By Jonathan Arkin
Student Writer
Several intellectuals and arts professionals shared their hopes and admonitions for America’s future on Feb. 27 as the Tavis Smiley Foundation presented the Young Scholars Forum as part of the 10th anniversary State of the Black Union symposium at USC’s Bovard Auditorium.
Presented in association with the Johnson Communication Leadership Center and the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy – and hosted by Smiley – the forum was intended as a kickoff event for the wider State of the Black Union discussions taking place the following weekend around Los Angeles. The panel featured USC Annenberg communication professor Josh Kun, Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude, U.S. Naval officer Jocelyn Butcher, Voto Latino executive director Maria Teresa Peterson, actress and activist Jurnee Smolett, Brown University Professor Tricia Rose, and university professor Dr. Alia Sabur, who at 18 years old became the youngest university professor in the world.
“I am so delighted so many of you are here – especially all of you young leaders,” said Smiley, who talked about the “engagement dividend” he used to describe the new activism surrounding the recent presidential election. “We want to talk today about the challenge and the change – your generation. How do we spin the engagement dividend? The problem is we all know about symbolism. But you can’t lead the people if you don’t love…and you can’t save the people if you don’t serve. It’s about love and service.”
Bovard Auditorium was packed with college students in additional to several groups of young students from South Central secondary institutions such as Locke High School and Markham Middle School.
“I want to welcome you on behalf of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the University of Southern California,” Dean Ernest J. Wilson III said. “It is a delight and it does my heart good that it is at the place where it all began. Tavis Smiley as a leader had a vision 10 years ago to start this conference on leadership. To all of the younger students – we want to see you back here as college students…you have got to apply to some university or college, your communities badly need you as young leaders, your country needs you in order to lead our country. I want you to dream big dreams. The world needs you – Africa needs you. Europe needs you. Asia needs you.”
Moderated by Dominique DiPrima, host and producer of The Front Page on KJLH, the panel sat on the Bovard stage, sharing anecdotes, views and stopping several times for applause.
“A lot of us got very fired up over this past election,” said DiPrima, who called on a “sustained movement” of activism and awareness among young leaders. “A lot of young people taking the lead and moving this forward. If this is a movement, how will this movement be sustained?”
Kun illustrated the new power young people wield in the world of urban music, which he said needed more than ever to lose its corporate controls and express its natural bent for innovation.
“It’s a question of mobility, what we’re allowed to see,” said Kun, who added that he has noticed many promising young artists left out of contemporary conversations. “For the past three years, every day I have a student coming into class saying ‘You haven’t heard - ?’ It’s another artist thousands of people are listening to but nobody’s talking about. As an educator, I need to listen to my students to learn how to teach better.”
Chris Payez, a Locke High School senior who hopes to study chemical engineering upon graduating this year, was visiting USC for the second time in two months.
“It was definitely very inspirational and engaging,” said Payez, who sat with his classmates in the Bovard balcony during the panel discussion. “It made me very aware of what I want to do in college – and after college. It was very profound. They made me feel like it’s up to me to do something in my community. I liked [Kun’s] answer that hip-hop should not be stereotyped.”
The panelists took turns pointing out the nation’s anxiety about government, the economy and opportunity.
“As a democracy, we are in deep trouble,” Glaude said. “And Obama is not Jesus. Or Mohammed or Buddha…So where do we go to have conversations? In the midst of this, nothing gets said. The first thing we have to do is realize that in this democracy, the greatest responsibility lies on the shoulder of the greatest number. The moment we conflate democracy with Barack Obama’s agenda, then democracy is in trouble. The agenda we need to be pushing is to expand the capacity of every normal person to achieve their dreams…It’s time for Americans to take back the country.”
The star-studded panel discussions continued during the weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which included a video address by President Barack Obama, but the energy sending the USC panelists out on Friday morning was at once academic, emotional and even musical in its finality and optimism.
“Our action grows out of a growing process, sitting and drawing near – not only to ourselves, but to those around us,” said Kun, who added that the importance of recognizing and expecting some failure could actually strengthen young people’s productivity. “Failure is the birth of innovation, and failure is the birth of creativity.”
USC Annenberg's NeonTommy.com also published an article about the forum.
