CUNY Black Male Initiative Speech

Seven years ago, I found myself locked in a closet sized room in a juvenile detention facility for the third time, mad at the victim of my crime for informing the authorities, mad at my mother because I thought she didn’t understand me, mad at my father for not being around, mad at myself for getting caught, and basically mad at the world. Let’s take it back a little further. Roughly thirteen years ago I sat in a special education class with around nine other boys who were for the most part black. We were tagged to be society’s future incorrigible misfits, the emotionally disturbed, the ADHD afflicted, among a host of other daunting labels. I moved to a different neighborhood one school term and there must have been a mistake in the paperwork, because I ended up in a mainstream classroom without any IEP meeting. However, my new teacher made the oversight more than apparent to me as everyday she would inform me, along with the rest of the class, that “I wasn’t supposed to be there.” To a certain extent, even if subconsciously, I agreed with her. My name is Duquann Hinton and I am a McNair scholar.
As you can see, I was well on my way to falling in line with the anticipations of a seemingly apathetic society, which, at times, can be indifferent to the cultural differences of black males, particularly inner-city black males. A society that regards black men to be the antithesis, the complete opposite of Academic success as it is believed that we lack the dedication and talent necessary to obtain an education. Many people have told me in my past that I would not live to see twenty-one. They believed that, before my 21st birthday, I would either be deceased or in prison doing a life sentence which, if you ask me, is congruent with being dead. MAy 10, 2006 I turned twenty-one. My name is Duquann Hinton and I am the epitome of Academic success and all of the dedication and hard work that goes along with it.
If academic success is such a tedious task, and black males are not expected to achieve in the educational arenas anyway, why then do I have the audacity to stand in front of you today encouraging such an endeavor? The answer to this question lies in a quote by Audrey Lorde that I came across a few days ago, watching the movie “The Best Man.” One of the actors in the film cites Audrey Lorde by saying “if [you don’t] define [yourself] for [yourself, you] would be crunched into other people's fantasies [of you] and eaten alive.” That quote really speaks to me as I realize how imperative it is for a person, particularly a black man, to establish healthy self-definitions, opposed to allowing society to establish hostile means of defining for him. In this regard, higher education has a great potential to stem such self-definitions. College allowed me to realize that, yes there are some authentic unique characteristics associated with many inner-city black males. You know? Because there’s a certain way we talk, there’s a certain way we walk, there’s a certain way we go about doing things. And it’s different than other ways, but it’s important to realize that our difference does not make us deficient, despite what society would have us believe about ourselves. All of you here today are more than capable of the greatest achievements if you denounce all of the negative societal preconceptions about you and establish your own personal definitions. I am living proof of it.
The man in front of you today is very different from the boy of the past. Today I am a devoted scholar, researching black first generation college students and the motivations that resulted in their pursuit of higher education. I will be traveling to present my research this summer for FREE with the McNair program. In addition, I am a member of two honor societies and I’ve been a Deans List recipient since 2004. I’ve attended a few conferences and I even co-led a group activity at one. But don’t get it twisted, while I do all of these academic things, I still find time to have a little fun and most of the time, at these functions, there are things of diversion to do.
Yes, I encourage everyone here to go to college and work as hard as you can and be as dedicated as possible. However, remember college is still a part of the larger society. In this regard, I will not be naïve enough to tell you that if you go to college, you will never again face people who are ambivalent about your academic abilities. I will not tell you that you will never again get the funny looks, the wise cracks about the way you talk, dress, and walk upon your arrival in college. But I will firmly stand by my declaration that, if you allow yourselves to be open to knowledge that is new to you and fervently aspire to achieve in all of your academic undertakings, you will view yourselves in a new light. For that matter, others will also view you in a new light, because the college student in pursuit of excellence demands a certain respect. I further declare to you that you may even begin to think in significantly different ways. For college definitely has the potential to assist in revolutionizing one’s train of thought, for the hardworking college student may find himself or herself reflecting on things that they would have never thought about otherwise. And he or she may begin to want others like him or her to share in this kind of epiphany. It can even be said that this particular college student may began to feel the need to have others with similar backgrounds in his or her academic circle, for it may seem incomplete otherwise. Who here will work to complete my circle? My name is Duquann Hinton and I, just like all of you, am worthy and more than capable of greatness.