President’s Morehouse Remarks on Race Spark Social Media Discussion

The last time a sitting president made a commencement address in Georgia was in 1938 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to summer graduates at the University of Georgia.

Today the social media world has been flooded with commentary about President Barack Obama’s commencement speech.

In his speech, President Obama gave a personal account of race and dealing with personal responsibility.

“Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down.  I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing.  But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there’s no longer any room for excuses.”

From online blogs, to Facebook to Twitter, President Obama’s commencement speech has already been analyzed, criticized, praised and disliked.

On its Facebook page, the website urbanintellectuals.com promoted its article, Was President Obama Being Disrespectful to Morehouse Men? Some are Saying “Yes”.

It generated more than 50 responses.

Dr. Tyrone Forman is the director of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference.

It’s located at Emory University.

He’s not surprised by the reactions to Obama’s speech especially those dealing with racism.

“A real concern that people have at this moment in our history, many people are tired of hearing about racial inequality as a barrier to achievement for people in our society. And I think that continues to be a powerful force.”

Dr. Forman says the president did acknowledge racial inequality still exists, but went a step further by talking about how to draw strength from that exclusion.

“It really was a call to action to say not that discrimination and bias are a thing of the past, but in fact it needs to be one that  we need to all recommit to challenging at the same time not just for ourselves, but for our community and society.”

Obama told the graduates to not only relish the Morehouse legacy, but to also accept the social call to duty that comes with their degrees.

“But along with collective responsibilities, we have individual responsibilities.  There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves.  There are some things, as Morehouse Men, that you are obliged to do for those still left behind.  As Morehouse Men, you now wield something even more powerful than the diploma you’re about to collect — and that’s the power of your example.”