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plannedparenthood · 4 years ago

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Thank You, RBG

We are heartbroken. Supreme Court Justice and gender equality hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, Sept. 18. Her death is a painful loss for our country. She was a fierce and unapologetic warrior for equality, and her achievements are endless. As we mourn we’re also embracing our gratitude for her service to our country.

Cherishing RBG’s Legacy

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg committed her life to protecting the rights, freedoms, and health of people across the country — in particular women, communities of color, and others whose voices too often go unheard. She was a true trailblazer who inspired millions of girls and women to fight through sexism and discrimination to make American a better place to work, to live, and to love.

Her powerful words over the years, including her razor-sharp dissents, helped push our nation toward freedom and opportunity for all. Her spirit, values, and words will be deeply missed.

A Modern Revolutionary

Some revolutionaries shook up a society with anger burning and guns blazing. Others studied hard, knocked down an unfair system one peg at a time, and spoke truth to power while wearing a lace collar. That was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

She got two mottoes from her mother, Celia Bader (who marched for women’s suffrage):

“Be independent,” take care of yourself without being financially beholden to a man, and

“Be a lady,” don't allow emotions like anger to be so consuming they get in your way.

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg saw anything repugnant — like systemic discrimination — she would get straight to work. It wasn’t easy. Over decades, Ruth Bader Ginsburg faced a slew of indignities. But she harnessed courage and resolve to strategically break down America’s sexist, unethical laws and institutions.

To honor the Notorious RBG, we’ve collected our seven favorite facts about her life and her legacy.

7) RBG was defiant in the face of entrenched sexism in college and law school.

Most colleges didn’t accept women in the 1950s, and Ruth Bader was one of the first to break the gender barrier. At Cornell University, she was sexually harassed by a professor, who offered answers to a test in exchange for sex. She confronted him: “I went to his office and I said, ‘How dare you? How dare you do this?’ And that was the end of that.”

At Harvard Law School, she and the eight other women in her class of more than 500 students were ogled, ignored in the classroom, excluded from the library, and asked by the dean how they could possibly justify taking a seat away from a man. But that hostile environment didn’t stop her.

She fought it with brain power and superhuman physical endurance. She was so obsessed with the law that she’d regularly stay up until dawn studying. Well into her 80s, she retained her reputation for working until 3 a.m. and living on just two hours of sleep.

While she was kicking butt at the top of her classes, she was also taking care of her young daughter and sick husband. Martin (Marty) Ginsburg contracted testicular cancer and had extensive radiation therapy, which kept him from going to his own law school classes. So, RBG organized his friends to attend his classes, worked through their notes with Marty, and typed up Marty’s papers — all while doing her own schoolwork on top of it.

She tied for first in her class from Columbia Law School in 1959. She also was the first person to become a member of both the prestigious Harvard Law Review, and the Columbia Law Review — one of many of her unprecedented feats. She proved to those elite schools that a woman could succeed.

6) RBG showed the world what a partnership looks like in a husband-wife relationship.

Ruth Bader met Marty Ginsburg while they were both at Cornell University, and they forged an equal partnership from the beginning. He learned to cook so she didn’t have to. Later, he lobbied for her seats on the Court of Appeals in D.C. and on the Supreme Court. And he gave up his law firm in New York to follow her to Washington — a shocking move at the time.

Here’s how she put it at her 1993 Senate confirmation hearing:

“I surely would not be in this room today without the determined efforts of men and women who kept dreams of equal citizenship alive. I have had the great good fortune to share life with a partner truly extraordinary for his generation. A man who believed at age 18 when we met that a woman’s work, whether at home or on the job, is as important as a man’s. I became a lawyer when women were not wanted by most members of the legal profession. I became a lawyer because Marty supported that choice unreservedly.”

5.) RBG won a whopping five cases before the Supreme Court — and they all advanced the Constitutional protection of equal rights for all Americans.

As smart and accomplished as Ruth Bader Ginsburg was, no law firm would hire her after she graduated from law school. Law firms slammed the door in her face time after time because they only hired men. She realized that “being a woman was an impediment.”

As Ginsburg navigated the legal working world in the 1960s, she saw how thousands of state and federal laws were treating women as second-class citizens. At that time, most states’ laws allowed employment termination for pregnancy, and let banks deny credit to women without a male co-signer. The Supreme Court had rejected every challenge to laws that treated women worse than men.

All this gender discrimination fueled Ginsburg’s drive for social justice. In the early 1970s, she followed the strategy of NAACP civil rights lawyer and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who helped dismantle Jim Crow laws case by case over many years — leading to Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which outlawed racial segregation in schools in 1954. Like Marshall, Ginsburg centered her arguments on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says all persons should be treated equally under the law.

Throughout the ‘70s, Ginsburg led the ACLU’s Women's Rights Project, for which she argued and won five landmark gender equality cases before the Supreme Court. As she said in the 2018 documentary RBG: "I knew that I was speaking to men who didn't think there was such a thing as gender-based discrimination, and my job was to tell them it really exists.”

These cases set the foundation for the country’s laws against sex discrimination, and helped eliminate being male as the criteria for employment, pay, and benefits:

Two cases in 1975 and 1979 established the requirement that women serve on juries, recognizing that they should enjoy both the benefits and the responsibilities of our judicial system.

“The vaunted woman's privilege viewed against history's backdrop simply reflects and perpetuates a certain way of thinking about women. Women traditionally were deemed lesser citizens.”

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguing before the Supreme Court (Duren v. Missouri, 1979)

An employment benefits case in 1973 required the U.S. military to equally distribute family-based benefits for service members regardless of sex.

“In asking the Court to declare sex a suspect criterion, we urge a position forcibly stated in 1837 by Sara Grimke, noted abolitionist and advocate of equal rights for men and women. She said, ‘I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.'”

— Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguing before the Supreme Court (Frontiero v. Richardson, 1973)

Two cases in 1974 and 1975 threw out gender-based distinctions in survivors’ benefits, granting widowers the same benefits as widows. RBG argued that while giving widows special treatment sounded nice, it wasn’t. Withholding benefits to widowers devalued the work of their deceased wives.

“A gender line...helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.”

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguing before the Supreme Court (Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, 1975)

4) At her confirmation hearings, RBG openly declared that abortion access is a Constitutional right.

At her 1993 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed what it looks like to uphold constitutional rights. Unlike recent Supreme Court nominees, she affirmatively declared the Constitutional right to safe, legal abortion. When Sen. Hank Brown (R-CO) grilled her about her views on abortion, she declared:

“But you asked me about my thinking about equal protection versus individual autonomy, and my answer to you is it's both. This is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity. It's a decision that she must make for herself. And when Government controls that decision for her, she's being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.”

3) RBG wrote the historic decision ruling that state-funded schools must admit women.

In 1996, Justice Ginsburg wrote the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in United States v. Virginia, which ruled that the Virginia Military Institute’s men-only admission policy violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. Justice Ginsburg destroyed the Institute’s argument that its program wasn’t suitable for women. Instead, she wrote that:

“[G]eneralizations about ‘the way women are,’ estimates of what is appropriate for most women, no longer justify denying opportunity to women whose talent and capacity place them outside the average description.”

The school has admitted women since then, and — as Justice Ginsburg predicted — they have made the school proud.

2) RBG’s dissent from the majority in Lilly Ledbetter’s case led to the passage a fair pay law.

In 2007, Justice Ginsburg dissented in the ruling against Lilly Ledbetter — a tire factory employee who learned, decades into her tenure, that she was being paid much less than men in the exact same supervisory role: She was making $3,727 per month, while her male counterparts were making between $4,286 and $5,236 per month. However, she lost the case because the Civil Rights Act had a statute of limitations for reporting on discrimination.

In her scathing dissent, Justice Ginsburg wrote that gender discrimination can be hidden for a long time and “the ball is in Congress’s court” to change the rule. In 2009, Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extended the Civil Rights Act’s statute of limitations and guarantees women equal pay for equal work.

1.) RBG put the smack down on TRAP laws in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

In the landmark Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt case in 2016, the Supreme Court — including Justice Ginsburg — ruled that two abortion restrictions in Texas were unconstitutional because they would shut down most clinics in the state and cause Texans an “undue burden” on access to safe, legal abortion. The case exposed the lie that anti-abortion politicians have been peddling for years: that it’s somehow “safer” when the state imposes medically unnecessary, onerous targeted restrictions against abortion providers (TRAP) laws.

In her concurring opinion to the majority, Justice Ginsburg wrote:

“Given those realities [that keep abortion access out of reach], it is beyond rational belief that H.B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law ‘would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions’... When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners... at great risk to their health and safety.”

With this historic decision, the Court reaffirmed the constitutional right to access legal abortion. This decision was a triumph for abortion access. And when one of the restrictions that Ginsburg helped strike down came up in another lawsuit this year, Ginsburg again helped lead the Court to protecting abortion access in a major Supreme Court victory for reproductive rights.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg rose for all of us. How will we work together to rise for her?

From day one, Justice Ginsburg recognized our constitutional right to control our bodies and our destinies. That is a legacy that cannot and must not depart with her.

Justice Ginsburg stood up for us. Now it’s our turn.

Follow Planned Parenthood at facebook.com/PlannedParenthood and twitter.com/PPFA to stay updated on how to get involved. Together, we will rise.

By Miriam at PPFA

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robertfsmith · 5 years ago

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Robert F. Smith Commencement Address to Morehouse College on May 19, 2019

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President Thomas, board of Trustees. Faculty, staff, and Morehouse alumni.

The extraordinary Angela Bassett, and the distinguished Professor Doctor Edmund Gordon.

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, family, and friends.

And most of all, Morehouse College Class of 2019: Congratulations!

Earning a college degree is one of the greatest and most impressive of life’s accomplishments.

But success has many parents -- and as hard as each of you has worked to achieve what you all have achieved today, you’ve had a lot of help along the way. We are the products of a community, a village, a team. And many of those who have made contributions for you to arrive at this very moment are here with you today.

So, first and foremost, graduates of the class of 2019, please stand and join me in recognizing the love and commitment of those who have been with you on this long and hard journey!

Graduates, standing here before you is one of the great honors of my life. And I am so proud to share it with my mother, Dr. Sylvia Smith, a lifelong educator and the greatest role model of my life, who is here today.

This is the first of three graduations in my family this week. One of my daughters graduates from NYU, another graduates from high school and is headed off to Barnard in the fall, and my niece is graduating from my alma mater, Cornell, next weekend. So I want to thank the Morehouse administration for perfectly timing today’s festivities in advance of them so that I could be here.

Morehouse was built to demand excellence and spur the advancement and development of African American men. I have always been drawn to its rich history, and I am optimistic for its bright future.

The brothers from Morehouse I’ve met -- or revered at a distance -- understand the power of this education and the responsibility that comes with it. Willie Woods, Morehouse’s Chairman of the Board, is one such man. Thank you, Chairman Woods.

In our shared history -- as a people, and as a country -- the Morehouse campus is a special place. The path you walked along Brown Street this morning to reach this commencement site was paved by men of intellect, character, and determination.

These men understood that when Dr. King said that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, he wasn’t saying it bends on its own accord. It bends because we choose to put our shoulders into it together and push.

The degree you earn today is one of the most elite credentials that America has to offer. But I don’t want you to think of it as a document that hangs on a wall and reflects what you’ve accomplished up till now.

No.

That degree is a contract -- a social contract -- that calls on you to devote your talents and energies to honoring those legends on whose shoulders you and I stand.

Lord knows you are graduating into a complex world. Think about what we have faced in just the years you spent as Morehouse students:

We have seen the rise of Black Lives Matter, lending voice to critical issues that have been ignored by too many for too long.

We’ve seen the Me Too movement, shining a spotlight on how far we still have to go to achieve real gender equality.

We’ve also seen the unapologetic public airing of hate doctrines by various groups.

We’ve seen the implications of climate change become impossible to ignore and become ever more severe.

Our connected world has grappled with new questions about security, privacy, and the role of intelligent machines in our work and lives.

And we’ve witnessed the very foundation of our political system shaken by the blurring of the sacred line between fact and fiction… right and wrong.

Yes, this is an uncertain hour for our democracy and our fragile world order. But uncertainty is nothing new for our community.

Like many of yours, my family has been in the United States for 8 or 9 generations. We have nourished this soil with our blood. Sown this land with our sweat. Protected this country with our bodies. And contributed to the physical, cultural, and intellectual fabric of this country with our minds and our talent. And yet, I am the first generation of my family to have secured all my rights as an American.

Think about it:

1865 was the first time that most African American families had a hint of access to the first and until now, greatest wealth-generating platform of America -- land.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was supposed to deliver 850,000 acres of land to the formerly enslaved, a program that was then canceled and replaced with a Freedman’s Savings Bank…which was then looted.

Essentially that recompense was reneged upon. We didn’t have broad access to the Homestead Act nor Southern Homestead Act where 10% of the land in the U.S. was distributed for no more than a filing fee.

It wasn’t until 1868, after the passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th amendment, that my family actually had a birthright to be American Citizens.

Then, when America decided to create a social safety net for its citizens in 1935, they created a Social Security program.

Yet that program excluded two categories of workers: maids and farmworkers, which effectively denied benefits to two-thirds of African Americans, and 80% of Southern African Americans.

It wasn’t until 1954 that my family had a right to equal education under protection of the law -- guaranteed by Brown v. Board of Education.

And while the 15th Amendment gave my family the right to vote -- the men, at least -- starting in 1890, those rights were rolled back in the South and remained suppressed until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Even today, more than a half-century after that, the struggle to ensure true integrity at the ballot box is still very much alive.

All of these landmark extensions of our rights -- and subsequent retrenchments -- set the stage for a new policy of forced desegregation utilizing school bussing that went into effect when I reached the first grade in my hometown of Denver, Colorado.

Our family lived in North East Denver, and back then, Denver, like most other American cities, remained extremely divided by race, both politically and geographically.

In my community, my neighbors were mostly educated, proud, hard-working, and ambitious. They were dentists, teachers, politicians, lawyers, Pullman porters, contractors, small business owners and pharmacists.

They were focused on serving the African-American community and providing a safe and nurturing environment for the kids in our neighborhood.

They were on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement. They were sacrificing their sons to the Vietnam War. They mourned the death of a King, two Kennedys and an X.

Despite all they gave, they had yet to achieve the fullness of the American Dream. But they continued to believe it was only a matter of time -- if not for them, then surely for their children.

I was among a small number of the kids from my neighborhood who were bussed across town to a high-performing, predominantly white elementary school in South East Denver. Every morning we were loaded up on bus number 13 -- I’ll never forget it --and taken across town to Carson Elementary.

That policy of bussing only lasted through my fifth-grade year, when intense protests and political pressure brought an end to forced bussing. But those five years drastically changed the trajectory of my life.

The teachers at Carson were extraordinary. They embraced me and challenged me to think critically and start to move toward my full potential. I, in turn, came to realize at a young age that the white kids and the black kids, the Jewish kids and the one Asian kid were all pretty much the same.

And it wasn’t just the school itself -- it was my community back home that embraced and supported our opportunity. Since most of the parents in my neighborhood worked, a whole bunch of us walked to Mrs. Brown’s house after school and stayed there until our parents returned home from work.

Mrs. Brown was incredible. She kept us safe, made sure we did our homework the right way, gave us nutritious after school snacks, and taught us about responsibility. And because her house was filled with children of all ages, I suddenly had older kids as role models who were studying hard and who believed in themselves. Mrs. Brown also happened to be married to the first black Lt. Governor of our state, so we saw the possibilities first hand.

Amazingly, almost every single student on that number 13 bus went on to become a professional. I am still in touch with many as they make up the bedrock of their communities today. They are elected officials, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, professors, community organizers, and business leaders.

An incredible concentration of successful black men and women from the same working-class neighborhood. Yet when I look at my other folks from the extended neighborhood -- those who didn’t get a spot-on bus number 13 -- their success rate was far lower -- and the connection is inescapable.

Everything about my life changed because of those few short years. But the window closed for others just as fast as it had opened for me.

That’s part of the story of the black experience in America: getting a fleeting glimpse of opportunity and success just before the window is slammed shut.

The cycle of resistance to oppression, followed by favorable legislation, followed by the weakening of those laws, followed by more oppression, and more resistance, has affected and afflicted every generation.

And even as we’ve seen some major barriers come crashing down in recent years, we would be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t acknowledge just how many injustices persist.

Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you get educated. Where you go to school shouldn’t determine whether you get textbooks. The opportunity you access should be determined by the fierceness of your intellect, the courage of your creativity, and the grit that allows you to overcome expectations that weren’t set high enough.

We’ve seen remarkable breakthroughs in medical research, yet race-based disparities in health outcomes still persist. You are 41% more likely to die of breast cancer if you are an African-American woman in America today than if you are white.

You are 2.3 times more likely to die of prostate cancer if you are an African-American man than if you are white.

If you are African-American, you are more likely to be stopped by the police, more likely to be issued a ticket after being stopped, and more likely to be threatened with the use of force than if you are white.

This is our reality. This is the world you are inheriting.

Now, I am not telling you these things because I am bitter or because I want you to be bitter.

I don’t call upon you to be bitter, I call upon you to make things better. Because the great lesson of my life is that despite the challenges we face, America is an extraordinary country. Our world is getting smaller by the day. And you are equipped with every tool to make it your own.

Today, for the first time in human history, success requires no prerequisite of wealth or capital -- no ownership of land, or natural resources, or people.

Today, success can be created solely through the power of one’s mind, ideas, and courage. Intellectual capital can be cultivated, monetized, and instantaneously distributed across the globe.

Intellectual capital has become the new currency of business and finance -- and the promise of brainpower to move people from poverty to prosperity has never been more possible.

Technology is creating a whole new set of on ramps to the 21st century economy, and together we will help assure that African Americans will acquire the tech skills and be the beneficiaries in sectors that are being automated.

Black men understand that securing the bag is just the beginning -- that success is only real if our community is protected, if our potential is realized and if our most valuable assets -- our people -- find strength in owning the businesses that provide economic stability in our community.

This is your moment, graduates. Between doubt and destiny is action. Between our community and the American Dream is leadership. Your leadership. Your destiny.

This doesn’t mean ignoring injustice, it means using your strength to restore order.

And when you are confronted with racism, listen to the words of Guy Johnson, the son of Maya Angelou, who once said that, “Racism is like gravity, you got to keep pushing against it without spending too much time thinking about it.”

So…how do you seize your American Dream? Let me get specific. Let me give you five rules that I live by.

The first rule you need to know is that nothing replaces actually doing the work.

Whenever a young person tells me they aspire to be an entrepreneur, I ask them why. For many, they think of it as a great way to get rich quick. Invent an app, sell a company, make a few million before you’re 25.

Look, that can happen, but it’s awfully rare. The usual scenario is that successful entrepreneurs spend endless hours, days, and years toiling away for little pay and zero glamor.

And in all honesty, that is where the joy of success actually resides. Before I ever got into private equity, I was a chemical engineer, and I spent pretty much every waking hour in windowless labs doing the work that helped me become an expert in my field.

It was only after I put in the time to develop this expertise and the discipline of the scientific process that I was able to apply my knowledge beyond the lab.

Greatness is born out of the grind. Embrace the grind. A thoughtful and intentional approach to “the grind” will help you to become an expert in your craft. When I meet a black man or woman who is at the top of their industry, I see the highest form of execution. That’s no accident. There’s a good chance it took that black leader a whole lot more grinding to get to where they are.

I look at the current and former black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies whom I admire, and they blow me away every time I met with them. Bernard Tyson, Ken Frazier, Ken Chenault, Dick Parsons, Ursula Burns, the late Barry Rand. They may not have attended Morehouse, but they have the Morehouse attitude.

They knew that being the best means grinding every day. It means putting in the ten thousand-plus hours necessary to become a master of your craft.

Muhammad Ali once said, “I hated every minute of training, But I thought to myself, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

Grind it out -- and live your life as a champion.

My second rule to live by is to take thoughtful risks.

My Granddad took a particular interest in my career, and he couldn’t have been prouder of my stable engineering job at Kraft-General Foods. For him, to have that kind of job security at my age was a dream come true.

When I told him I was thinking of leaving for graduate school, he was beyond worried. Then, you can imagine how he worried some years later when I told him I was going to leave Goldman Sachs, where I had achieved a good level of success, to start my own private equity firm focused on enterprise software.

I respected my Granddad and his wisdom, his thoughtfulness, and his protectiveness over me. But I had also done my homework. I calculated my odds of success, and importantly, I knew that one of the fundamental design points of achieving the American Dream was to be a business owner.

So I decided with confidence that I was willing to make a big bet on the one asset I had the most knowledge of: myself.

There are always reasons to be risk-averse. Graduating from Morehouse can make you risk-averse, because the path you’re on, if you stick to the more conservative choices, is still pretty darn good.

That doesn’t mean you should gamble with your career or careen from job to job just because the grass appears to be greener. But it does mean that you should evaluate options for taking business and career risks…do the analysis, and trust your instincts.

When you bet on yourself -- that’s likely to be a pretty good bet!

My third rule is to be intentional about the words you choose.

I know Morehouse has taught you that you what you say carries with it enormous power.

Be intentional about the words you speak.

How you define yourself.

What you call each other.

The people you spend time with.

And the love you create.

All of this matters immensely. It will define you.

My fourth rule -- which is my favorite -- is to always know that you are enough.

I mentioned that before going into investment banking at Goldman Sachs, I worked in applied engineering for Kraft General Foods. And I loved it!

Until one day I was at a meeting with a number of department heads in my division and as we went around the conference table discussing the divisions most important strategic initiatives, I realized that of the top six, I was leading five of them.

I was half the age of everyone, yet I knew I was making just a third as much as anyone else in the room. And I said to myself, I’m either doing something very right or very wrong. Truthfully it was a bit of both. So, it became a lesson in realizing my worth and self-worth.

It isn’t just about salary, though that always matters. It’s also about demanding respect from others -- and from yourself. A realization and respect for all of the skills and talents you bring to the table.

When you have confidence in your own worth, you’ll become the one to raise your hand for the hard assignment that may mean putting in time on nights and weekends, but also means you’ll be gaining incremental skills and experiences to enhance your craftsmanship.

Earn your respect through your body of work. Let the quality of your work product speak of your capabilities.

Know that you are only bound by the limits of your own conviction.

You are Morehouse Men. There is no room on this earth you can’t enter with your head held high. You will likely encounter people in your life, as I have, who want to make you feel like you don’t belong... but when you respect your own body of work, that is all the respect you need.

In the words of the great Quincy Jones and Ray Charles, “Not one drop of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me.”

You are enough.

The fifth lesson and final lesson for today is as follows:

We all have the responsibility to liberate others so that they can become their best selves -- in human rights, the arts, business, and in life.

The fact is, as the next generation of African-American leaders, you won’t just be on the bus, you must own it, drive it, and pick up as many as you can carry along the way.

More than the money we make, the awards, or recognition, or titles we earn, each of us will be measured by how much we contribute to the success of the people around us.

How many people will you get onto your bus number 13?

We need you to become the elected officials who step up and fix the laws that engender discrimination and who set a tone of respect in our public discourse.

We need you to become the c-suite executives who change corporate culture, build sustainable business models, and make diversity and inclusion a core and unshakeable value.

We need you to become the entrepreneurs who will innovate inclusively, expand wages for all Americans, and lower the unemployment rate in our communities.

We need you to be the educators who set the highest standards and demand the resources needed to deliver on them and inspire the next generation.

We need you to invest in the real estate and businesses in our communities and create value for all in that community.

No matter what profession you choose, each of you must be a community builder. No matter how far you travel, you can’t ever forget where you came from.

You are responsible for building strong, safe places where our young brothers and sisters can grow with confidence… watch and learn from positive role models, and believe that, they too, are entitled to the American Dream.

You Men of Morehouse are already doing this. Your own Student Government, in fact, sends students on a bus to underserved communities around the country to empower young black men and women to seize their own narrative and find power in their voices.

This is exactly the kind of leadership I’m talking about.

Remember that building community doesn’t always have to be about sweeping change. But it does have to be intentional.

You can’t just be a role model sometimes. I’m cognizant of the fact that whenever I’m out in public, people are observing my actions. The same goes for you.

Building community can’t be insular.

The world has never been smaller, so we need to help our communities think bigger.

I’ve invested particularly in internship programs, because I’ve observed the power of exposing young minds to the opportunity out there that they don’t see in their own neighborhoods.

Help those around you see the beauty of the vast world out there, and help them believe that they, too, can capture that dream.

And remember that community can be anywhere.

Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, community was a few blocks around where I grew up. Today, we, you can create communities of people anywhere in the world. Merging the physical and digital communities will be one of the great opportunities you have and you will have have in the years going forward.

Finally, don’t forget that community thrives in the smallest of gestures. Be the first to congratulate a friend on a new job, buy their new product first, and post on social media about how great it is, and also be the first to console them when they face adversity.

Treat all people with dignity, even if you can’t see how they can be of help to you.

And most important of all, whatever it takes, never, ever forget to call your mother. And I do mean call – don’t text, a text doesn’t count!

Speaking of mothers, allow me a point of personal privilege to end with a story that speaks volumes about mine.

In the summer of 1963, when I was just nine months old, my mother hauled my brother and me 1,700 miles from Denver to Washington, DC so that we could be there for a Morehouse Man’s historic speech.

My mother knew that her boys would be too young to remember that speech, but she believed that the history we witnessed that day on the National Mall would always be a part of the men we would one day become.

And Mom was right, as usual. I still feel that day in my bones, and it echoes all around us here at Morehouse.

Decades after that cross-country trip, I had the privilege to take my granddad with me to the opposite side of the National Mall to celebrate the inauguration of the first African-American president.

As we sat in the audience on that cold morning, he pointed to a window just behind the flag, in the Capitol Building and he said, “You know, grandson, when I was a teenager I used to work in that room right there, in the Senate Lounge, I used to serve coffee and tea and take hats and coats for the senators.” He said, “I recall looking out that window during Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration.”

He said, “Son, I did not see one black face in the crowd that day – so here we are, you and I, watching this.”

He said, “Grandson, you can see how America can change when people have the will to make change.”

The beautiful symmetry of our return to the Nation’s Capital under such different circumstances was not lost on us -- the poetry of time and soul that Lincoln called the “mystic chords of memory" resonated in both of our hearts.

You cannot have witnessed the history I have, or walked the halls of Morehouse for four years as you have, without profound respect for the unsung everyday heroes who, generation after generation, little by little, nudged, shoved, and ultimately bent that “arc of the moral universe” a little closer to justice.

This is the history and heritage you inherit today. This is the responsibility that now lies upon your broad shoulders.

True wealth comes from contributing to the liberation of people. The liberation of the communities we come from depends on the grit and greatness inside you.

Use your skills, your knowledge, your instincts to serve -- to change the world in the way that only you can.

You great Morehouse Men are bound only by the limits of your conviction and creativity. You have the power within you to be great, be you. Be unstoppable, be undeniable, and accomplish the things no one ever thought you could.

You are well on your way. I’m counting on you to load up your bus and share that journey.

Let’s never forget what Dr. King said in the final moments of his famous sermon at Ebenezer Baptist, “I want to be on your right side or your left side, in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world…a new world.”

Graduates, look to your right side and your left. Actually, take a moment. Stand up, give each other a hug. I am going to wait.

Men of Morehouse, you are surrounded by a community of people who have helped you arrive at this sacred place on this sacred day.

On behalf of the eight generations of my family who have been in this country, we are going to put a little fuel in your bus.

Now, we’ve got the alumni over there. This is a challenge for you.

This is my class -- 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans. Now, I know my class will make sure they pay this forward. And I want my class to look at these alumni, these beautiful Morehouse brothers -- and let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity moving forward -- because we are enough to take care of our own community.

We are enough to ensure we have all the opportunities of the American Dream. And we will show it to each other through our actions, through our words, and through our deeds.

So, class of 2019:

May the sun always shine upon you.

May the wind always be at your back.

And may God always hold you in the cradle of Her hands.

Now go forth and make this old world new.

Congratulations!

#Morehouse College #Morehouse #Commencement #Commencement speech #Robert F. Smith #MorehouseGrad2019

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mika-rd · 6 years ago

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Getting into it

Plan and precedent look as visual style is clear content isn't - precedents on phone in instagram and in lists

Precedents to get the ideas flowing + potential content additives to bulk the ideas in the zines

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/september-things-2018-publication-040918 - precedent aesthetic wise, as well as visual identity and word

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2018/09/07/liz-bolduc/HtDROO8dxBt2Fh65l2uAPN/story.html - Q. How do you use art to explore complex emotions? A. I recently lost my cat, Aslan, and it’s been super difficult to deal with. Immediately, I dropped everything I was doing and I was like, I need to create a comic book or zine of this experience. This is something I need to do for myself and I need to do in Aslan’s honor. Because I do want to share it with other people and that process can be really difficult. But what do I want to keep for myself? I’m not trying to share my entire life with people, when it goes to a zine or something like that. I’m learning to kind of curate a bit more and pick and choose selected stories and memories to tell.

https://www.girlboss.com/work/jen-gotch-creative-block-podcast-interview - visual feel

https://central23.co/collections/claudia-sulewski-x-central-23/products/my-future-ass-notebook - precedent for the journal aspect, but more minimal

the beauty guide, your body, biochemistry& beliefs - kalon (noun) beauty that is more than skin deep, if you knew who you are truely are you’d be in awe, which is the goal (pdf of introduction saved) - SEE YOUR BODY’S MESSAGES AS THE GIFTS THAT THEY ARE, OPENING YOU TO A NEW WAY OF LIVING, LEARNING AND DEEPLY APPRECIATING WHO YOU ARE AND YOUR LIFE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98HnDNKixXM - words said midway through resonated with me

https://www.redbubble.com/people/pitskinner/works/28413496-understand?p=tapestry&size=small&utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_term=28413496-US-tapestry&utm_content=500045&utm_campaign=626739796648-2680062528943-2954945599806&pp=0 - words “ Understand”

https://bestawards.co.nz/graphic/student-graphics/massey-university-college-of-creative-arts/bodys-under-negotiation/

https://www.stackmagazines.com/shop/

https://www.self.com/

https://www.instagram.com/saltypoems/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/526006431459973172/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/455778424785041992/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/229542912228035642/

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/479422322804169940/

https://www.google.co.nz/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enNZ784NZ786&ei=Hc6aW9DSC8aO8wX0u6KwBQ&q=how+to+make+a+girl+mentally+strong&oq=how+to+make+a+stronger+girl+men&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i22i30k1.433945.436252.0.437618.4.4.0.0.0.0.275.543.2-2.2.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..2.2.542....0.BkxYeHUvy5A - how to make a girl mentally strong

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erinspencer1/2018/09/12/how-the-womens-march-co-presidents-keep-themselves-and-the-movement- going/#51a1f78e60e9 - spending time with family as an important self-care practice....Both women also make it a priority to check in with themselves whenever they can. For Mallory, writing things down on paper can be cathartic."I wrote how I felt in the moment on Twitter a few times and it didn't work out well, "recalled Mallory with a laugh. "Now, when I feel like I need to express something, I write it down or type it up and put it away for the time being. Later on I can do something with it or I can delete it. Most of the time just writing it down can be helpful." ... "Self-care doesn’t always just mean feeling good all the time. It’s kind of like any sort of stretch. In the moment it doesn’t always feel good but because you saw that initial discomfort and you got through it, one month later you’ll be more flexible - and your back will stop hurting. It’s the same with organizing and activism, it’s called a movement for a reason," says Bland.

slick woods - beauty

https://spy.nzherald.co.nz/spy-news/millennial-issues-how-to-spot-a-f-ck-boy/

https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/08/masculinity-vs-toxic-masculinity/

https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/02/160-examples-of-male-privilege/

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/the-boho-talipatra/300611 -zine

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12125869 - Postcards from the famous women around the world

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-7-zines-helped-people-work-mental-health-issues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c0U6kbVaCw- what he says about

THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A FUCK, MARK MANSON, potential precedent

Notes for planning the kit from last few weeks and on going, some of this is more useless than others

Having stuff that they can use to put it together - stuff to use

Tangible toolkit of things come with

Heres the stuff they az series of prompts - Give a focus each prompts specific responses

Experiences - the ball etc

I want empower a culture of strong women with my zines from past experience and collaboration

Other insights - not a intention to see you as a struggling more to get insight into the teen mind and the struggles through - key is subtlety so you are right

Internalised issues - kinder and a more warming approach

We question ourselves- inside of life of teen girl

Not at all only angst - its more strong women a framework for sharing wisdom

Design methods - could be the ways its drawn or written etc be more subtle

try and be neutral and more nuanced,

Not seeing Scarlett as struggling its more as those who pickup the end product could be it highlights the issues they face

People. That have over one things

Struggles are the normal teenage drama- ebemcing your own person -Fear of missing out

Social media - scarlett the worrys of expectations

Be consumer not a producer, why not be a producer

In fear of hassle - Emotionally safer to not be out there

It is a zine - wants to be not noticed and noticed

Tribalism, wellington high is a zine thing of wellington east stereotypes

Paints,

Scraps of fabric photocopies of things - pants etc

Self help kit, a a guide to normalisy ingoutlet for being who your are outside the reigns of social media and maybe by the end you can show you really are

From a teenagers mouth - the zine is very wellington high - too salty to emo

Looking at the cliche teen struggles but not the bigger world problems like depression etc (that is a mother ball park)

What do you want to wear?

Sleepless nights - a kit to living a 21st century life free of mainstream struggle

A girls toolkit to self care - Realising self as being

The idea of riot girl in mainstream

Interesting paper to pull people in - Scans, print outs etc

To the common troubles of teenhood - When she feels exposed

To gaining control back in you’re life - “Struggles of teen hood”

Size comparison- comparing yourself - tape measure I don’t fit etc - clothing

Thetas of a teen

The life of teen girl: an aid to some of the more ‘normal’ problems/sturggles that feel like the end of the world at the time

Why I don’t fit this, friends,

Why do I not fit in- to self love - embracing thou body minor problems surface level

I always felt like I didn’t fit in but then I realised it didn’t matter

What makes you doubt yourself - Celebrating women differences -are you normal

Body within - Teenage Insecurities

why are teen girls less comfortable in themselves than boys

What are gender roles and stereotypes?

It’s never been easy being a teenager. But is this now a generation in crisis?

A conversation between teens and identity

Consent

Photocopy and give back

Getting back to your authentic self

Neurotypicals

Reflection document outlet kit

What causes reflection

Focus less on the negative and more on the positive in your life - what positive experiences have you had in your life this week

Celebrate our accomplishment

What's your accomplishments

What are you proud of doing today?

Conquering teen struggles

Self-help to fostering self-love

Embrace individuality and being yourself

Books that help the unsure- don’t teach you false inaccuracies about being women - embracing, not faking it

Shutting down inaccuracies and welcoming help

Welcoming individuality - Revealing unease with growing feminine or not so

Not ignoring the problem - Move along - Pressures of social influence - Unsure of who to be

Maybe he is comfortable in his own skin

Embracing individuality and who you are is, who you show

Not being carbon copies

Not happy with yourself, changing your lifestyle and making a change to self-love for teens girls

Making a change and being happy in your own skin

What's on your mind today? - What you wish you knew at 17 for journals

I’m not scared anymore - female Norm?

What is that you may say?

Not a product liability - Not perfect - moo one is even that

Celebration - nobody has a perfect body or life - striving to be someone on the internet cause no one is even that

Striving to positive, lift each other up

Be yourself and fuck everyone else alright

Gone are feelings of unease

What worries? - Problems that aren’t the end of the world being less reliant on others

Misconceptions - More based on photos - Outside of stereotypes

Enough is enough, I am not an object, I am me..

What makes you doubt, dealing with fuckboys not focusing on negatives but the positive

For those who experience unease

What are you looking at? We give you clothes to cause a disruption in, to stand up and be counted and go against the norm. Looking up to kick-ass female street fighters and warrior girls, we’re finding our voice and not taking any shit from anyone. Our muses were M.I.A, Die Antwoord, Grimes and the legendary Grace Jones. Find glitter flames, red leopard print and vinyl amongst ‘Read My Lips’ slogans and exposed zipper details. All neon and bright saturated colours, this one is unapologetically sexy, bringing you all the sass and attitude.

Disruption to the mainstream

Cheer up buttercup- the lost

Books bought as tools- for the kit - stick adhesives over or cover

be Neutral - not force them into - media and social influence does

Something that can be personalised

Outlet outside of the phone - that lets them get their feelings out about female and not fitting in, experience and celebration shared

What did I struggle with today? What made me happy, what makes me proud,

What do I need? What do I wish I had - Words of wisdom

I'm only human - what I don’t fit the mould

Woman isn’t just one thing just so many more - Society’s approval - not needed ideal - No need to prove yourself

Stronger together but decisions alone - looking at Name calling

If there is one thing my mother said it would be to give these kids self-confidence

Is the norm, what is female norm???

Never hide who you - don’t loose yourself

Don’t feel like you fit in a where - cause you haven’t found your right place yet- you don’t have to fit in everywhere

No influence is worth losing yourself

Inner voice - sometimes I wonder what I am

Reference to the perception of beAUTY

Chill out space to Understand yourself

not playing - “With technology becoming more and more involved with our daily lives, there has become a lack of balance between screen time and reality.

As a result of this, our exhibition seeks to showcase the continually growing issue of humans disconnection with our senses and nature, through the display of object and textile works.”

The Plan, the zines

riot grrrl zines DIY culture activist zines

start with the questions looking at Helena's and Scarlett's responses, decide on topics or experiences to talk about - before 10.30 (listen to the convo over time)

to do list to be done every week

content - issues that you come across a lot in terms of identity struggle or problems

the slight injustices felt - more than just zines that tell stories of living

1. women - self, breaking down the barrier

4. change, parents, i can't be who i am?

*2 zines they have to be cohesive and tell a story of self-discovery in self-love, do i need to introduce steps for the content to make more sense

#plan

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wionews · 7 years ago

Text

Worked very hard to get the extra zeroes on my pay cheque: Priyanka Chopra

She is an inspiration to many, but she wears her many achievements lightly on her shoulders. On Tuesday, as Priyanka Chopra took center stage as a speaker at The Penguin Annual Lecture, crowds cheered, applauded and hung on to every word that she said. And she spoke about her career, her journey to the top, how she took risks to get Hollywood projects and why she chose not to make a public statement on Padmavati controversy in India. The lecture that Priyanka Chopra delivered was motivational as the actress gave pointers on how to become a better version of one's own self. The lecture was followed by a chat session where a senior journalist asked her point of view on raging issues of 2017.

Here are the highlights of the evening:

On racism Priyanka studied in America for a brief period and stated that she did face racism back in school. "Racism exists in a big way all over the world. Yes, I faced it in a big way when I was in high school. People used to me 'brownie'. They used to call me 'curry'. When I used to pass by they used to say 'can you smell the curry?'At that age you are vulnerable and you wonder what is wrong with me.

Priyanka Chopra gave a motivational lecture on Tuesday in the capital. (Twitter)

On more South-Asian representation in Hollywood

Priyanka believes that there should be more South-Asian representation in the International entertainment industry. "South-Asian actors in international entertainment are still a novelty. At the after party at Emmys this year Riz Ahmed, Aziz Ansari and I were standing in one corner and eating. There were around 400 people in the room and we just realized that there were only 4 of us, South-Asians there. Aziz pointed out that 8 years earlier there was just one." Priyanka said, "We are making steps., .whether it's me, Riz, Aziz, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan- all the people who have gone out there and been successful with their work internationally, I pray and hope that that work bursts open the door for more talents from South-Asia. Because we deserve it. We are 1/5 the of the world's population and we should have better representation."

On Harvey Weinstein's of Bollywood

Steering clear of taking names, Priyanka admitted that she had lost out on projects because she never succumbed to power. "Yes, I have been thrown out of films because someone else has been recommended. A girlfriend of the actor or the director was recommended instead- that’s an abuse of power. I couldn’t do anything about it because I did not have the power nor did I cater to the whims and fancies of certain powerful men, so I did lose out on projects."

On doing Hindi films again

"My last releases -Bajirao Mastani and Jai Gangajal- were two and a half years back. When did Hrithik's last film release? Why aren't the boys asked such question, why only actresses?" said Priyanka when she was asked why she is not featuring in Hindi films anymore. "I am still working. I need time to take up the right project- just like actors. Actors tend to take long breaks before signing new films, they aren't asked so much,"pointed out the actress.

On being the only woman on Forbes Top 10 power list.

"I am very proud that I have reached a position where I can stand shoulder to shoulder with my male counterparts and feature in a Top 10 list in India but why aren’t there other women on that list?" asked the actress. "There are very few females, not just in India, but all over the world, who get to break that glass ceiling and get duly compensated for their work. Which comes as a certain entitlement for men," she added.

youtube

Actress Priyanka Chopra on Tuesday said she was proud to "stand shoulder to shoulder with her male counterparts" as the "Baywatch" star weighed in on the gender pay gap in Bollywood during an event in New Delhi. (Reuters,ANI)

For not making any public statement on the raging Padmavati controversy

Priyanka said she had spoken to both Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone when the controversy broke out but did not want to make a statement publicly about it because she felt her statements would be misconstrued. "I can have an opinion but I should not be pushed to a corner and made a scapegoat (for it)." The actress also pointed out that in America, actors like Meryl Streep could speak against the country's President because it was 'culturally different' from India. "We have certain boundaries here and we must respect that."

On marriage

'Mere layak ladka milna chahiye (I need to find a man who deserves me)" the actress quipped as she was asked about settling down. "My mother told me this long back that I should only be with a man who respects what all I have accomplished in my life.But I do want to get married and have cricket team of children."

Priyanka speaking at The Penguin Annual Lecture in New Delhi on Tuesday evening. (Twitter)

On the importance of training our boys right

"We live in patriarchal societies all over the world. We as citizens need to change our mindsets and teach our sons that respecting a woman makes you a real man, not when you tease one. When our sons know that, is when the generational change will come. It won't happen overnight, though. There shouldn’t be a world where women survive, there should be a world where women thrive."

On being unapologetic about her pay scale

Priyanka said she was very proud of the extra zeroes on her pay cheque. "I have worked very hard to get the extra zeroes on my pay cheque," said the actress and demanded the women need to be given the right remuneration for the work they do. "The boys are never asked this question. Their zeroes are ridiculous. Have you ever seen the zeroes that they get on their cheques? We should be celebrating that at least there's one girl who has gone out there,"pointed out Priyanka. "It was funny because there are so many people who talk about the kind of numbers that I apparently get for certain minutes of my time," she said, taking a dig at reports that she charged Rs 5 crore for her five-minute performance at the Zee Cine Awards earlier this month in Mumbai.

Hollywood vs Bollywood

Priyanka pointed out that culturally the two industries are different but the passion is the same. "We have the same producers, ADs working on the set. But culturally they are very different. They are very punctual. Everyone comes to the set on time, which I have a problem with," the actress added.

On being a 'desi girl' at heart

Priyanka pointed out that it is very important for every individual to know his roots. "Always remember where you came from. I am a proud Indian, an Army ki beti, daughter of two Doctors with middle-class upbringing and ginormous families. We've seen good and bad times and that is what made me who I am," said the desi girl.

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