Morehouse students are divided over Biden
How President Biden’s Policies on Israel’s War In Gaza Have Benefitted HBCUs: Addressing Black Students at Morehouse College
Students at the school were critical of Biden’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. The president of the university told NPR if protests became too disruptive, he would stop the graduation ceremonies.
“Faced with the choice of having police take people out of the Morehouse commencement in zip ties, we would essentially cancel or discontinue the commencement services on the spot,” Thomas said.
“Our goal is to use this as an opportunity to elevate the work that has been done at Morehouse over the last century and a half.”
He stressed the investments the Biden administration has made in HBCUs. The Biden administration has funded a large amount of money for HBCUs.
President Biden is set to meet with leaders from a group of Black sororities and fraternities today. He’ll deliver the address at Morehouse College, which is an historically Black school in Georgia. Black voters have supported Biden prior to. Not everyone is as enthusiastic as they were before. Recent polling shows just 38% of Black Americans feel Biden’s policies have helped Black people. Faculty wrote a letter against the president getting an award because of his policies on the war in Gaza. They ultimately voted to give Biden the degree.
“The founders of Morehouse understood something fundamental: education is linked to freedom,” he said. Being free means to have something that no one can ever take away from you.
Insidious Resistance: A Campaign for the Preservation of Black People’s Rights and Freedoms: The Case of Brown v.. Board of Education
Biden blamed former president Donald Trump for ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs in America as he blamed justices to the Supreme Court who had been named by him.
In his speech on Friday, Biden told the NAACP that “an extreme movement led by my predecessor and his MAGA allies” was today’s “insidious” version of the resistance faced by the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas, after the Brown decision.
The poll also showed that just 38% of Black Americans feel Biden’s policies have helped Black people, something Biden tried to explain more on in media appearances this week.
A recent survey from the Washington Post and Ipsos showed that only a small amount of Black voters will vote this year, compared to the previous year.
Biden’s other engagements include a meeting with the Divine Nine, a group of historically Black sororities and fraternities, and interviews with Black media outlets. On Sunday, he will also visit a Black-owned small business in Detroit, Baker said.
“We are not, and will not, get into these communities at the last minute with no idea of what the outcome will be,” Baker told the campaign in a memo.
The Biden campaign said the engagement was a signal of how the administration has prioritized issues important to Black voters — and how it is working to earn their support.
The 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that ended racially segregating public schools is being considered by President Biden as part of his reelection campaign and a priority to court Black voters.
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The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. hosted a premiere of the opera Turandot, with a whole new ending.
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The Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary has classes for the public during rattlesnake season. As people are trained to handle rattlesnakes, they become aware that everything they thought they knew about the creatures is a myth. The practice could help, as Arizona saw a lot of rattlesnake bites in April.
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The United Auto Workers Union of the South: When does it come about, what does it tell us about abortion and what drug companies are selling in the state?
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Louisiana could become the first state in the country to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol — the drugs used in medical abortions — as controlled dangerous substances. State and federal regulations for these substances aim to control access based on the drug’s medical benefit and potential for abuse. The bill moving through the Louisiana legislature would create penalties of up to 10 years in prison for anyone caught with the drugs without a valid prescription. Doctors opposed to the decision say a “false perception that these are dangerous drugs” could lead to “fear and confusion among patients, doctors, and pharmacists, which delays care and worsens outcomes” in a state with high rates of maternal injury and death.
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In the lull between the last classes of the school year and the start of finals season, a trio of seniors convene on one of the Morehouse quads: Jordan Washington, Wisler Charles and DeAngelo Fletcher.
“We’re the COVID class of high school. He said that a lot of people didn’t get graduations. “And now it feels like [for] our college graduation … people are focusing more on the speaker.”
Is Biden a good person? He sighed and said that it was not really. “If everything about our graduation is about Biden, it’s going to be a problem for us and our families.”
Charles said, “I know there’s thoughts of protest,” adding that some folks in his class approached him to join a silent demonstration, turning his back on Biden as he speaks. “Because my family has pushed me to this point and supported me up until this point … I have an obligation to stay out of the way.
“I think it’s kind of insulting that our star alumnus is Dr. [Martin Luther] King, but Biden has been on a tirade in the Middle East,” said DeAngelo Fletcher. “Bringing him here — especially during an election year… to get the young Black vote especially, it’s kind of insulting.”
Hundreds of alumni from the Atlanta HBCU signed a letter, calling on the administration to rescind its invitation to President Biden because of his support of Israel in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The Biden administration says that they share the goal of a lasting peace in the Middle East. In recent weeks, Biden has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take steps so that an “immediate ceasefire” can be put in place and more aid distributed in the region.
The Maroon Tiger: A Moral Disaster for the Atlanta University Center and Morehouse Seniors Are Divided by the Fate of the Gaza War
The alumni letter states that inviteing President Biden is a moral disaster because the death toll is so high.
Atlanta’s Black colleges have protested before the conflict in Gaza. Darden said he’s seen a lot of digital protests and some demonstrations on campus.
He doesn’t know if he would protest Biden himself. He’s the youngest of seven and — like his two friends — wants to focus on his family at graduation.
The senior class at Morehouse, according to a senior with the Maroon Tiger, is caught in this same limbo.
The Maroon Tiger reported that Morehouse, Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, and Morris Brown College students in the Atlanta University Center hosted events for Palestinians and demanded the school administrations take stances against the war in Gaza.
Some of that planning is being carried out by a person named Antar Halim. But after participating in a student encampment at Emory University that was forcibly cleared by law enforcement, he’s cautious.
He said that there were more melanated people in the place who were harassed than white people. We’re taking all of that into account as an HBCU.
“So those of us who are standing on the right side of history in this Morehouse and AUC family… we have morals and we have humanity,” he continued. The administration is bringing a President that doesn’t reflect how we feel.
Biden is set for the Morehouse graduation. Students are divided, and he didn’t intervene in the anti-de Sitter era
His victory on Super Tuesday in 2020, which came after a wave of support from the Black vote in South Carolina, propelled him through November. In Georgia — a swing state — Biden’s looking to spark the same kind of support amongst what has been the Democrats most reliable voting bloc.
“So it’s not surprising at all that he would do this, it’s also not surprising that he would target Morehouse because of concerns that his support is fading, particularly amongst Black men,” said Andra Gillespie, an Emory political scientist.
Presidents and first ladies have long used HBCU commencements to convey an agenda, she said, and that tracks back as far as the 1960s. More recently, Biden is following in the footsteps of former President Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama, who expanded this type of outreach.
“I think it’s appropriate to think that there was some intent in terms of choosing this particular audience for a political purpose,” she said. Biden has the chance to win people over by giving an interesting and emotional speech.
Before the attack on Israel, Morehouse extended a formal invitation to the White House. He said he never reconsidered his decision after the war got worse and calls for Thomas to cancel the invitation grew.
He said that Morehouse has a duty to not make any changes to the graduation schedule. In his words, that would make Morehouse a “plain, vanilla” institution.
Source: Biden is set for the Morehouse graduation. Students are divided
The Biden Mystique and the Unity of the Morehouse: The Case for Joe Biden’s Protesting Engagement with the Black and White
Benjamin stated that President Biden respects people’s right to protest but that he makes it a point to lean in when there are protesters in the same space.
“Joe Biden has done things that might have been seen as controversial in his past,” said Ronald David, a sophomore. “But still, it’s important for you to have those people that you might not necessarily agree with.”
He says if it were his graduation, he’d rather have someone Black — echoing a widespread sentiment on campus. But David adds that Biden might learn something from what folks call the “Morehouse mystique.”
It’s important not to shun him or say that he is not the best speaker, but rather to welcome that unity, because we do not necessarily agree with Joe Biden.
