Betsy DeVos Knew She Would Be Booed at Bethune-Cookman

Save for a few peaceful patches in the commencement program—when the concert chorale sang, when the brass band played, when the the charismatic chaplain called graduates and guests to prayer—students at the historically black Bethune-Cookman University's commencement ceremony on Wednesday clamored and shouted steady expressions of dissent.

Protest has been mounting since Bethune-Cookman president Edison O. Jackson announced last week that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would be this year's commencement speaker. And at the ceremony Wednesday afternoon, it was President Trump's name—unavoidably peppered throughout the dean's formal introduction of DeVos—that set off the crowd.

The decibel level of the students' vocal protest, ranging from a raucous roar to collective cheering when one student raised his fist to signal "black power" while being escorted out of the auditorium, contrasted the silent simplicity of past commencement protests. In 1991, students at Hampton College protested President George H.W. Bush by abrupting sitting when "Hail to the Chief" played. Students today stood with their backs turned to DeVos—but in the age of the livestream (17,000 tuned in to B-CU's website to catch the spectacle), noise-making matters more. Viewers at home will have heard the steady booing from students not on camera. And we heard, for instance, the young man who shouted, "Aw shut the f*** up," an expression of exasperation well-received by his peers, during DeVos's address.

Her speech really did seem to have been written for such an occasion. Betsy DeVos, and her speech writing team, were prepared to be jeered, in other words. She started out acknowledging the mothers, then the fathers, then the grandparents in the audience—those who'd guided these soon-to-be graduates to such a milestone. It's a none-too-subtle plug for parent choice, sure, but it's also a reminder to young adults that their parents are watching. And not just their parents. Their grandparents. Indiscernible chants and rumblings followed what, given the unfortunate context, came off like a scold: "Your actions …" Apart from a few lone shouts, the crowd quieted down during her pious nod to Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, the school's famous and beloved founding mother:

As one of 17 children born to parents who knew firsthand the horrors and injustice of slavery, Dr. Bethune was the only member of her family to be educated in a formal school setting. For her, education was a gift and an incredible privilege. She believed it was her sacred duty to use her education to uplift others.

 
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