WASHINGTON D.C.—On May 13, President Joe Biden gave the commencement speech for the 2023 graduating class of Howard University, a Historically Black University (HBCU), a well-known research college. During the speech, Biden cited white supremacy. Howard University is the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris.
“But on the best days, enough of us have to have the guts and the hearts to stand up for the best in us. To choose love over hate, unity over disunion, progress over retreat. To stand up against the poison of white supremacy, as I did in my inaugural address, to single it out as the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy. And I’m not saying it because I’m at a black HBCU. I say it wherever I go. To stand up for truth over lies—lies told for power and profit,” said Biden during the speech.
He used the commencement speech to kick off his 2024 Presidential campaign, saying, “Let’s finish what we started.”
He spoke about his belief in “a woman’s fundamental right,” to abortion and received applause after citing his agenda in furthering the rights of parents and children regarding transexuals and gender identity.
“After being-no long being Vice President, I became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania for four years. But in 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, crazed Neo-Nazis with angry faces came out of the fields with-literally with torches, carrying Nazi banners from the woods and the fields, chanting the same antisemitic bile heard across Europe in the 30s, something I never thought I would ever see in America,” Biden stated.
“Accompanied by Klansman and white supremacists, emerging from the dark rooms and remote fields and the anonymity of the internet confronting decent Americans of all backgrounds standing in their way into the bright light of day. And a young woman objecting to their presence was killed,” President Biden added.
Biden referenced a documentary on the PBS News Hour on August 13, 2022.
Some individuals attended holding signs that said, “The Biden-Harris Administration Does Not Care About Black People,” and “A Black Child Was Lynched Yesterday,” in relation to Jordan Neely who was killed on a New York subway recently.
