May 12, 2018

Chance the Rapper’s Commencement Speech Is Exactly What We Needed This Weekend

In summary: Beyoncé, Beyoncé, Beyoncé.

Fair Dillard/YouTube

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Chance the Rapper had a lasting message to the graduates of Dillard University: Surpass your heroes and achieve greatness, just like Beyoncé did at Coachella.

On Saturday, Chance took time during his 22-minute speech to praise the lessons learned from Beyoncé’s legendary performance at Coachella, a moment that Chance said was “was better than any performance Michael Jackson ever did.” 

“I realized that all of us have a responsibility to be greater than the people who came before us. We have a responsibility to be not as good as them or live up to their example, but to actually surpass them, even when it seems scary. We have to overcome that fear and be greater than our role models,” Chance told the graduates. “We have to erase the fear and stigma behind eclipsing our heroes.”

Chance received an honorary degree from the historically black college in New Orleans.

Watch his speech below, starting at the 90-minute mark. 

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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