censorship at the graduation podium

Four months ago, I graduated from Swarthmore College. Typically, to find a commencement speaker, seniors nominate themselves and compete in a speech-off in front of the senior class. Once the speech-off is completed, seniors vote for their favorite speech. The student with the most votes, wins the competition and is the commencement speaker. But, for the Class of 2025, the school decided they would do something different. After a powerful speech by Nora Sweeney for the Class of 2024, which commented on Black Lives Matter and the Israeli sanctioned genocide that is unfolding in Gaza, and two years of sustained student activism to hold the administration accountable, it can be assumed that the administration wanted to quiet any mention of the US funded genocide at graduation. 

Swarthmore College was identified as one of 60 institutions on the Trump Administration's watchlist for failure to properly address antisemitism on college campuses, largely aimed at Students for Justice in Palestine protestors. We know that any protest against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians has been placed under the umbrella of anti-semitism and accounts for the administration’s hostile takeover of elite institutions like, most notably, Columbia University. It was allegedly rumored that the Philadelphia Mann Center said they would shut down the graduation if students protested like they did at the 2024 graduation. It can also be assumed that Swarthmore moved graduation off-campus for the first time in 2024 due to the student encampment for Palestine that took over Parrish Beach. So Swarthmore had some heat on ‘em.

All of this was happening within the greater context of student censorship across US college campuses and graduation podiums. A student commencement speaker at NYU, Logan Rozos, had his diploma withheld because he called out the US’ support of the genocide in Gaza. They claimed he misused his platform to express a “one-sided political view”. Back in 2024, USC valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, was banned from giving her commencement speech because of “safety concerns” regarding the potential pro-palestinian contents of Asna’s speech. For two years, the censorship of graduation speakers due to their criticism of Israel’s ethnic-cleaising of Palestinians and advocacy for human rights colored headlines across my social media feed. 

And yet, I was still surprised when censorship made its way to the “liberal” utopia of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Upon starting my senior year, one of the things I was most excited for was potentially speaking at my class’ commencement ceremony. As stated previously, Swarthmore did not base the commencement speaker based off of grades, but rather based on student votes. As someone who was heavily involved on campus from the moment I set foot in westbubblefuck, I knew that I had a good chance of winning the class vote. When the time came for me to draft my speech, I knew that I had a great task at hand. I wanted to take time to appreciate all the beauty and love that we all came to know throughout our college experience, without being cheesy, while simultaneously addressing the hurt and loss we’d witnessed in the last two years, some in part due to the carceral tactics weaponized by our very own school administration. I took that task seriously. My peers deserved more than the bullshit of random metaphors and cliche lines about packing up our lives to move on to the next chapter. We deserved the ability to celebrate all we’d created, while also not siloing us off from the monstrosities of the world we’re all living in, and that our college is complicit in. When I finished giving the draft of the speech that had only just begun to tackle all of that, the room erupted in cheers (this was caught on video). I’m not naive enough to ignore the fact that I was well liked on campus which aided in my speech being well received, but I also know that my speech succeeded in doing what I set out to do. To have us all sit with nuance, reality, but also hope. 

I knew that because I’d mentioned the suspensions against student protestors, the US’ complicity in the war on Gaza’s children, ICE, and several other dangers the Trump administration posed to us all that I would not wind up on that stage without pushback from the administration. I’d expected maybe they’d ask me to take certain things out of my speech and I was prepared to fight that. But, what I did not expect was for the administration to rig the election, allegedly (sprinkling that because you know people like to sue, and I zon’t have the funds). When the guidelines of the speech-off were presented to our class, we were told that students’ votes would determine the winner. But when the nominated speakers were emailed privately, we were told that the senior commencement committee (composed of five class officers and some college administrators) would have the final vote on the speaker. So, we would have to re-read our speech in front of this committee and then receive the final vote. When it came time to have the second round of the speech off, which was now narrowed down to the final five speakers, including myself, the senior committee had to reschedule. Coincidentally at this time, a second encampment began on campus and I assume the administration were attempting to find a way to silence protestors yet again. After this, I did not hear back from the senior committee about the final speech-off, even after I emailed them to follow up about the process. Cut to a month later, I found out who was to be our 2025 commencement speaker. 

Upon finding out that I was not selected to be the commencement speaker, I was livid. Have you ever been so angry that you’re just numb? The administration re-wrote the rules of this once "democratic" process and didn’t even play by the very rules they set. We never read our speeches in front of the commencement committee. The administrators who’d been working to suppress student protest never got to hear what I had to say face to face. I knew I wasn’t going to win if they had a say, but at least they would have to listen to what I had to say on behalf of the student body. Aside from this, the speech that was chosen for commencement, emphasis on the speech and not the speaker, was mediocre. Honestly. It kept us all within the Swarthmore bubble. It did nothing to address the world we were heading into, not even a cheeky joke about the job market. Or maybe it did have one? I don’t know, I wasn’t listening. It was the perfect speech for the administration because it colored within the lines, albeit with a white crayon. Boring, non-threatening, inconsequential. 

I wanna emphasize that I’m not bitter because I didn’t get to speak. At the end of the day, my black ass still ended up on that stage proudly repping the work I’ve done on and off campus and honoring, in a small way, the Gazans that were unable to graduate due to scholasticide. It is not about me. It is about censorship. I was frustrated because I realized it wasn’t about quality, intentionality, democracy, or even care. It was about censorship. And it hurt me. It hurt me that before I had even left for the “real world”--the one dominated by fascism, silencing, repression, and fear, it had already greeted me at the exit. I wore my keffiyeh and held a Palestinian flag on the graduation stage. Because I won an award at graduation, I was posted on the school’s social media. On Instagram, I received a comment taunting me saying, “Is she going to Gaza to do her humanitarian work?” from a commenter that is always trolling the school’s page. I didn’t see the comment until maybe a week after graduation, but it still rattled me. I’d seen the hateful things people commented against student protestors at my school, and it made me a little afraid to give them a name and a face to put to their hate. I’ve watched peers be doxxed, I’ve seen students lose everything for protesting, and I’ve witnessed the consequences of fighting for basic human rights and in turn having to fight to keep your life together simply for speaking up.  

But because I possess the inability to shut the fuck up, I wasn’t silent about my hurt. I was confused because so many students, even people I’d never spoken to, came up to me to tell me that they voted for me as speaker. I’d accept my loss, but I wanted to see the proof. I emailed the commencement committee demanding they show me the results of the student vote. I wanted to prove that the students surely hadn’t voted for who ended up being chosen as our commencement speaker. I wanted to show that the school was actively going against what students voted for, and upon showing that, I wanted them to explain why. The administration pretended to cooperate with me, but only ended up showing me the final vote of the senior commencement committee, which again, only comprised of five students and a handful of administrators. But that’s not what I asked for. To this day, the administration never followed through on my request to show me the class of 2025’s vote for senior speaker. 

I immediately exposed the shadiness of the process on my Instagram story, which garnered many DMs from previous alumni and current students. Many with sympathy, and some with information about the previous year’s commencement speaker process. Alumni confirmed that previous speakers were voted by students and the administration had little role in choosing the commencement speaker, surely not as much of a role they played this time around. I spoke with the Class of 2024 speaker and told her how much I appreciated the speech she gave last year. She was thankful, but mainly apologetic because she felt that her decision to change her speech had only made it harder for future speakers to speak freely.  

Censorship didn’t start at the graduation podium, but it has shown its ass there. I write this after the assasination of Charlie Kirk. In real time, I’m seeing news that people are losing their jobs simply for posting Charlie Kirk’s own words about gun violence and empathy and pointing out the objective irony. We just saw Jimmy Kimmel, one of the like five white dudes on late night TV, lose his TV show for saying that the shooter was MAGA and that MAGA is denying that. A rich, white, man was censored! But it did not start with him. Censoring intensified in large response to the student protests that have been unfolding on college campuses for the last going on three years. 

I write this because it is getting scarier and scarier to speak up against fascism. I honestly don’t know if I could’ve handled potential hateful reactions to the speech I wanted to give because a small Instagram comment freaked me out more than I knew possible. Honestly. So I don’t judge anyone who took the ‘safe’ route. Honestly. My anger lies with the conditions we exist within. We shouldn't have to choose between speaking up or losing our livelihoods. But the people within positions of power and spotlight need to be making the brave decision to do so anyways. I know that if I got up on that podium and decided to address anything other than our reality that would be improper use of that platform. So as institutions with power, money, and resources, I expect them all to do more. More to support students who are only living up to the pillars of social justice these schools claim to support. Institutions need to do more to put up a fight against fascist policy and not be preemptively obedient to bigotry. 

The censorship I and other members of the Class of 2024 and 2025 experienced at our graduations is just one small part of the devastation that’s been caused by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Biden and Trump Administration, and the billionaires who comprise the United States’ oligarchy. I’ve never been scared to post a blog post critiquing our circumstances before, but now as censorship rears its head more than it has in a long time, I worry what consequences they’ll create for our words next…

With support, I ended up reading some of my speech at a separate ceremony for the Class of 2025. And as stated before I wound up on stage making a statement without saying a word. You cannot son me, I am mother. I’m just playing, but seriously…When I was in middle school, my teacher had a Keith Haring image above the whiteboard that said: “Ignorance = Fear / Silence = Death”. Silence is Death is ingrained in my memory and in moments of fear I’m reminded of that.  Now more than ever, if you are a citizen, if you aren’t at risk of losing employment (maybe because you don’t have any in this recession), if you are safe to do so, speak! Share the words of people who can’t speak. Speak through your ancestors at times when you can’t speak through yourself: “You know, my grandma would always say fuck around and find out…”. Speak to people in real life or in your group chats because everything does not need to be posted online. Find safer, smarter, ways to do it, but never stop speaking against fascism, cruelty, and injustice. It’s important to speak when you are educated, not just out your ass. We are witnessing the rise of independent journalism and education. Continue to support public broadcasting like NPR and PBS and keep being educated by the scholar-activists who’ve been cast aside by cowardly institutions. The most important resources are the people right beside us, not at a dinner with Jay Z.