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The President: Hello, Howard!
(applause)
H-U!
Audience: You know!
The President: H-U!
Audience: You know!
The President: (laughs)
Thank you so much, everybody.
Please, please, have a seat.
Oh, I feel important now.
Got a degree from Howard.
Cicely Tyson said something nice about me.
(laughter)
Audience Member: I love you, President!
The President: I love you back.
To President Frederick, the Board of Trustees, faculty
and staff, fellow recipients of honorary degrees, thank
you for the honor of spending this day with you.
And congratulations to the Class of 2016!
(applause)
Four years ago, back when you were just freshmen, I
understand many of you came by my house the night
I was reelected.
(laughter)
So I decided to return the favor and come by yours.
To the parents, the grandparents, aunts, uncles,
brothers, sisters, all the family and friends who stood
by this class, cheered them on, helped them get here
today -- this is your day, as well.
Let's give them a big round of applause, as well.
(applause)
I'm not trying to stir up any rivalries here; I just
want to see who's in the house.
We got Quad?
(applause)
Annex.
(applause)
Drew.
Carver.
Slow.
Towers.
And Meridian.
(applause)
Rest in peace, Meridian.
(laughter)
Rest in peace.
I know you're all excited today.
You might be a little tired, as well.
Some of you were up all night making sure your
credits were in order.
(laughter)
Some of you stayed up too late, ended up at HoChi
at 2:00 a.m.
(laughter)
Got some mambo sauce on your fingers.
(laughter)
But you got here.
And you've all worked hard to reach this day.
You've shuttled between challenging classes
and Greek life.
You've led clubs, played an instrument or a sport.
You volunteered, you interned.
You held down one, two, maybe three jobs.
You've made lifelong friends and discovered exactly what
you're made of.
The "Howard Hustle" has strengthened your sense of
purpose and ambition.
Which means you're part of a long line
of Howard graduates.
Some are on this stage today.
Some are in the audience.
That spirit of achievement and special responsibility
has defined this campus ever since the Freedman's Bureau
established Howard just four years after the Emancipation
Proclamation; just two years after the Civil War came
to an end.
They created this university with a vision -- a vision of
uplift; a vision for an America where our fates
would be determined not by our race, gender, religion
or creed, but where we would be free -- in every sense --
to pursue our individual and collective dreams.
It is that spirit that's made Howard a centerpiece of
African-American intellectual life and a
central part of our larger American story.
This institution has been the home of many firsts: The
first black Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The first black Supreme Court justice.
But its mission has been to ensure those firsts
were not the last.
Countless scholars, professionals, artists, and
leaders from every field received their training here.
The generations of men and women who walked through
this yard helped reform our government, cure disease,
grow a black middle class, advance civil rights, shape
our culture.
The seeds of change -- for all Americans -- were sown here.
And that's what I want to talk about today.
As I was preparing these remarks, I realized that
when I was first elected President, most of you --
the Class of 2016 -- were just starting high school.
Today, you're graduating college.
I used to joke about being old.
Now I realize I'm old.
(laughter)
It's not a joke anymore.
(laughter)
But seeing all of you here gives me some perspective.
It makes me reflect on the changes that I've seen over
my own lifetime.
So let me begin with what may sound like a
controversial statement -- a hot take.
Given the current state of our political rhetoric and
debate, let me say something that may be controversial,
and that is this: America is a better place today than it
was when I graduated from college.
(applause)
Let me repeat: America is by almost every measure better
than it was when I graduated from college.
It also happens to be better off than when I took office --
(laughter)
-- but that's a longer story.
(applause)
That's a different discussion for another speech.
But think about it.
I graduated in 1983.
New York City, America's largest city, where I lived
at the time, had endured a decade marked by crime and
deterioration and near bankruptcy.
And many cities were in similar shape.
Our nation had gone through years of economic
stagnation, the stranglehold of foreign oil, a recession
where unemployment nearly scraped 11 percent.
The auto industry was getting its clock cleaned by
foreign competition.
And don't even get me started on the clothes and
the hairstyles.
I've tried to eliminate all photos of me
from this period.
I thought I looked good.
(laughter)
I was wrong.
Since that year -- since the year I graduated -- the
poverty rate is down.
Americans with college degrees, that rate is up.
Crime rates are down.
America's cities have undergone a renaissance.
There are more women in the workforce.
They're earning more money.
We've cut teen pregnancy in half.
We've slashed the African American dropout rate by
almost 60 percent, and all of you have a computer in
your pocket that gives you the world
at the touch of a button.
In 1983, I was part of fewer than 10 percent of African
Americans who graduated with a bachelor's degree.
Today, you're part of the more than 20 percent who will.
And more than half of blacks say we're better off than
our parents were at our age -- and that our kids will be
better off, too.
So America is better.
And the world is better, too.
A wall came down in Berlin.
An Iron Curtain was torn asunder.
The obscenity of apartheid came to an end.
A young generation in Belfast and London have
grown up without ever having to think about IRA bombings.
In just the past 16 years, we've come from a world
without marriage equality to one where it's a reality in
nearly two dozen countries.
Around the world, more people live in democracies.
We've lifted more than 1 billion people
from extreme poverty.
We've cut the child mortality rate worldwide by
more than half.
America is better.
The world is better.
And stay with me now -- race relations are better
since I graduated.
That's the truth.
No, my election did not create a post-racial society.