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