The day my father made Obama cry

[Applause]

thank you so much

for your introduction hi everyone

november 2008 i wake up as usual to the

voice of the

journalist at the national radio station

and like every morning my parents are

making the finalization to send my

brother and i to school

while keeping up to date with the latest

news

but as i wake up i realize that there’s

something strange

in the house you see listening to the

news in haiti makes you depressed

because there’s always something to be

worried about and my parents were always

depressed

except for that day my father was

smiling

he was whistling moving around the house

and then

kissing my mom on the cheeks which he

does very rarely

but it’s it was it was

i just realized that something was not

right

so being confused i

approached my father and i asked the

reason behind this excitement

my father crossed down besides me he

grabbed me by both hands and he said

son we did it i looked in his eyes he

had like a fire

an incandescent flame burning in his

eyes

as he was repeating those words son

we did it that day

barack obama became the 44th president

of the united states

my first reaction to this news

and difference the thing is i had never

stepped

into the united states i did not speak

english the only image i had of the

united states was

from movies from hollywood movies which

were not really realistic

seeing people jumping off planes and not

dying so

there was really no reason for me to get

excited about

barack obama some stranger becoming the

president of

before women

so i asked myself why was my father so

excited

why what was he so enthusiastic about

what was this barack obama’s election

going to change about our situation

at the end of the month he was probably

still going to struggle to make both

ends meet

with his mediocre salary we would have

to load ourselves in our rooms

from 6 pm by fear of being robbed

or being kidnapped and

every year hurricanes will still hit our

country

and stop our children so

i simply did not understand my father’s

enthusiasm

i did not understand his smile until

later

but before i get to that i want to tell

you a story about what i wanted to be

when i was younger did anybody guess

what i wanted to be

president i wanted to be an actor

i was so passionate about acting

i would spend hours watching tv

and i would actually learn from watching

tv i would

look at the journeys of my favorite

actress you know as a fan of

of tony stark of iron man my biggest

dream was to one day start you know of a

movie

i would take my father’s phone and

record hours

of myself impersonating your character

ranging from

a spy for the cia to denzel washington

presenting a speech i would

i was absolutely insane

i would write sketches that i would

perform at my school’s cultural events

just because i wanted to stay connected

to that part

i would spend hours literally

sucking up to the toe and the style

of those that i admired just because one

day i wanted to be like them

my parents were very supportive of my

passion

until i told them that i wanted to join

a professional theater company

at that time they panicked they did not

want their son

in which they had invested so much time

so much money

to waste his life pursuing some

hollywood fantasies

they knew how hard it was for someone

like me

to succeed in a world like the american

cinema

so they wanted to resolve the issue

and how they did this was very creative

every time i would point out at someone

on the big screen i would say

i want to be like him my parents would

ask me

really

robert danny jr really

do you look like him

daniel craig really

what do you both have in common

and slowly i started to realize that

i could not see myself on the big screen

there was really no one that i could

identify with

i thought that i found an answer to that

question when i saw denzel washington

will smith so i ran to my dad and i said

look they look like me

look at their hair look at the skin it’s

glowing in the sun

just like mine my parents smiled

and they said really

do they look like you what do you have

in common

they were not born in the poorest

country in america

you were that was a harsh reality

but it was real

and i started to realize that i could

not see myself on the big screen

there was no one that i could identify

with there was no one that i could

aspire to no one was sitting in a story

with a similar background

so my dream of one day becoming an actor

faded away

i once read that sometimes what

separates us from our goals

is visualization

our ability to see ourselves in the

position that we are striving for

can you see yourself on that plane

to spain for the vacation that you have

always dreamed of

well right now i realize that this might

be difficult because

of all the travel restrictions and at

obc we don’t take the plane we bike

so

let me give you another example

can you visualize yourself looking at

that 7

for european history on your w4

this is already a step towards achieving

that servant

my point is that a lot of the time if we

manage to visualize what we want

we can get there it’s the first step

it’s about seeing ourselves in that

position and therefore

it becomes easier to see what steps can

lead us to that goal

but i could not see myself staring in a

marvel movie

can you imagine jill staring in an

effort

nobody looked like me on the big screen

i could not see myself if someone like

me could not do it

then i could not

in 2014

delmi cedric a high school senior in my

high school

was admitted to the prestigious

massachusetts institute of technology

mit i was completely

stunned the thing is i always thought

that these institutions were

reserved for the elite the intellectual

the economic

people that we could not we could simply

not aspire to

but then he was like me i would

see him on the schoolyard in every

morning chatting with his friends

very rarely would have a book in his

hands studying at the last time for a

test

no master procrastinators at the end of

the day

he would take the return back to his

house on his feet

with his sweat soaked shirt

he had glasses fizzy hair in the dark

skin

dammit look just like me yet he was

going to study at the

massachusetts institute of technology he

was going to

step foot on the same soil as my legend

my absolute favorite alumni at mitd

alumni

the historical alumni of all time you

would have guessed it

tony stark iron man

how was that possible that tell me was

normal and this is at the time that

i realized that if that we could do it

i could too with the right amount of

effort

the right amount of information with

work and inspiration

i could make it i did not speak to the

only but simply the fact of knowing

that he had made it made me believe that

i could make it

this ladies and gentlemen is the essence

of my speech today

it’s about representation representation

matters representation is about

us realizing our abilities to achieve

great things

it expands the limit of what is possible

or what is achievable

it proves us that identity is not a

limit

to what we can achieve it invites us to

dream about putting outside into the

world the potential that we hold within

ourselves

representation is important especially

for younger generation

coming from marginalized communities

the election of barack obama i’m going

to come back to it

because my speech after all is the day

when my father made obama cry

and i know you’re waiting to know how

that happened i’m getting there

i was on the phone with my father the

other day and

we were talking in a verse of nostalgia

about

me about him about our relationship

about

how proud he was of everything that i’ve

accomplished

and then he said i’m proud of you son

you did it you know obama

my father called me young obama

you see i was instantly formed back into

2008

i was in that room with my father

whistling with my mother

next to him i heard the voice of the

journalist

at the background i smelled the coffee

and i looked at the fire still burning

in the eyes of my father

and i realized why it mattered that

obama was elected president

because obama and i we had something

common

a skin color that told a common story

his election was a scream

a scream in the face of the world

a strident scream altered from the death

of our

of our entrails we still pain today

it was a scream that testified of the

potential that we

as people as black people hold within

ourselves

after not being considered as human for

over

for multiple centuries someone

will look like me became president of

arguably the most powerful nation in the

entire world

especially a nation that was dealing and

is still dealing with

issues related to racial justice and

equality

the wounds are still present today

someone who looked like me

whose ancestors were slaves became

president of the united states

and this inspired me to dream of what i

could achieve

maybe most of the time we as people

are seen as inferior as less deserving

but by barack obama becoming president

of the united states

my father realized that this was no more

the case

that was a proof that i could achieve as

well

that his son could become something

maybe not the president of the united

states unfortunately but

something as powerful and this is what

you understood that did

and that’s the reason behind this fire

so after my father called me young obama

i cried and

i realized what this meant to him

what what i was a completion meant to

him i realized that

my purpose was not simply to make him

proud

to make myself proud to achieve for

myself but to achieve for people like me

young people people not even born

so that one day from everything that i

could achieve they could look

and say and believe that they could too

not necessarily by becoming president of

my country

but by achieving simple things like

getting a scholarship

to a magical school called university

robert bush college

getting opportunities to publish my

texts

and interacting with young with

prominent writers

in haiti it was a proof

that if i could do it they could too my

story was similar to them

so what i tell myself is that everything

i do

i will do it with passion because i’m

not only doing it for myself

i’m representing an identity

this is the power of representation and

i invite you

to think about by simply being yourself

being you pressuring your dreams your

passion

to realize that you have the ability

to inspire people you have the ability

to motivate change

not in thousands of people but in one

person who is waiting

to see themselves see themselves on tv

see themselves as scientists

be becoming a migrant and

being successful being black

and being a president becoming a woman

and being one of the most renowned

author

in the entire history it’s about

representation

so this is what i invite you to do today

live not only for yourself but to

represent who you are

to inspire others thank you very much