Lupe Fiasco to Chicago high school grads: 'You have graduated from one of the most terrible, substandard school systems in the entire world'
theGRIO REPORT - Outspoken rapper Lupe Fiasco had some harsh real talk for a group of Chicago high school grads assembled by Mass Black Male Graduation and Transition to Manhood organizers...
Outspoken rapper Lupe Fiasco had some harsh real talk for a group of Chicago high school grads assembled by Mass Black Male Graduation and Transition to Manhood organizers.
“Congratulations, you have graduated from one of the most terrible, substandard school systems in the entire world. You have just spent the last . . . 12 years receiving one of the worst educations on earth. You are at least four, five steps behind people in other countries that are younger than you,” Fiasco said according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The performer was the keynote speaker at an event which included 150 recent black male graduates. According to recent studies, only 39 percent of eligible black teens from the district’s pubic schools graduate.
A Chicago native himself, and a product of the public school system there, Fiasco’s remarks were well received. He parted with some personal thoughts on the issue of manhood.
“Transition to manhood is the most important thing that’s going on right now. The caps and the gowns and your tassels and your honorary blah blah blahs don’t mean nothing. That’s just dress. That’s just some clothes. Meaningless clothes, too, because they have no real purpose in life. They don’t keep you warm. What do they do? They just represent to someone else that you’ve achieved something. But then when you look back at it, what have you achieved?”
Fiasco has become something of a lightening rod for his left-wing political views and social commentary. He has also made no secret of his dislike for President Barack Obama. This January he was ushered off stage in the middle of a Washington, D.C. concert that coincided with the president’s second inauguration in which he performed a 30-minute anti-war song and bashed the commander in chief.
