Oprah Winfrey headed to Los Angeles and delivered the keynote address at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s commencement ceremony today.
Oprah revealed that whether or not she would be giving the speech, she would have been attending the graduation ceremony. One of her students from her namesake school in South Africa, Thando Dlomo was amongst the graduates.
The speech to the future journalists and professionals inspired the new grads to combat the spread of misinformation and social media used to 'erode trust in institutions.'
The answer, Oprah says, lies in this new generation.
"The solution is each and every one of you because you will become the new editorial gatekeepers, an ambitious army of truth-seekers who will arm yourselves with the intelligence, with the insight and the facts necessary to strike down deceit."
Making reference to her Golden Globes speech where many felt she should or was making a declaration to run for the US presidency, Oprah urged the graduates to vote.
"So I hesitate to say this because there are rumors from my last big speech have finally died down, but here it is. Vote! Vote! Vote! Pay attention to what the people who claim to represent you are doing and saying in your name and on your behalf. They represent you and if they've not done right by you, if their policies are at odds with your core beliefs, then you have a responsibility to send them packing."
After hearing this speech, what do you think... Oprah for 2020?
Full Transcript:
Thank you Annenberg and a special thank you to Dean Willow Bay for inviting me here today and to the parents again I say and faculty, family, friends, graduates: Good morning. I want to give a special shout out because I was happy that Dean Bay invited me, but I was going to be here anyway. Because one of my lovely daughter girls attends the Annenberg School of Journalism and is getting her master's today. So I was coming in whether I was speaking or not. So a special shout out to a young woman who I met when she was in the seventh grade and it was the first year that I was looking for smart, bright, giving, resilient, kind, openhearted girls who had 'it' that factor that means that you keep going no matter what. This was the year that I chose everybody individually and I remember her walking into the office in a little township where we were doing interviews all over South Africa and she came in and recited a poem about her teacher. And when she walked out the door I go "that's an 'it' girl. Thando Dlomo, I am here to say I am so proud of you! Long way from the township in South Africa and her aunt has flown 30 hours to be here for this celebration today. Thank you so much.
So today I come bearing some good news and some bad news for anybody who intends to build the life around your ability to communicate. So I want to get the bad news out first so you can be clear. I always like to get the bad stuff up front. So here it is. Everything around us including and in particular the internet and social media is now being used to erode trust in our institutions. Interfere in our elections and wreak havoc on our infrastructure. It hands advertisers a map to our deepest desires. It enables misinformation to run rampant. Attention spans to run short and false stories from phony sites to run circles around major news outlets. We have literally walked into traffic while staring at our phones.
Now the good news. Many of your parents are probably taking you somewhere really special for dinner tonight. I heard. I heard. I heard. I can do a little better than that. Now that I've presented some of the bad news, the good news is that there really is a solution and the solution is each and every one of you because you will become the new editorial gatekeepers, an ambitious army of truth-seekers who will arm yourselves with the intelligence, with the insight and the facts necessary to strike down deceit. You are in a position to keep all of those who now disparage real news. You all are the ones who are going to keep those people in check. Why? Because you can push back and you can answer false narratives with real information and you can set the record straight. And you also have the ability and the power to give a voice as Dean Bay was saying to people who desperately now need to tell their stories and have their stories told. And this is what I do know for sure because I've been doing it a long time. If you can capture the humanity of people... if you can just capture the humanity of the people, of the stories that you are telling, you then get that much closer to your own humanity. And you could confront your bias and you can build your credibility, hone your instincts and compound your compassion. You could use your gifts. That's what you're really here to do to illuminate the darkness in our world. So this is what I also know that this moment in time this is your time to rise. It is.
Even though you can't go anywhere. You can't stand in line at Starbucks. You can go to a party. You can't go to any place without everywhere you turn, people are talking about how bad things are, how terrible it is. This is what I know. The problem is everybody is meeting hysteria with more hysteria and then we just are all becoming hysterical and it's getting worse. What I've learned all these years is that we're not supposed to match it or even get locked into resisting or pushing against it. We're supposed to see this moment in time for what it is, we're supposed to see through it and then transcend it. That is how you overcome hysteria. That is how you overcome the sniping at one another, the trolling, the mean-spirited partisanship on both sides of the aisle, the divisiveness, the injustices and the out-and-out hatred. You use it. Use this moment to encourage you to embolden you and to literally push you into the rising of your life. And to borrow a phrase from my beloved mentor Maya Angelou. 'Just like moons and like suns with the certainty of tides just like the hopes springing high you will rise.'
So your job now, let me tell you, is to take everything you've learned here and use what you've learned to challenge the left, to challenge the right and the center. When you see something, you say something and you say it with the facts and the reporting to back it up. Here's what you have to do. You make the choice every day, every single day to exemplify honesty because the truth, let me tell you something about the truth, the truth exonerates and it convicts. It disinfects and it galvanizes. The truth has always been and will always be our shield against corruption, our shield against greed and despair. The truth is our saving grace. And not only are you here USC Annenberg to tell it, to write it, to proclaim it, to speak it, but to be it. Be the truth! Be the truth!
So I want to get down to the real reason we're here today and about an hour and a half you're going to be catapulted into a world that appears to have gone off its rocker. And I can tell you I've hosted on the Oprah Show for 25 years, the number one show, never missed a day never missed a day. 25 years, 4561 shows. So I know how to talk, I can tell you that. But I was a little intimidated coming here because graduations... it's tough. It's hard trying to come up with something to share with you that you haven't already heard. What can I possibly say because I know this any inspiration or guidance I can offer is nothing that your parents or your deans or professors or Siri haven't already provided. So I'm here to really tell you I don't have any new lessons. I don't have any new lessons but I often think that it's not the new lessons, but so much as it is really learning the old ones again and again. So here are variations on a few grand themes beginning with this pick a problem, any problem. The list is long here just a few that are at the top of my list. There's gun violence and there's climate change and systemic racism, economic inequality, media bias. The homeless need opportunity, the addicted need treatment, the Dreamers need protection, the prison system needs reforming, the LGBTQ community needs acceptance, the social safety net needs saving and the misogyny needs to stop. But you can't fix everything and you can't save every soul. But what can you do? Here now I believe you have to declare war on one of our most dangerous enemies. And that is cynicism because when that little creature sinks in its hooks into you it'll cloud your clarity. It will compromise your integrity, it will lower your standards, it'll choke your empathy. And sooner or later, cynicism shatters your faith. When you hear yourself saying it doesn't matter what one person says oh well so work, it's not going to make any difference what I do. Who cares? When you hear yourself saying that know that you're on a collision course for our culture. And I understand how it's so easy to become disillusioned, so tempting to allow apathy to set in.
Because anxiety is being broadcast on 157 channels, 24 hours a day, all night long. And everybody I know is feeling it. But these times, these times are here to let us know that we need to take a stand for our right to have hope and we need to take a stand with every ounce of wit and courage we can muster. The question is what are you willing to stand for? That question is going to follow you throughout your life. And here's how you answer it. You put your honor where your mouth is. Put your honor where your mouth is. When you give your word, keep it, show up, do the work, get your hands dirty and then you will begin to draw strength from the understanding the true knowing that history is still being written. You're writing it every day. The wheels still in spin and what you do or what you don't do will be a part of it.
You build a legacy not from one thing, but from everything. I remember when I just opened my school in 2007 I came back and I had the great joy of sitting at Maya Angelou's table. She hadn't been able to attend the opening in South Africa and I said to her 'Oh Maya, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy that's going to be my greatest legacy.' I remember she was standing at the counter making biscuits and she turned, she put the dough down and she looked at me and she said 'you have no idea what your legacy will be.' I said 'excuse me? I just opened the school and these girls and it's going to be...' And she said 'you have no idea what your legacy will be because your legacy is every life you touch, every life you touch.' That changed me. And it's true you can't personally stop anybody from walking into a school with an assault rifle, nor can you singlehandedly ensure that the rights that your mothers and your grandmothers fought so hard for will be preserved for the daughters that you may someday have. It Will take more than you alone to pull 40 million Americans out of poverty, but who will you be if you don't care enough to try. And what mountains could we move I think, what gridlock could we eradicate if we were to join forces and work together in service of something greater than ourselves? You know my deepest satisfaction and my biggest rewards have come from exactly that. Pick a problem, any problem and do something about it because to somebody who's hurting, something is everything. So I hesitate to say this because there are rumors from my last big speech have finally died down, but here it is. Vote! Vote! Vote! Pay attention to what the people who claim to represent you are doing and saying in your name and on your behalf. They represent you and if they've not done right by you, if their policies are at odds with your core beliefs, then you have a responsibility to send them packing. If they go low, thank you Michelle Obama, if they go low, we go to the polls. People died for that right. They died for that right. I think about it every time I cast a vote. So don't let their sacrifice be in vain.
A couple of other thoughts. Eat a good breakfast. It really pays off. Pay your bills on time. Recycle. Make your bed. Aim high. Say thank you to people and actually really mean it. Ask for help when you need it and put your phone away at the dinner table. Just sit on it really and know that what you tweet and post, and Instagram today might be asked about in a job interview tomorrow or 20 years from tomorrow. Be nice to little kids. Be nice to your elders. Be nice to animals and know that it's better to be interested than interesting. Invest in a quality mattress. I'm telling you, your back will thank you later. And don't cheap out on your shoes and if you're fighting with someone you really love, for God's sakes, find your way back to them because life is short even on our longest days. And another thing you already know that definitely bears repeating, don't ever confuse what is legal with what is moral because they are entirely different animals. You see in a court of law there are loopholes and technicalities and bargains to be struck, but in life you're either principled or you're not. So do the right thing especially when nobody's looking. And while I'm at it, do not equate money and fame with accomplishment and character because I can assure you based on the thousands of people I've interviewed one does not automatically follow the other. Something else, you need to know this: your job is not always going to fulfill you.
There will be some days that you just might be bored. Other days you may not feel like going to work it all, go anyway. And remember that your job is not who you are, it's just what you're doing on the way to who you will become. Every remedial chore, every boss who takes credit for your ideas, that is going to happen. Look for the lessons because the lessons are always there and the number one lesson I could offer you where your work is concerned has this become so skilled, so vigilant, so flat out fantastic at what you do that your talent cannot be dismissed. And finally this will save you. Stop comparing yourself to other people.