Michelle Obama kicked off her “Dear Class of 2020” graduation speech with a list of uncomfortable questions and truths.
“Over the past couple of months, our foundation has been shaken,” Mrs. Obama said. “Not just by a pandemic that stole too many of our loved ones, upended our daily lives and sent tens of millions into unemployment. But also by the rumbling of the age-old fault lines that our country was built on. The lines of race and power that are now, once again, so nakedly exposed for all of us to grapple with.”
The former First Lady opened up, revealing that she too feels overwhelmed by the current state of the world. “If any of you are scared, or confused, or angry, or just plain overwhelmed by it all, if you feel like you’re searching for a lifeline just to steady yourself, you are not alone. I am feeling all of that too. I think we all are.”
The speech continued on, pointing out that these painful issues aren’t an anomaly.
“What’s happening right now is the direct results of decades of unaddressed prejudice an inequality. The truth is, when it comes to all those tidy stories of hard work and self-determination that we like to tell ourselves about America, well, the reality is a lot more complicated than that. Because for too many people in this country, no matter how hard they work, there are structural barriers working against them that just make the road longer and rockier.”
