Yesterday, New Jersey's Kean University announced that it would host Common as the institution's graduation day speaker. And now, just a day later, the university has rescinded its invitation, citing Com's heartfelt tributary "A Song For Assata" as incendiary and offensive to the state's law enforcement regime for praising activist and former Black Panther Assata Shakur (currently laying low in Cuba after being convicted of the 1973 murder of NJ state police officer). The slight comes as just the latest attempt to silence voices (even their names in song titles, apparently) who have long fought to uphold civil rights and empower their culture in every corner of the globe. Certainly not the sentiment you'd want to to pass on to, say, a group of impressionable youths on their way into the next chapter of their lives, where they will surely encounter the full force of our nation's racial divide and all the friction that comes with--assuming they've somehow managed to avoid them up until this point. It is both disturbing and immensely disappointing to think that a man who won both an Oscar and a Grammy just months ago for his role alongside John Legend in the conception of the ever powerful and poignant protest anthem "Glory" would be refused from sharing his words and wisdom with the generation that needs to hear them most. Shame on you, Kean.
spotted at NBC New York
