in 1951 in a poem titled Harlem Langston Hughes asked a question I continue to
ask myself today what happens to a dream deferred does it dry up like A Raisin in
the Sun when my mother was a little girl growing up in the Nigerian village of Ososo
her and her four siblings would get super excited whenever one of them would
accomplish something noteworthy why well it meant that her dad would do the tree
thing that's when the smile was stretched across his face as he climbed
a tall tree branch by branch all the way to the very top his children down below
would look up at him eyes wide sparkling and full of joy as he yelled
out higher higher and higher though proud he was also never satisfied he had
a dream that his children and his children's children would strive for
even greater things a big part of that dream was a pursuit of an education you
see while in some families bedtime stories are of dragons princesses and
castles in Nigerian families our stories consists of law school med school and
Harvard and I'm only kinda joking after all educational opportunity is what
drove my parents to trek across the Atlantic from Nigeria to Toronto Canada
before I was born and so throughout my high school
education I like many of you strove for excellence with hours of study meetings
and practice all to fulfill the goal of one day attending Harvard and on
December 13th 2013 that dream came true I along with 2,000 other high school
seniors was fortunate enough to receive an acceptance letter from Harvard
University and my first thought after reading that letter was that my
grandfather in that tree and I knew it was time to aim higher but I wasn't
quite sure yet we're doing eight months later I was preparing for my freshman
year at Harvard little did I know events happening over 700 miles southwest of my
home in Toronto Canada which transformed my dream and my life forever
these events would shatter the sheltered comfort of the life my parents had
created for me because on August 9th 2014 just over a week before I would
arrive at Harvard for the first time Michael Brown was shot and killed by the
police in his hometown of Ferguson Missouri through his death
I saw what happens to those whose dreams are deferred and ultimately denied they
are left to dry up abandoned like his dead murdered body which lay on the
streets of Ferguson under the hot Missouri Sun for eight hours eight hours
just like me Michael was black just like me Michael
was 18 just like me Michael was about to go to college unlike me however he would
never get the chance to see that dream realized and it was at that moment it
hit me after years of believing that my grandfather's dream meant educational
attainment the accumulation of the accolades or even acceptance to Harvard
Michael Brown's death woke me up it made me realize the dream was about
much more than how high we can climb in that tree as individuals it was about
how we can encourage and enable those like Michael Brown whose dreams are
deferred and denied the climb with us
and
and while education is the essential part of achieving that dream we often
forget it is an incomplete answer we forget that textbooks don't do much to
teach us about compassion and that problem sets don't necessarily teach us
about the unconditional and unfaltering love of others we forget that whether
you are a banker a teacher or an activist the dream should be about
creating the conditions for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for
everyone who walks his planet and so while we strive to achieve our dreams
with the privileges that this Harvard education affords us we can't forget
just how many dreams have been deferred denied and left to drive like A Raisin
in the Sun you see I never met my grandfather except through history of
dreams but today I stand before you as a proud grandson of a Nigerian carpenter
the child of 2fNigerian immigrants and a graduate of one of the greatest
institutions in the world
proof proof that while we all have dreams some of us have to travel farther
to achieve them both figuratively and literally my wish is that with our help
more dreams can be converted into realities that is a calling that the
class of 2018 must answer a dual mandate to do well and to do good to wake up
look around and help those whose crime is stifled by the burdens of oppression
your future in my future in the future of our society depends on us creating
supporting and investing in the dreams that the next generation can live up to
and build upon it depends on us looking one another in the eye and telling one
another to continue to strive for more to keep growing and to never ever stop
climbing because the next generation is watching looking up at us eyes wide
sparkling and full of joy as we yell out higher higher and higher