The Most Revolutionary
A commencement speech given by Silas
House
at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, 3 May
2014
I’ve spoken at many commencements but I don't believe I've ever been so honored to be speaking because you are my people,
and I am so proud of you. I know how happy you are that four years—or more—of
struggle are finished. I have been humbled and moved and inspired by the
journey of so many of you. The
best part of teaching at Berea is that I learn something from each of you every
day.
I
know this is a day of celebration for you, and rightly so. Because you have worked hard, you have
fought the good fight. You are revolutionary because you are committed to
knowledge in a time and world that increasingly values dumbness and apathy, a
world that celebrates the talentless and makes celebrities out of the
undignified. You are revolutionary
because you are a generation that is demanding equality in a way no generation
ever before has. Because I have
seen you demand this equality every day by accepting each other for your
differences during your time here.
I’ve witnessed you loving one another not in spite of your differences
but because of them. That is what
true family does. I’ve watched so
many of you evolve and grow; I’ve seen you trying to be the best people you can
be.
And that is the most revolutionary thing
of all is the act of trying our best to be good. We are not creatures composed completely of goodness. We are made up of innate meanness and a
natural kindness. We are people who
are forever trying to make the good the bigger part of us. I have seen the good prevail, in the
way you support and encourage one another, in the ways you love your families
both blood and created. And I’ve
witnessed it in the way you stick up for one another and refuse to sit by while
hatred and judgment happens.
Now, with all of that said, please don’t misunderstand me to
be a downer when I tell you that the even bigger struggle begins today. Over
the past few years you’ve lived and learned within the Berea Bubble, and to
some extent, you’ve been shielded from many aspects of the wider world. But now that world looms before you,
standing tall and wide and outfitted with sharp, jagged teeth. Not only the struggle to find a job and
find your place in the world. But
the truest struggle of all that you must work toward each and every day is
being the best person you can be. Each day of your life you will have to make
moral decisions. You will have to
strive to be the bigger person.
And you will have to strive to remain
revolutionary. To retain your
power. One of my favorite writers
is Alice Walker. She once said: “The most common way people give up
their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” I believe we have added to your power during your time here
at Berea. We have pumped up your
power to recognize injustice, to participate in civil discourse, to actively
seek out ways to serve others.
But
even within this beloved community—where we work every single day to examine issues
of equality and service and compassion—we have seen power distorted. There have been awful instances of
racism, homophobia, and classism.
We have seen patriarchy rear its terrible head. The difference between this beloved
community and the wider world is that I believe we truly do try our best here
at Berea. Witnessing injustice is
harder here because we are more conscious here at Berea. We talk about these things in a complex
and mostly honest way. The same is
not true in that sharp-toothed world awaiting you. Because when you encounter injustice there, no one will
appear to ask for you to reflect on it like we do at Berea. No meetings will be called. No counselors will be brought in. You are on your own, and you must stand
alone in a world rife with rudeness and hatefulness, with snideness and
arrogance, a world teeming with ignorance. And because of what we have taught you here at Berea—to
fight for justice, to stand against intolerance, to be of service—you will have
to plant your feet firmly and refuse to condone these acts of injustice by
being silent.
The
greatest challenge for all of us is to walk through the world each and every
day with conscious hearts.
That
is the great challenge of this life:
to be as good as we can be.
To fight back, but always with respect and love. To stand against injustice. To serve others.
Yes,
I hope that you are able to get a job as soon as you leave here. I hope you make a good living and are
able to have whatever your heart desires.
And I hope that we gave you the best education we could here at Berea,
an education that has outfitted you to be ready for the workforce. You have been here for an academic
experience, and there is no doubt about that. But I hope that just as much as we have given you academic
armor we have also given you the shields of service and compassion, two of the
essential instruments needed to go through life with that conscious heart,
which will open you to heartache.
Be
conscious in ways that remind you of the suffering of others. Remember what Appalachian writer James
Still once said: “What happens in
Afghanistan, happens to me.”
Because when hurt is done to one of us, it is done to the world
entire. Be conscious not only of
how your heart operates, but also of how your eyes see, what your mouth says,
and to what your hands lend their power.
I’ve
been honored that some of you out there have shared your stories with me, and I
know that too many of you have felt negated because of where you’re from, or
the color of your skin, or whom you love, or the way you talk, or how you
believe or don’t believe. And I
know how that feels. I know how it
is to be called “trailer trash”, how it feels to be belittled and ridiculed
because of who I am. Like many of
you, I was the first person in my family to graduate from college, to come from
people who couldn’t go to college because they were doing everything in their
power to rise up out of poverty and give their children the things they never
had themselves. Like you, I’ve had
people in power assume that I am inferior. I’ve been refused service because of who I am. Shunned. Spoken to with hatred.
And every day I see my people put down. I hear folks railing against those who are on or have ever
been on welfare. I see the
criminalization of the hoodie, the laughter at an accent that isn’t
newscasterish enough, the disgusting arrogance of a rape culture out of
control, the everyday homophobia. I
see a country divided on issues of immigration, gender, orientation, religion,
race, and much more.
And
so I hope that you will not see the challenges before you as frightening or
daunting. Instead, I trust that
you will be able to stand for yourself and others when injustice rises up. Be revolutionary in your ways of
kindness.
This
does not necessarily mean that you have to be out marching in the streets. This does not mean that you have to
spend all of your time arguing with people when they think differently than
you. This doesn’t even mean that
you have to be overtly political.
What it does mean is that you must always be aware of how you are treating
others and you must never stand by when another person or group is being
negated. What this means, more
than anything, is that you must get up everyday and think about ways you can do
good. This means you must be on
the lookout for ways to be of service, to not only talk the talk but also walk
the walk. You can’t simply say
that you’re opposed to injustice—you must be an active part of fighting it.
I
am reminded here of one of my favorite things that Walt Whitman ever said. “Resist much. Obey little.” I
believe this, but I believe that we must look at this saying in a complex way.
This is not simply an anti-authority sentiment. Resist the urge to let the meanness that lives in all of us
manifest itself. Resist the
compulsion to approach situations with negativity. Resist joining in groupthink. Always, always think for yourself. Resist the urge to be silent or invisible. Because, as Harvey Milk said, “Hope
will never be silent.” Do not
follow the crowd. Do not allow the
media to tell you how to think.
Seek out knowledge. Use it,
study over it, tuck it into your mind as you would a stone that you might
polish into complete smoothness with your thumb. Do not obey the common thought that everything lies on the
surface. Dig deeper. Think more complexly. Argue with compassion and respect. Obey no one who tries to rule you.
After
years of academia I am hopeful that you know the equations and sentence
structures and proper ways to cite sources. I trust that you are well-schooled in the history of your
own country and our world. In your own place in the world, whether that be
Appalachia or South Africa or Afghanistan or anywhere in between. I know that
you have explored complex and even abstract issues like religion, philosophy,
psychology. You’ve learned how to
be more physically fit and to expand your brain. But in the end, truly, it all lands on the simplest
thing: be kind. Be strong. Never, ever set aside your pride or dignity. Do not allow anyone to belittle you or
your people or anyone else. Resist
injustice. Obey that innate urge
to do good. Every single day we
can do something revolutionary because the most revolutionary thing of all is
being the best people we can be.
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