 So it gives me great pleasure to introduce Aaron Reeder. Aaron Reeder, born and raised in Oakland, California, moved to Washington in 1997. At the high school, he attended Highlight College and transferred to St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he received his BA in Psychology and received his Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology at Argosy University, Seattle. Aaron has worked in higher education for the past 10 years. He is the Dean of Student Success at Rent Technical College. They stole him from us. Along with his working higher education, Aaron has a passion for poetry, his spoken word. He has been recognized as a local spoken word artist and has been a feature presenter at a number of state and regional conferences and workshops. Please welcome Highlight's favorite son, Back Home. Welcome to Ernie. I first just want to say, before I start, thank you for being back home. I want to take a moment to thank my wife, Lauren. Really, honestly, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about MLK, but there's a lot of women that have impacted the movement. That was alongside MLK. That was before MLK. So I just want to say thank you to her because she has really supported me through this process and without her, this wouldn't happen. So thank you. So how is everyone doing? Good, good. Well, I would like to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to the MLK Planning Committee, Multicultural Affairs, the Center for Leadership and Service, Highline College, the students, faculty, staff, the administrators for just welcoming me back. And really, it feels good to be back in the place where I started my educational journey. And so I hope that many of you sitting in the audience will be able to find yourself completing a full circle at some point through your journey as well. I've been blessed to have the opportunity to speak and perform at a number of groups and a number of arenas, but this one I must say is a little bit quite different. When I was asked to provide a keynote address on the legacy of Dr. King, my initial thought was, who am I? Who am I to speak about such an amazing and iconic person that really moved nations, that helped shift our country? I'm just an inner city kid from Oakland, where a city that gave up on me when I was 18 years old. But after thinking it through, I realized that I represent Dr. King's dream. It's because of King that I'm able to stand here before you today. It's because of him that I've obtained a master's degree. It's because of him that I'm the dean of student success at Renton Technical College. It is because of him that I have the courage to stand up before you and perform spoken word poetry across the Pacific Northwest and really use my voice. So with that being said, it's my absolute privilege and an honor to share the legacy of a man that has impacted my life in so many ways, and I'm forever in debt to. And for all the folks that have helped be a part of that fight. So my question for you today is why are you here? That's the question. I would like, actually, for you all to turn to your neighbor, and I want you to spend about 30 seconds answering that question. Why are you here? This is a literal, not figurative, so please turn to your neighbor and answer that question. I asked you why you were here, not what you planned on doing this weekend. So for some of you, this is just a day away from work. It's a day out of class. For others, this is a day of reflection. For some of you, it's extra credit. I think I see a couple extra credits in here right now. I've seen some head nods. Well, this week, here at Highline and across the globe, I'm sure that you're going to hear all the highlights of MLK. You're going to hear that on January 15th he was born. You're going to hear that he attended Morehouse College. You might hear that he married Coretta. You might hear that he led the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. You might hear that he founded the SCLC. You might hear that he delivered the famous I Have a Dream speech. And you also may hear, or you should, that he was assassinated in 1968. Well, one thing you need to know is that Dr. King's holiday was signed into law in 1983. And it wasn't officially observed until about three years later. And then officially, by all the states, it wasn't observed until 2000. That's not long ago, people. And as we created this hero, we have somehow amplified certain parts of him and his narrative. But when you do that, you also forget some of those narratives and some of those parts. This has caused us to be so far removed from the history and the real struggle of the civil rights movement that some of you all don't understand it. Well, guess what? I'm not here to give you a history lesson. Or talk about some of the things that you're going to hear year after year after year. I'm here to push you beyond your comfort zone. Some of you all are going to be uncomfortable. I'm here to give you a wake-up call. I'm going to leave you short of breath. And I'm going to challenge you to stay woke. And what I'm going to talk about, I hate to say it to you, is the uncomfortable and inconvenient reality of where we are today. So I want to ask you all, really briefly, what do you think the civil rights... Well, actually, when you think of civil rights, what comes to mind? So here's the question. When you think about civil rights, what comes to mind? Inequality. Women. Freedom. Pain. Hatred. Systemic racism. Justice. Anyone else? Resilience. We still fighting. Okay. So those are just a few. The interesting thing is that many people don't even know how. There's two reasons that come to mind for me as to why we don't know who MLK really is. One of those reasons is this idea that we romanticize him. Right? This idea that Dr. King was just peaceful. He was just nonviolent. He was a leader that had thought-provoking speeches. We rarely talk about how radical he was, which there are some instructors who say, I know they do that, but we rarely as a country talk about how radical Dr. King was. How unapologetic he was. How some of his calls to action hit people in the stomach, hit them in the gut. That if he was to call them same actions right now, some of you all would be uncomfortable. If Dr. King was here right now and said he's about to go to the Black Lives Matter march, I wonder how many of y'all would be uncomfortable. The last five years coming to an MLK celebration and now you're hit with an inconvenient reality. We don't talk about how hard it was to lead during a time where there was segregation. There was lynchings, bombings, racism that wasn't covert. It was in your face. It wasn't the Pacific Northwest passive-aggressive racism. It was in your face. There was institutional discrimination. Economic genocide. He was one of the most investigative people at one point. He was arrested. Stabbed. His house was bombed. He received threats on a daily basis. He was the face of a movement when possibility of you being killed, you being arrested or hung was a reality. How many of you would have been so fearless? I want you to think about that for a second. How many of you would have been so fearless to be able to do that in the face of all that? I hear folks all the time, young folks saying, if I was back in the 60s, I would have did this. And I would have done that. Why can't we just go to a time where people are just outwardly racist? Well, to be honest, some of y'all wouldn't be able to handle that. Would you really be able to handle somebody coming up into your face and it's calling you all kinds of names, in word, showing you pictures of people being hung, chasing you with burning crosses? That's not what you want. But a lot of y'all sitting here and say, oh yeah, if I was back in the 60s, that's what I would have did. But some of y'all can't even handle where we at right now. Number two is that he's been commercialized. Now's the time. I'm not going to say that, but I wonder how many other black folks get called during MLK week, during Black History Month. I think I was joking with a friend of mine and I was like, hey, you know what, if you want to see me speak, you got January and February. Because that's when they going to call me. We want you to talk during Black History Month and MLK. But the rest of the year, we'll get somebody else to do that. Right? This holiday has been extremely commercialized. We see images. We read the same quotes. We talk about how far we have come. People love that. How far have we come? His face is on shirts. It's on cups. Commercial ads. You hear it on the radio. Documentaries are being featured randomly on cable. If you got it. Or fire stick. It's kind of like we've been watching an action movie with eight sequels. And you know what happens when you watch eight sequels. You normalize it. You know exactly what the spec. You know the outcome. You know the plot. You know the twist. Companies have been capitalizing on this opportunity. That's what you all need to understand. Companies have been capitalizing. They're making money off of his face. Making money off of that quote, I have a dream. And this enables us to avoid the uncomfortable truth. It draws attention away from his legacy. And the impact that he had on this country far exceeds any sales that his name is being used in. So here we are 50 years later. So let's talk about how far we have not come. So my next question to you all is what are current civil rights issues right now? Yes. Still have to deal with racism. What else? Doctor. Other countries being called shitholes. Private prisons. Police brutality in the school to prison pipeline. Voter suppression. Jurymandering. Exactly. This list is going on and on. So we sit here and we talk about how far have we come. But it's been 50 years and this list right here is exactly the same list that it was 50 years ago. So it kills me when we talk about how far we come. We talk about how far we have not come. Right? Today social media is covered with racist comments and imagery. Segregation has hit our colleges. So some people will say well I don't understand. We're integrated. These colleges are diverse. Well, why don't you start looking at how many students of color or black students are in pre-college classes? Developmental classes. Right? How about you start looking at completion rates? Graduation rates. So when we start talking about segregation it's still here. We can look around the room and say yeah we're diverse but look around that room in that pre-college English in that pre-college math and let me know how diverse we are. There are more black men in prison today than there were in slaves in 1850. If you haven't seen the film 13th go do it. If you haven't read the new Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander go do it. Gentrification continues to run rampant through the cities. We can look at housing right now. Highline college I hate to tell you but you're going to have more diverse people coming here because everybody from north is being pushed south. If you live in Seattle you know. If you're from the C.D. you know. If you're from the south end you know. You know. Folks who live in Kent right now you're going to know. It's just moving. Gentrification is still happening. There's not much movement going on right now with poverty. Let's not talk about achievement gaps completion rates. There's this term called grit. Let's not use that term anymore. Grit is basically another way of saying resiliency which we know folks of color already have. We come equipped with resiliency. We have no choice but to be resilient. So when we start talking about grit well you know what students don't have that grit. What do you mean don't have that grit? They have the same resiliency. They sit in class and they're the only person that look like them in the class. They're trying to catch three buses just to get to class on time. So that looks like grit to me right? We have an administration that has given the green light to just be outwardly racist. People are justifying racist comments that might come from the president. Gender inequalities and harassment cover the news every single day. Every now and then you got to unplug and turn that off. People are still fighting for basic rights and there's millions of people still trapped in various forms of slavery. Not just the physical body ones trapped in slavery right here. Despite the tremendous progress our country has made since the Civil Rights you know what y'all we got a lot of work to do. We got a number of major protests that have happened in response to the election. Unarmed black men and women being killed by the hands of law enforcement unarmed confederate rallies black lives matter that's just to name a few. How many of y'all have been to a protest? I see a few folks they like this. If you've been to the protest say you've been to the protest. Right? Well why are we dealing with this in our society? Right? Why are we still going to protest? Why are we dealing with this? Because we got work to do. There was a speech that King delivered on August 31st 1967 in title Anybody know? The three evils of society. He talked about militarism capitalism and racism. He said that we've always kind of dealt with poverty but the difference now is we basically have the resources to end it but we don't use the money for it. Right? We got the resources. You look at the top 1%, 5% we got the resources. But yet we still choose not to do nothing about that. But how does this relate today? Well president is adamant about building a wall and if I can keep folks out don't let them in that's my pockets that's capitalism. Administration playing roulette with nuclear weapons militarism NFL players you can't even get an endorsement or get it renewed if you take a knee for expressing your right maybe racism. These ads and cartoons was back in the 1800s and yet over and over we continue to see these racist ads come out. H&M Pepsi What was that? Psychology today Dove, cosmetics it just happens left and right. We see military tanks show up when there's protesting Oh I'm sorry there's protests and then the protest turns into a riot and then it's civil unrest but there's tanks and army gear pulling up in a space where you're supposed to be able your legal right to be able to protest and we got military tanks showing up. How would y'all react if a tank drove up on campus right now? See we got to put it in perspective because some students are like yeah that was a tank I saw that tank way over there in Ferguson I'm going to tell you right now I've been on the campus and I'm not going to say names and a tank was on campus not because it was civil unrest but it was on campus and guess what people of color black folks it went around like wildfire hey you know there's a tank outside I'm not about to go over there by that tank and I saw some white students climbing on it taking selfies on the tank and I'm like I can't go over there because when I look on TV that's the same tank that if I was to climb on it when it was over there I wouldn't be standing here right now right so it's just the mindset that we got to get out of we got to wake up folks you got to start challenging and questioning everything and I can tell some folks right now are getting a little bit uncomfortable with my fault I'm supposed to give y'all the normal MLK celebration talk so I guess I'm going to have to probably like try to translate it for you some of you are far removed removed from a movement that was built on the backs of my ancestors who've experienced church bombs attack dogs, water hoses and wind chesters if you're the type to think that times have changed drastically then you need to change your trajectory you see perception is your enemy so quit sitting around waiting for change it just happened let me remind you you're not the statue of liberty literally this is a warning while you're creating new language be careful what you speak you know whips and chains and eyebrows on fleek but you see whips and chains been around longer than you think but I get it I get it this white movement was way before your time but if you make no change then that leaves problems for those who come behind and if you can look past my hoodie and my tattoos and you will see my accomplishments and degrees but the media tells you otherwise so that's not what you see I'm just another black man yelling out I can't breathe I can't breathe maybe just a statement for this poet but in thought it's a thought sure there's a cost for standing up to ignorance but the cost of that is so much more like a jury with no indictment history has repeated portions of its past just to keep you silent so marches was nonviolent protests we tried education without the truth that's kind of like solitary confinement with no words to define it slavery, segregation ISIS, foreign nations Paris, heavy armor that was Ferguson, then Ghana 1968, some say death to a martyr well that's why I stand harder and if we claim to be inclusive in a world so diverse then why did we write the Star Spangled Third Verse let that rest on your mind you'd be surprised what you can learn with a little free time but you see my days have been built on self-restraint from holding back tears that I can zip off this brown colored paint with both hands up I still gotta check my fate and since life is a game of privilege then like chess I guess that's checkmate and like the poets before me let my words be the callous of judgment this isn't about just us but justice like Dr. King said creative maladjustment click clap and this is a cry out to all the oppressed and allies don't let this be a dream deferred you see this dream we must grow it I was told that once you learn it you can't unknow it click clap oh yeah don't let me forget to mention some of y'all are real suspect when it comes to your social action and this time y'all fit the description click clap but the problem is that there's too many should be too many I should be studying I should be in class should be a better student better faculty better staff wait when the season went in it was blue Fridays we should be wearing our 12s but truth of the matter is that too many of y'all need to stop shooting on yourselves so now why are we here that is the question for those of you sitting here right now thank you for those of you sitting here right now thinking nah I don't really believe all that that you said I believe some of it well you know what I encourage you to go do your own research do your homework read how many of y'all actually read the third verse of the Star Spangled Banner wow but I'm pretty sure there's a lot of opinions about why NFL players are taking a knee instead of having a problem with why they're taking a knee in the first place you're more concerned about the kneeling don't choose to delegitimize you don't have a response to the message instead of criticizing I would say do your homework so now you would understand why players are taking knees here we are 50 years later and we still don't acknowledge how difficult it is for people of color to move around in spaces that are predominantly white and oppressive this is the stuff King would talk about it's 50 years later I don't even talk about how difficult it is to operate in those spaces like how hard it really is to work in an institution of higher education and I worked in a few, Highline has been one of them to be a student to be the only student of color in that classroom to be around organizations and systems that are built off of white ideologies the white belief of how it should be run how it should be taught what it should look like what text should you buy the structure of your classroom everybody sit in tables and face forward the consequences for calling out your instructors to be profiled followed to be mistaken as a student when you work at the college to be doubted be the spokesperson for your entire race to not be listened to to be resisted against to be responsible for the hidden work how many of y'all know what the hidden work is oh the hidden work let me give you an example the hidden work is I'm in a meeting and somebody says something that's racist or they say something that's offensive or oppressive and you know you leave that meeting and now all of a sudden you go back to your office and you sit in here like man I think some of this don't feel right and then somebody else come knock on your door hey you got a minute I want to talk to you about what happened in that meeting and y'all in there talking about what happened for 25 minutes the meeting has ended and we doing counseling in the office we doing counseling in the parking lot on the way to the car at 5.30 we doing counseling in the library students in the library meetings oh let me just tell you they didn't mean that well what should we do who should we go to that's the hidden work and we don't talk about the hidden work MLK had to do some hidden work the folks around MLK had to do some hidden work we're 50 years later and we still got to do hidden work or we don't talk about what it's like to be microaggress I mean I think some points we do sometimes we have a conversation about what a microaggression is but we don't be talking about it like that all the time because then too many people be uncomfortable up in here and folks start getting defensive some of that fragility starts kicking in you know those tears start falling I feel guilty I'm sorry let me just cry this out alright well here goes a tissue and when you finish drying them eyes let's get back to talking about this microaggression that you did right and those tears come back so we don't talk about how hard that is and not really want to cuss somebody out and swing out on somebody that's to be honest so we think about a time when MLK was around he had people overtly calling him names overtly throwing you know cocktails at him overtly taking shots do you know how hard it is that's a personal color to be in these spaces and do that and not cuss somebody out you know how hard it is if you're an administrator and you got students who start saying some stuff that you just like I just want to take my name tag off I get off working but you know you're not going to do that you can't do that because we love y'all we can't do that right but do you know how hard it really is to do that some of you can't even stand to get criticism we talk about how hard it is to be in these spaces and some folks can't stand criticism some of y'all can't even stand to see a group of employees or a group of teachers together laughing and giggling without you feeling some sort of way there was a lot of let alone let's start talking about coming to work the next day or coming to class and talking about what happened on the news with NFL players taking knees and things like that some of y'all can't stand that girls being killed by police so it's like think about it for a second we keep talking about how far we've come but some of y'all can't even stand to have those type of conversations folks are really uncomfortable right now when you sit up here I can see the squirming I see it which lets me know I'm doing my job but you know my fault my fault I'm supposed to give y'all the normal MLK celebration so I'm going to translate that for y'all because you know it's like folks get uncomfortable and I know okay I'm supposed to give you the we have a dream so I'm going to translate everything I just said for you all Martin Luther King once said that he had a dream but he somehow never seemed to sleep on us that is the right now a generation he never meet you see MLK to some folks these days commercialized as just another day in another name where rallies only seem to happen in high school gyms before tip-off and chains are placed on your brain you see no one has to lie about history because if we omit the facts then we don't have to place the blame but you see these days if you were to question history they would call you disruptive only to complicate what they can't accommodate which serves as a band day to be bleeding because if you read the truth behind history's pain then schools will become hospitals because the pages will be bleeding but y'all sleeping y'all sleep like 1968 wasn't just 50 years ago sleep like the butler movie was in the reality during Jim Crow sleep like Alabama state wasn't always known for its touchdowns because running back meant never stopping until you got home safely but y'all sleeping and the education system is built on repetition you know keeping you machine like otherwise you'd all be scholars carrying forward the work of Dr. King's life but half of y'all only seem to know two lines from the I Have a Dream speech now that should be the predictor that they frame in you trying to keep you boxed in so you don't see the bigger picture but picture this two points can come together full circle and not be concentric by far but you see control and 16 bars been around longer than Kendrick Lamar but y'all sleeping y'all sleeping and education is a safety belt to stop you from crashing into incompetence so don't let them fool you just be confident you were born to be smart but you got to speak up in class because teachers don't have to answer invisible question marks you see the question starts with how do we solve this problem well you can't solve a problem if you're in the same consciousness that created it so you need to change your stamp right now because you see Dr. King he post-dated it but y'all sleeping and Dr. King is much more radical than what you've been fed instead of learning y'all too busy instagraming because somehow you seem to have lost your Pinterest in school so now you just face books and never read them and the book is much deeper than that title on the spine so you need to be linked in like yesterday because I tell you right now you're better off going to school and coming out with debts to pay but the debate today is always around education or get paid and it's complex you see it's complex because it puts your reality of what identity is into context you see now's the time for real choices not false ones I mean look at how far we have not come Dr. King started the battle but the war was not won and if you don't know this then you ain't living because you should know the difference unless you're the type to hear and not listen but you see this poem was written with no one to spare because injustice to anyone like King said is a threat to justice everywhere so hopefully y'all not sleeping no more hopefully it's time for y'all to start waking up so on April 4th 1967 Dr. King also delivered the speech beyond Vietnam a time to break the silence this is one of King's most controversial species because when he delivered it he delivered it basically going against what everybody told him and advised him not to he was against the Vietnam war right this is probably one of the most one of the first times that someone publicly used that opportunity to be anti-war and King did that you might be thinking what does this matter 50 years later it matters because King was told not to speak up they tried to silence him right they tried to tell King you know what don't do it because you're going to shift the momentum we talk about civil rights don't start don't start messing with their money because you mess with their money and now all of a sudden the folks who was about non-violence and civil rights they're going to start backing off a lot of his followers chose not to stand behind him people challenged his point of view they basically said don't stand up for this well guess what King did his homework he educated himself on the issue he was confident he researched and he spoke about it he spoke the truth King realized that we were taking resources and money, bodies taking them outside of our country when we couldn't even take care of the war that was happening right here at home which is still happening to today the war that's happening on Highlines campus y'all students are here y'all know what the war is here I don't I can tell you what the war was when I was a student but y'all know what the war is here right so this is the time when King spoke about doing something when everybody all odds was against him how many of you have spoken up or been an accomplice we don't say ally we say accomplice because you're an ally you can be an ally Monday through Wednesday and then Thursday Friday and the weekend you can go back to you know when you're an accomplice especially me I grew up in East Oakland in the car and y'all driving to the store and somebody got something in the car and ain't supposed to be in the car and police stop you guess what all y'all going you an accomplice I don't have the choice of backing out this time no officer I'm a step out you go ahead and get them in the car I'm about to go inside the gas station no it don't work that way right so when is the last time that you have been an accomplice that's the question how many of you have spoken up through social media more hands going up how many of you have spoken up at a meeting we still got this happening right now y'all if you spoke up be proud that you spoke up how many of you have challenged the values in the belief system of your own families so we got some practice going in that's where you get that practice from and in those times how many of you all have actually educated yourself about what that issue was so we quick to really have conversations we're really quick to to hop on the bandwagon social media makes that real easy to do hop on the bandwagon say my little comment and you don't have to see my face people don't even know what they're talking about these days and the thing is we're teaching children we're teaching students and sometimes we don't even know what we're talking about so your words are powerful you have to be careful so as we keep talking about this 50 years later as we close I got one more question for you and that question really is what are you going to do now right you realize that 50 years later we have not come that far there's still issues happening what are you going to do later it's imperative that you stop being silent and you start calling out injustice silence is basically the same thing as condoning if you don't say nothing you're basically saying I'm okay with that I need you all to start speaking up in meetings speak up when you notice racism in the hiring process speak up when you see others are uncomfortable speak up when something just don't feel right take action protesting may not be your choice as an educator wouldn't teach your protest is to teach teach the truth if you're an artist you don't have to go marching use your art I'm a poet so it's my responsibility to write if you're a musician it's your responsibility to create to put it together there's been tons of musicians during multiple movements after Vietnam you had Marvin Gaye what's going on Nina Simone you had the Mississippi goddamn song Billie Holiday Strange Fruit Chuck Berry's Duck Walk Black and I'm proud Black Lives Matter you had formation Kendricks Lamar we going to be alright right the next thing you need to do is tell the truth in public too many of y'all call people out in meetings in public spaces and then when you're wrong or when you realize you made your mistake you go apologize in private you go apologize in private which is really detrimental because you've already made the impact some of y'all students you call people out in class and you apologize when class is over I need y'all to start apologizing in public if you're a faculty or staff member apologize in public white folks I need y'all to call out other white folks it is not the sole responsibility of people of color to call out when somebody is being oppressive or racist or doing a microaggression that's a part of being an accomplice I need you to start calling out other folks and understand that systemic racism is alive and well Jim Crow Mida crashed in 1965 but Jim Crow had children and grandchildren and cousins and friends who got jobs who became judges and lawyers presidents right so you need to be thinking about that okay so you see if we're gonna sit here and celebrate a week of events and honor Dr. King talk about his legacy talk about where we are 50 years later King said it best in his speech that basically many people said was his eulogy and he said it best in that where he's talking about trying harder being this drum major I want to play a small clip about three minutes I want you to hear what King talks about when he's talking about that drum major instinct about that day when we will be victimized by those common denominators that's something we call death we all think about it and every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral and I don't think I've been in a morbid sense every now and then I ask myself what is it that I would want to say and I leave the word to you this morning if any of you around meet my baby I don't want to long to deliver the eulogy tell him not to talk to you now tell him not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize that is important tell him not to mention that I have 300 or 400 of awards that's not important tell him not to mention why I went to school I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Junior tried to give his life to my servant of us I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Junior tried to love somebody I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the one question I want you to be able to say that you need to hunger I want you to be able to say that day that I did try I want you to say on that day that I did try who were in prison I tried to love and serve humanity yes, if you want to say that I was a Trump major it will not matter I want him if I can do my duty as a Christian if I can bring some of my living will not be in vain Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side I want to be on your right and I just want to be there in love we can make this whole world so as you see Dr. King is really talking about this idea of the Trump major instinct and I guess my question is kind of ending is what is your Trump major instinct do you have that instinct for peace and righteousness King said everybody has this innate pervasive ability to want to be number one but when that's not harnessed that ability turns into being the first person to hate greed exclusion oppression racism bigotry but when you harness that when you harness that need and that ends up becoming that desire to be number one when it comes to love or loving others number one when it comes to generosity being number one when it calls to go lend out that helping hand and someone else being number one when it comes to calling out racism calling out oppression that's the Trump major instinct and I don't know if you questioned your instinct before but I need you to be thinking when you leave out of here today what is your Trump major instinct that we all do but how are you using it but my fault my fault my fault y'all I'm not supposed to give y'all the normal MLK celebration speech so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna end with this final poem for you all and hopefully you're able to take away what we talked about today and that you have that Trump major instinct in you those things that you don't realize yes, we are 50 years later but we got work to do you see, we're not living in new times we just got new ways of showing what's been around for centuries capturing the last breath through our cell phones leaving stained images in our memories Philando Casteel that was the first time that facebook live actually stood still The truth is easy to retrieve it, it's difficult to see past deception when it's in spaces. Because racism hides behind the smiles of our friends and family faces, and let's face it, our faces aren't on U.S. currency, but our bodies have been treated like numerical transactions. Subtracted from the world using chokeholds and trigger-fingered reactions, it's almost as if we've been denied the right to secure and govern our own bodies, Ta-Nehisi Coates. And the system says that we're both free, yet trapped at the same time. Flawed but beautifully designed. W.E.B. Du Bois calls this a cognitive dissonance within the body and mind. It's like living in a body, but the body ain't mine. That's double consciousness. And when it comes to justice, it's like the Statue of Liberty has been bent. You see, America can care less about the impact because it's so focused on intent. And when bias is present, but the word threat has been mentioned, the only outcome to murder has been administrative leave and a pension. Why can't America be true to the paper? We have the freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, but protesting has been lost in the vapor. To be honest, I'm feeling constitutional fatigue. Because I was told that America was a country that was founded upon creed, but somehow our civil liberties have now leaked over into the league. Athletes get cultural capital, just do as you're told. Reminds me of a time when being fast and strong got you sold. So as you see, this protest is music for us. It's rhythmic, like R&B. As our athletes have gone from boys to men by taking a bended knee, protesting police brutality will somehow offend in the military has become the new script. Kinda like I can be called a thug, but mass shooters get labeled mentally unfit. And I'm nowhere prepared to have conversations as a father about how I can't stop racism from impacting my daughter. And it's crazy because she's gonna grow up, and I don't even have to say his name, but she's gonna know that the number 45 will never be the same. And the education system is real. Don't be fooled. Oppression is not a delusion. It's embedded in every procedure and process and policy within every institution. And since it's not visible, that creates the confusion that students are the problem. So that's the illusion. Y'all not listening. I'm not listening. But you see, the education system has been hit with misdirection. Written falsely, repeated constantly without no correction. You see history called as villains, but we made America billions. From building all y'all buildings, then we're still looking through glass ceilings. So yeah, I feel some type of way. Because treatment like this, it don't just get wiped away. So I hope that y'all have heard all the words that I just spoke. I'm gonna end by saying, I'm a warrior scholar. Hashtag stay woke, thank you.