Knowles: It's easy to cast aspersions
on our forebearers from our privileged positions
in the most powerful, most equitable, most just,
most prosperous country in the history of the world.
It's far more difficult and humbling to recognize
the complexities of history
and show gratitude for the people
who made our lives possible.
All of that is beside the point.
All of that has been missed by the ignorant activists
who insist that GW ditch the Colonial.
The point that they are missing is this:
the colonials that the mascot represents
were not defenders of colonialism.
In fact, they were the opposite of defenders of colonialism.
They fought a bloody war,
they risked their lives to end colonialism in America
and to end rule in Great Britain.
They wanted their political independence.
Protestor: F**k you, you f**king fascist.
Protestors: Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Knowles: These kids are really proving me wrong.
My premise was that these students are ignorant and not well behaved,
but they're proving me wrong tonight.
[Protestors chanting]
Knowles: They called me a fascist for defending George Washington.
Behold your country, leftists.
Behold. I hope the cameras catch all the faces here too
because I think this school costs about
70 thousand dollars a year to attend.
This is the job they've done.
[Protestors chanting]
Knowles: Just for the people in the room
like that guy right there,
what did I say that you disagree with?
[Protestors shouting]
Knowles: What did I say that any of you disagree with?
Can you name one thing?
Protestor: Yes. Knowles: What is it?
[Protestors shouting]
Knowles: What did I say? I can't hear over all the shouting
and the screeching.
Protestor: F**king fascist.
Knowles: What did I say that you disagree with?
[Protestors shouting]
Knowles: Thunder? I can't... What you are saying?
[Crowd laughing]
Knowles: I can't hear. They can't name one thing.
They can't name one thing.
Knowles: I'm glad that now that those people left the room,
we can bring in more people to hear about George Washington.
Welcome back in.
[Crowd cheering]
Knowles: Glad to hear it.
Student: Michael! Michael! Michael!
Knowles: As I was saying,
some kids have missed the point.
[Crowd laughing]
Knowles: They missed the point entirely
because if they were in the room or if they could listen
or if they had two brain cells to rub together...
[Crowd laughing]
Knowles: ...what they would have realized is
if you oppose colonialism,
then you should love the Colonial mascot.
The Colonial mascot is a symbol of fighting colonialism in America.
The colonials should be their hero.
I don't know who their hero is. I don't want to know who their hero is.
[Crowd laughing]
Knowles: The question is what have these entitled and ignorant
history erasers ever done themselves,
those people who were shrieking and screaming?
What have they ever done? What credibility do they have?
What authority do they have?
Outrageous.
They signal their own virtue every chance they get.
What virtue have they ever actually enacted or embodied?
Those spoiled, overgrown children stand atop
the shoulders of giants, and they think that they are flying.
They never, ever seem to pause and reflect
on their own imperfections.
They never seem to know even what they're shouting about.
They attack the colonials for occupying a land
previously inhabited by Native Americans.
We all occupy that same land today. Why don't any of us leave?
Why don't any of them leave? They're the ones making the claim.
If this is stolen land,
then why don't those people pick up
and go back to their ancestral lands?
For most people, that would be an impossibility
because, in America, we all hail from,
ancestrally, many different places.
Would I go back to Italy? Would I go back to Ireland?
Would I go back to Britain? I don't know.
I'd try to figure out a way to go back to Greenland
because I know that that's going to come back
into America pretty soon.
[Crowd laughing]
Knowles: Are we really wise to cast aspersions,
with the perspective of 250 years, on men and women
who are, in so many ways, better than us?
The anti-historical, anti-intellectual,
and anti-American fanaticism
that would do away with George the Colonial,
is caused by ignorance, of course,
but more than that, it is caused by pride.
Our generation's unearned and unwarranted
sense of moral superiority over our ancestors? That's pride.
George Washington had a motto,
and GW has adopted this motto very often.
We would all do well to remember it.
The motto is three words.
It says, "Deeds not words."
"Deeds not words."
Washington was famously reticent.
He didn't signal his virtue to his countrymen.
George Washington didn't need to signal his virtue.
He enacted virtue.
Our founding fathers' critics
would do very well to emulate, not just Washington,
but so many of our colonial forebearers.
If they quieted their uninformed yaps
and, instead, performed even some small fraction
of the great deeds of those great men,
those great American colonials,
they and all the rest of of us would be better off.
Perhaps then, we might be interested
in what those people have to say.
Now, certainly, we are not.
Until then, I'm sticking with George the Colonial,
first in war, first in peace,
and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
Thank you very much.
[Audience applause]