Dolores Huerta criticized for graduation speech
| Tuesday, Jun 16 2009 05:50 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Jun 17 2009 12:51 PM
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Political activist Dolores Huerta addresses CSUB's School of Humanities and Social Studies graduates during ceremonies held Saturday morning at the school.
Did Dolores Huerta hijack a Cal State Bakersfield graduation?
That's what several attendees are saying about the farmworker advocate's commencement speech before the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Saturday.
They're complaining the talk was waaaay too political and all about her causes -- not about the graduates.
Huerta says she was just trying to expose the students to new topics and other audiences have embraced her similar graduation talks.
A video of the CSUB speech posted on You Tube shows Huerta advocated not only for continued learning and civic involvement but marriage equality, a higher minimum wage, gender balance in Congress, better farmworker treatment and against economic bailouts for bankers and investors.
She urged people to stay informed and get their news from sources other than Rush Limbaugh, such as from the New York Times, The Nation, Mother Jones and The Progressive.
Some in the crowd booed when Huerta brought up union issues. They laughed at her when she addressed white supremacists, pointing out we’re all homo sapiens.
"We can say to those people like the KKK...'Get over it. You're Africans, right? Get over it,'" Huerta said. "We are all Africans of different shapes and colors."
Complaints rolled in via Californian letters to the editor and blogs.
Stacey Hungerford, whose son graduated that day, said she considers herself a progressive, some would say liberal, and still she thought Huerta was rambling and way out of line.
She also didn't like how Huerta tried to elicit responses from the audience as if it were a political rally.
One letter writer called the talk "liberal hate speech."
"There's a million things she could have done to inspire the new graduates, but it appears the agenda was her own," Hungerford said in an interview.
Only three of Huerta's topics had a connection to graduation, Hungerford said, while the rest were wholly irrelevant.
"They were important topics, but not in that setting," she added. "And people were resentful."
Huerta had no apologies for the content of her speech Tuesday, saying she highlighted topics -- especially workers rights -- that the grads probably didn't know much about. She said she gave a similar graduation speech at UCLA and caught no flak there.
"A lot of the things I spoke about they've never heard about in their lives," Huerta said. "They're not taught in the schools."
Huerta did think her delivery was lacking, which she blamed on being tired after the UCLA speech and long meetings the day before.
"There was a lot of information, not enough inspiration," she said.
CSUB spokeswoman Kathy Miller said the president's office received just one complaint. Graduation speakers are chosen by the school dean in consultation with faculty, Miller said, and their speeches are not vetted beforehand as college campuses are all about accepting varying points of view.
She noted last year's speaker was former Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield.
"We ask commencement speakers to give inspiring speeches," Miller said. "Some speakers stay on point, some don't."
