue to think these lines of attack against MAGA masculinity are an important tool in chipping away at Trump’s support among men.
Speeches don’t win campaigns in and of themselves. But they can go a long way toward that goal by demonstrating competency and compassion to key voting blocs. Biden appears to have done that at Morehouse — ironically, in a speech that some may have thought would spell his political end.