'I Felt Them Change Their Minds': Political Scientist Describes Speaking At Columbia Graduation

6 months ago

Political scientist and founder of Eurasia group, Ian Bremmer, joins "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss his role as the graduation speaker at Columbia University.

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Transcript

00:00You mentioned that you thought the students needed to be understood and

00:04challenged. That's an interesting juxtaposition. Can you talk a little bit

00:08about that? Why you think they needed to be understood, but then how did you

00:12challenge them? Well, um, look, there were, I mean, I stayed, of course, for the whole

00:18ceremony, and I would say about, you know, you've got about 800, 900 graduating

00:24students there from all over the world. I'd say a solid 20% of them were wearing

00:31keffiyeh, right, in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, carrying a

00:38Palestinian flag onto the stage and displaying it, and or with a fake

00:45diploma that called for divestment from Colombia into Israel, which they handed

00:51to the Dean onto the podium. So, I mean, let's be clear. You had a lot of

00:57students there that were active and wanted to use this commencement to

01:06display their feelings on this issue, and I needed those students to know

01:13that I heard them, right, that I was not going to ignore them, and that I was

01:20going to engage with them. I had to do that, but at the same time, that does not

01:26mean simply sitting and saying, okay, okay, I hear you, and now we're gonna move on.

01:32It is, what do I think? Because, you know, I'm part of the SIPA community, too, the

01:38Colombia community, and they need to hear my honest views. I don't know, I mean, if

01:44you saw the speech, you know that I talked about the fact that, you know,

01:48they're all going on to their jobs, and internships, and fellowships, and summer

01:52travel, and meanwhile, the hostages are still being held, and the Palestinians

01:59in Gaza are still facing death, and both of those things are still happening, and

02:04they need to be challenged on all of that, right? It's not like we're in this

02:09microcosm in Colombia, and they fight, fight, fight, then they go on to the

02:12real world. It's like, okay, what's happening here, right? So, I felt like it

02:17was really important that I showed respect to them, but then they had to

02:21actually be willing to listen and engage with me, and, you know, there were some

02:25moments at the beginning of the speech, I heard some chanting, I heard some

02:29shouting, and I said, listen, I hear you, I'm with you, I'm getting there, give it a

02:34moment, and God bless these guys, you know, I give them a lot of respect, they

02:40did, they did, they were willing to listen, and not one person, not only

02:45was there not a mass walkout, not one Columbia student left, not one, not one

02:51Columbia student turned their back during the speech, and at the end of the

02:56speech, I'm sure a lot of them didn't agree with everything I had to say, they

03:00all applauded, and I felt them change their minds, listen over the course

03:09of the speech, I heard from many of my students who wrote me the same thing, and

03:14I felt it, for me, it was inspiration to actually be able to be a part of that in

03:21a constructive way, in an engaged way, not in an oppositional way, which is so much

03:28of the way this has been covered in the news over the past two months, and is

03:34absolutely not doing any favors, not doing any service to democracy, to the

03:39students, or to the politicians on the far left, and on the far right, who are

03:44just using these students to make bank for themselves.

'I Felt Them Change Their Minds': Political Scientist Describes Speaking At Columbia Graduation

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