Morehouse Students And Faculty 'Wrestling' With Whether…Or How…To Protest Next Month's Commencement

8 months ago
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President Joe Biden is to deliver the commencement speech next month at Morehouse College in Atlanta. NBC News reports, however, that college leadership and faculty were having a conference call on Thursday to get their feelings on "Genocide Joe" appearing on campus. You know they'd clear any encampments and seal off the place if Biden were to speak. Morehouse College’s leadership is set to hold a call on Thursday — where faculty will get the chance to speak — to address concerns over having President Biden as the school’s commencement speaker next month. Commencement season is traditionally a time for presidents to engage with younger audiences and all the energy they bring. But this year, with pro-Palestinian protests — and protests against Biden’s support for Israel — dominating college campuses, these speeches are more fraught. The White House announced this week that Biden will be doing just two commencement addresses this year, at Morehouse and at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Morehouse professor Andrew Douglas said many students and faculty are “wrestling” with whether — or how — to protest next month’s commencement. “I’ve spoken with several faculty members who say under no conditions are they going to sit on a stage with Joe Biden,” Douglas said, adding: “It’s on everybody’s mind.” Douglas, a political science professor in his 13th year at Morehouse, is a member of the school’s faculty council, the 15-member body that wrote a letter to the school’s president last week expressing “disappointment” upon hearing rumors that Biden had been invited to speak. But Biden actually attended a historically black college in his youth, where he was at the top of his class. University officials say the invitation will not be rescinded. This might be a preview of what we'll see in Chicago during the Democrat National Convention. Students at Atlanta’s HBCU Morehouse College say they’re not going to attend Joe Biden’s commencement address because “this is something that’s on his political agenda to get more young black voters.”

Joe Biden's planned commencement address at historically Black college Morehouse in Atlanta faces cancelation following massive student protests sweeping the nation against Israel. Faculty members are calling on Morehouse College to rescind its invitation to Joe Biden to speak at its 2024 commencement: "Any college or university that gives its commencement stage to President Biden in this moment is endorsing genocide." One student questioned whether Biden’s visit and giving him an honorary degree makes Morehouse “complicit” in “genocide.” Thomas said that question “has kept me up at night.” Only one student spoke in defense of Biden’s visit, underscoring Thomas’ point that having the leader of the free world on campus is good for Morehouse. Other students heckled him.

• More at: Twitchy - President Biden's Commencement Speech at Morehouse Proving Problematic
https://twitchy.com/brettt/2024/04/25/president-bidens-commencement-speech-at-morehouse-proving-problematic-n2395538
NBC News: 'It's on everybody's mind': Morehouse faculty and students raise concerns about Biden's graduation speech
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/morehouse-faculty-students-concerns-biden-graduation-speech-rcna149283
Rumble: Biden's Planned Commencement Speech At Historically Black Morehouse College Proving Problematic
https://rumble.com/v4rnkau-bidens-planned-commencement-speech-at-historically-black-morehouse-college-.html

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