Melissa Harris-Perry Speaks at Wellesley College Commencement 2012

0:04 A professor of Political Science at Tulane University, she is the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper project on gender, race, and politics in the South. Before joining the faculty of Tulane, she taught at the University of Chicago and Princeton University. She is the author of two highly acclaimed books, including "Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought",

0:35 which won awards in 2005 from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and the American Political Science Association. In 2011, Professor Harris Perry authored "Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America", which examines impact of stereotypes on black women's politics. A political expert and columnist for the nation, she is also the host

1:05 of her own weekend show on MSNBC, where she is redefining, in the best possible way, what it means to be a nerd. Behind me, we have flags representing the 53 countries where our students come from, but in preparing for professor Harris Perry's arrival the campus today, we noticed that one flag was missing

1:35 and that is the flag of nerd land. Professor Harris-Perry, we embrace your concept of a space dedicated to the open intellectual exchange of ideas and views, and we are delighted to welcome you to Wellesley. And I have something to present to you.

2:28 That's pretty easily the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. I often say that the very best day of my life was college graduation, and I've had two really very nice weddings, and I have a wonderful daughter and the day she was born was lovely, but really... But all of those days were complicated with all of these other sorts of things and so I've always said, you know, the one day that was pure joy was the day I graduated from college.

3:01 You should also know I am, in fact, a high school dropout. I do not have a GED or high school diploma, so it's also the day when it was clear that I was not going to have to go back to Central Virginia, to high school. But I think after that moment, it is possible now that your college graduation day is my favorite day. Good morning, I do in fact bring greetings from apparently only the New York branch of Nerdland.

3:32 My producers are incredibly excited to have you all as part of our big community. Apparently the Nielsen ratings tell us that everyone who watches our show is over 70, and so it is really quite lovely to see that that must be in empirically false, because here you are. Now that said, if you've been following me on Twitter, then you know that despite the fact, You know that despite the fact that I actually make my living doing public speaking, I have been nervous

4:05 about this morning, and I'm nervous because this is a commencement address. When I'm in class my work is about leading students through complicated readings, or it's about explaining text, or working through difficult concepts. When I'm on television I do storytelling and analysis and sometimes a little reacting, and I could do all those things right here, but it does feel like a commencement address somehow ought to impart wisdom. It ought to give advice

4:36 and the fact is I'm very bad at giving advice now I guess what the what I really mean it I'm bad at giving advice in Mass if we were girls if you all my people and we were just sitting together talking about something I would probably give you way too much advice but the fact is that don't no what is about happen for you someone you are going to become

5:10 fabulously wealthy through hard work or inheritance or marriage or divorce some love you will be barely scraping by paycheck to paycheck the through hard work or inheritance our marriage ardmore so you're going to love your work

5:41 and you are going to wake up each day as though you were answering or calling and others and you're going to beat the crap out of your alarm clock because it is telling you that there is another work day some love you will marry the right man the first time in for some %uh view it will take until your second marriage to Mary the right woman the and plenty plenty plenty of view will embrace the delightful pleasures are both solitude and partnership

6:11 without state interference the some love you were going to return to your 20th reunion with sour faced teenagers in tow and others will still be chasing toddlers some %uh view will return as men the some love you are going to enjoy robust health into your eighties and some of the organist to come illness and tragedy long before we're ready to lose you

6:43 I don't know how to give you advice because I don't know which one %uh view will be walking on which path and as such a complicated territory so i thought okay I'm going to outsource the advice giving and my first sense was that I would synthesized the advice a famous and important thinkers who have told us how to be successful so I started of course being a unitary in universe lists from with Ralph Waldo Emerson the American chance and endless

7:15 a pretty good definition advice to laugh often and much to win the respective intelligent people and the affection of children to earn the appreciation a honest critics and endure the betrayal a false friends to appreciate beauty and to find the best in others to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child a garden patch or redeemed social condition to know even one life has breed easier

7:47 because you have lived this is to have succeeded life pretty you put that on your wall the fact is I am A a bit partial though to another take on success this one by the hard drinking misanthropic WC fields who says if it first you don't succeed try try again then give up no use in being a damn fool about its there is a world full of great quotes but no matter how much I try to

8:19 create them into an outsourced advice lecture for you none of them felt quite right so I thought I know I'll do a children's book beam I know if you read the building team principals and you know that everything that you need to know about how they have not been tick successful life is actually conveyed in the book the Velveteen Rabbit I thought doolittle refund no Williams the pigeon principles together the Pigeon books right don't let the pigeon stay up late

8:49 to let the pigeon drive the bus I'm sorry I have a 10-year-old this is at first glance the pigeon is selfish and whiny manipulative we read the pigeon with love we will see that the pigeon actually gives us clues about how to be persuasive kind adventurous and assertive it would've been a great speech I'm gonna tell you how to look at your own it sometimes whiny narcissistic self with love and actually find your best selves underneath all that fragility but it occurred to me it might

9:23 annoy your parents if they discovered after four years a very expensive college education everything you need to know to succeed already read in the second grade now I do have to say thank God that Kate and Haley said Beyonce before I did the it is an indication that you are truly a partner land if to beyond say

9:53 game so after I got to the great men advice in the pigeon parables I thought how about hip-hop I mean who better to give advice to young graduates going off into recession Air America then rappers we've got care as one asking who gets weaker the king or the teacher not about salary it's about reality it's right nice message like you know the thing you love that makes a difference not

10:25 self-importance we got the roots they work right and in their track thoughts at work they say Afghan money for real get freedom right right follow your passion don't follow the money and then of course I got the most important piece of hip-hop advice ever dispensed by that profit Notorious BIG the never get high on your own supply the

11:00 I decided maybe the hip-hop lecture was ill-advised cell I decided that's right wellesley is a women's college and a sometimes there's advice specifically for girls working girls entering out into the working world is working also I thought I could just tell you a bit about some things I've learned as a working girl here's one of them don't nod and smile unless you are happy and agree the don't let your voice do that

11:36 high-pitched thing at the end that sounds like you're asking a question when really you're making a fee once you have secured your wellesley degree and particularly if you followed up with an Ivy League law degree never forsake your high-profile career path an advocacy to follow some dude to the godforsaken region of the American South like arkansas what

12:11 the see other girl invites the van always work out like in fact sometimes you can be quite powerful to nod and smile just before you punch him in the neck and sometimes a little question at the end of your declared a statement is a worthwhile way to get summer the old guys who run all the money thing on your side and sometimes you follow your heart and you go with the big tall guy down to arkansas

12:36 ended all works out just fine so I decided that the girl advice is no good and in the end I was left with having to do what I didn't want to do which is I've just got to give you the best advice I've got got three things I want to ask you to be forward and I think these might be a little bit counter-intuitive particularly coming from a political progressive who is shamelessly feminist concern the concerned with

13:08 racial and economic and environmental justice but here ha here are the three things I'm gonna ask view be ignorant be silent and be pic now I could do the little Shonta hears you my pretties do that began huh right the ignorance be silent and be thick okay in a few moments you can walk across the stage and you're going to have your accomplishments acknowledged in the

13:41 acquisition ever certification that you know something but even as you accept your hard one degree I encourage you to embrace the reality that you know almost nothing I love my iPad I'm reading my lecture right now from my iPad I I love that its streams book technology information to me matrix like at a moment like which anything I need to now but it is important for me to pretty regularly just go and stand in the

14:12 library it is an awful experience standing in the library I think to myself is quite accomplished have written two books I but when you stand in the library and you are surrounded by those stacks up all those thousands volumes attacks are things that you know nothing about written in languages that you cannot decipher on topics that you can barely babam it is humbling standing in the library reminders of our own limitations

14:45 it encourages us to remember that we don't know everything can't predict every outcome don't even know all the right questions to ask I will never fill a cavity it is pretty unlikely that I will never speak Mandarin I am certainly not going to the code anything in the DNA chain but thankfully graciously the universe provides and interdependent web other fantastic women who will the remembering

15:19 are ignorance embracing our ignorance allowing ourselves to except a posture up ignorance compels us to keep learning there's gonna come September morning very soon when you are going to miss this place and not just the buildings and not just your friends you are going to miss a new syllabus you're gonna miss somebody handing you a piece of paper Fulham things that you not thought about yet about challenges you didn't even know existed

15:52 the exquisite moment up other ignorance just before the learning begins a promise you you will miss it to remember ignorance is not your enemy only complacency with ignorance is to be resisted never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life's hard classes remember to keep form a hypothesis and gathering data keep your conclusions light and your curiosity ferocious

16:23 keep groping in the darkness with ravenous desire ignorance is not incompatible with excellent it is not incompatible with leadership it is not incompatible with greatness ignorance is a posture have humility which brings me to another piece of non-traditional be found Neptune /url and staff is watching right now they probably just a lot of pitchers

16:55 because I know that they didn't even know I could be silent as long as I just once and back not to the girl and after we share space in 30 rock right next to the up staff and the upset is actually quite diligent they're they're very quiet the table on and when I come in usually on Thursdays or Fridays the screening begins I sit in my office where I don't much like to be alone and ice cream

17:17 her it something to shut the door I am in being a feminist having been trying to the feminist very good at using my voice the women's education is very much about finding your voice about learning to speak about speaking with confidence about sharing your ideas freely about battling the boys but there is an enormous difference between being silenced

17:49 and choosing to be silent when you are silenced you have something to say but but no one will listen when you choose to be silent to quiet down to listen you've actually exercise the other part Voice the part that makes your voice sound like something it sounds like something in comparison to the silence silence can help to sue wanted the voices that you actually would like to be more quiet more

18:20 frequently it's what J smooth call your internal heater a hater I know the boys have the hater girls have a hater the haters sits on our children till the state I'm hun you have a myspace talking the little hater fosse's at us in tells us that we are insufficient it suggest that we can't do math because it's hard she is actually sued by silence you can actually incurred that part of your Medion narrative voice to be quiet so that this part of your voice

18:52 can speak in silence allows you to do something else that you now have as Wellesley women you have privilege no matter what circumstances desperately you came from this degree now confers upon you privilege and when you choose to be silent in the face those who have less privilege you undermine the idea that only people with certain degree cent certain certifications have a right to speak

19:25 so I'm not happy you too silencer advocacy for justice or to mute your voice is a citizen I'm not ask you to accept the pinions others as your own truth I'm not asking you to sit on your ideas or fail to share your skills I'm asking you to remember that silence is a vital precursor to voice gather your voice in your silence listen to it in your own head before you give it away wake up roll over and make love to the day

19:50 world Leslie and my final piece of advice is this be thick in a world that teaches women to be been be thick the recall the moment in Toni Morrison's beloved when paul Di says to sever your love is to pic setback and she responds love is or isn't in love ain't no love at all

20:21 pic is the only thing worth being when you are thick you unconditionally in Breese the object have your attention Fig women make fools of themselves all the time because been women stand on the sidelines their critical their remove their barely committed but pic people pitch tents in a park with the belief that social action can change an entire international global system economic injustice

20:52 the been citizens vote thick citizens run for office been folks believe that every critic is a hater pic folks can hear critique with out crumbling been leaders stay the course no matter what pic leaders listen learn and correct been women

21:24 look great in bikinis pic women look terrific in history books the cultivate a radical thickness that allows you to be vulnerable and in perfect and you casters old headlong into the crazy scary painful grown-up world which brings me to the end be ignorant and silent and thick

21:55 but don't do it alone you cannot be brave all by yourself everybody's got to have a Charlotte you know charlotte's when you gonna be wilbur lots you know that the naive little pig who learns of his own impending demise his future as bacon and remember Charlotte the the little spider who did more than just crafted

22:26 execute a plan for Wilbur she was his friends you will be wilbur over and over and you're going to need a Charlotte now when number first met Charlotte wilbur was not sure wilbur thought to himself I've got a new friend alright but what a gamble friendship is Charlotte is fierce brutal scheming bloodthirsty everything I don't like how can I learn to like her even though she is pretty and of course clever your Charlotte is probably not packaged neatly

22:59 your Charlotte is probably a little scheming bloodthirsty she probably never nods and smiles or says declared statements like a question she probably watches neverland but find your shower surely you gonna need a soulmate you gonna need the courage you're gonna need somebody to write in their web no really you are some big but more than anything else all the advice I gave you from hip-hop

23:35 from children's books from the great man then even my notion is ignorant silent thickness let it all go not right for you just throw it all away because this is this start your day thank you the