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John Legend derides portrayal of Palestinians as ‘demographic challenge’ in speech at Penn

On Monday singer John Legend, who’s number one on Billboard with “All of Me,” returned to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, to deliver a commencement speech. Here is an excerpt of that speech, featuring his linking of racist attitudes toward Palestinians with racist attitudes towards African-Americans and Iraqis.

Now, I’ve already talked about the power of love in your work and your personal lives. But I also want to talk about how love changes the world. There are 7 billion other people out there. 7 billion strangers. I want you to consider what it means to love them too. What does it mean to love people we don’t know, to see the value in every single person’s life?

Think about that. It’s a pretty radical notion. It means your daughter or son, your neighbor’s daughter or son and the daughters and sons of people who live thousands of miles away, all deserve the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It means we let go of fear and see each other’s humanity. It means we don’t see Trayvon Martin as a walking stereotype, a weaponized human. We see him as a boy who deserves the chance to grow into a man, even if he makes boyish mistakes along the way. It means American lives don’t count more than Iraqi lives. It means we see a young Palestinian kid not as a future security threat or demographic challenge, but as a future father, mother and lover. It means that the nearly 300 kidnapped girls in Nigeria aren’t just their problem. They’re “our” girls too. It’s actually quite a challenge to love humankind in this way.

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So rich with truth– a gift to those graduates, and to all of us.

I hope they heard him. Thank you John Legend.

The demographic “problem” i.e, the number of Palestinians in areas the Israeli state covets is openly talked about in Israel and by Israeli government Ministers. How would it sound if some groups in New York talked about the demographic problems of New York in the context of there being too many blacks, or too many people of Jewish origin.
Right thinking people would be horrified. What’s the difference?

He gave a great talk. Most all points were met with loud applause and shouts of support. Deriding Palestinians as nothing more than a “Demographic Challenge” was met with more tepid applause. But it is a great start!

Cue Zionist Jews saying it’s insensitive to link Palestinian agency to African-American agency.

Zionists love speaking for (i.e., hiding behind) other minorities.

Wow! Thank you John Legend and thank you Phil and Adam.

This is one of the most powerful and enlightened commencement speeches I have ever heard. I happened to be at another ivy league commencement yesterday and the message was distinctly different, or should I say, more of the same. It went something like: you’ve studied Plato and Aristotle, programming, and anything else we could fill your minds with in 4 years to prepare you to become “leaders” (translation-make lots of money) and to become loyal alumni (give lots of money back to us). But the message was conspicuously devoid of any noble thought that might enrich the soul. It was a stark contrast to John Legend’s talk on the power of love.