diversifiedminds

Good evening. It is an honor to be here with you all tonight. I remember listening to Boston College alum Steve Pemberton speak during Black Family Weekend’s Black Excellence Gala. In his speech he described how Boston College became his home while he was a student. I know exactly what he meant. From the first day I stepped onto campus as a high school junior in 2001 I instantly felt a connection. During my four years here I made it my home.   With that said I want to thank you all for inviting me back home tonight. I don’t know how it is in your homes, but in mine things are said that make you laugh, make you cry, make you think and challenge your beliefs. I hope that my homecoming will accomplish that as well. If my name looks familiar to many of you that’s because I am the alum who wrote in to The Heights a few weeks ago. One of the students on campus had deep reservations about the way that The Heights covered Ta-Nehisi Coates on campus talk. I have been a fan of Coates wr...

Good morning Regis High School. As Mr. Garcia mentioned my name is Akim St.Omer. It is my deep honor to be with you on this special morning. I am a graduate of the best Jesuit college in America, Boston College, a place where the ideals of Jesuit education helped fundamentally shape the person that I am today. As a result, it always feels like I am coming back home when I enter a Jesuit institution. With that, I thank you all for welcoming me into your home this morning. Before I begin, I want to extend sincere thanks to two members of the Regis staff. Mr. Garcia, thank you for having me here this morning. When we began exchanging emails back in January and I recommended American Promise to you, I never expected that just a few short months later I'd be here discussing issues around this movie to the entire school. Your work and continued focus on equality, especially in education, will no doubt leave its mark on the world in general, and Regis in particular. I am confident th...

Invited guests, families, friends and most of all members of the Class of 2014. We gather on this momentous day to celebrate the hard work and dedication that you have exhibited these past few years. You should be proud of all that you have done. Graduates take a moment to honor your families and friends who have traveled far and wide to be with you on this day. Whether it was the phone call to mom or dad just to hear their voice (though we know you won't admit that). Whether it was the call to grandma and grandpa when you were in need of reassuring words or the occasional deposit into your account. Or whether it was the aunts, uncles, cousins and other extended family members that cheered you on from the sidelines. This is as much their day as it is yours. Stand up, turn around and give them a public standing ovation for being the wind beneath your sails these past few years. Often times at graduations people hear how amazing they are. It is often said that the graduating clas...

It was February 11, 1990, ten days after my sixth birthday. Even at that young age I was aware of politics and justice way beyond my years. I thank my grandmother who was herself deeply involved in equality herself. She having attended Megdar Evers College with Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's wife years before. On the television in front of me I was watching Nelson Mandela walk out of jail after 27 years. As a young boy I knew that I was watching history and would never see something like it again. This man was important to me even at six years old. Years later it became clear to me why he was. As Mandela continued his path to the presidency of South Africa and beyond I marveled at what he was able to do. His work on ending apartheid inspired in me the belief that being a servant of the people and aiming to create equality was not only noble but necessary. As I navigated the worlds of predominantly black and brown schools and then predominantly white schools Nelson Mandela's wor...

The 3/5 Compromise was a compromise reached between Southern and Northern states in 1797 that essentially counted every black person as 3/5 of a human being for representation purposes in Congress. It was one of many legal ways that blacks in America knew that they were not valued as whole members of society. How much more egregious and blatant could one be in this regard than by explicitly stating that you are only 3/5 whole. Since the passing of this doctrine there have been many ways, some legal and some not that still upholds the belief that blacks, especially black men are not whole members of society. From the passing of segregation laws, to the lynching of many, to the unfair treatment of blacks in every avenue of American society. It is clear to many that equality is truly an elusive dream. What happens to a dream deferred? We saw partially what that looks like on Saturday night by the ruling in the George Zimmerman trial. I for one do not blame the jury one bit. In fact I fe...

I am a Boston College alum. I wear this badge of honor with the same pride I do being a son of Brooklyn. My affiliation with the best college town in the country means a lot. That's not to say that the rivalry, sometimes in fun, sometimes quite serious, between New Yorkers and Bostonians weren't real. But what was even more real was the mutual respect I felt between the two sides. As young people who ventured to Boston for college, it became more than a city where we attended school. It  became a home away from home. We met the people who would become family. We met the professors that would inspire in us change and growth. We met administrators who would irrevocably change who we were and what we wanted in our lives. Boston symbolized not only home, but rebirth. We became the men and women we hoped college would help develop. The Boston Marathon as a college student was the most awesome day on the calendar. Marathon Monday as it is called was a full day party. As a student a...

Advocates for diversity across many areas of the political, social, economic and religious sectors have long been argued the moral necessity for diversity. Equality was vital for the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement and as of late the Immigration and Gay Rights Movements. Moral diversity was on display in its most vivid degree yesterday at  the inauguration of Barack Obama. On Tuesday January 20, 2009 I was amongst 1.8 million friends and family on the National Mall celebrating the almost unimaginable election of the nation's first black president. It stands in my mind as one of the most seminal moments in my life. Four years later it was time to celebrate the validation of that election, epitomized by the re-election of our nation's 44th President. The profound nature of the moment was no less palpable than it was four years ago. I decided to stay at home and watch the inauguration with my grandmother and great grandmother. The chance to watch this hi...

Thank you sir. On behalf of people everywhere who have had to live in shame and secrecy because of who they are and who they love. Thank you on behalf of heterosexual people like myself and countless others who support the rights of those who may not be heterosexual to live as freely as they deserve. Thank you for showing another way to be black and masculine in a society often expecting black and masculine to be defined by the most nefarious of traits known to man. Thank you on behalf of people everywhere who believe in the creed we say with arms over our hearts in our American Pledge of Allegiance "with liberty and justice for all." Simply thank you. Yesterday, on a day that we celebrated our American Independence, you celebrated your own. You decided that at a time when the public's views on same sex relationships are beginning to shift, that it was your time to stand up. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to make that choice. Being entrenched in the hi...