The first lady also launched a thinly veiled attack on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying, “Some folks out there” don’t value the diversity that City College exemplifies.“They seem to view our diversity as a threat to be contained rather than as a resource to be tapped,” Obama said. “They tell us to be afraid of those who are different, to be suspicious of those with whom we disagree.”
“Here in America, we don’t give in to our fears,” she added. “We don’t build up walls to keep people out because we know that our greatness has always depended on contributions from people who were born elsewhere but sought out this country and made it their home.”
Donald Trump has released a plan to build a wall on the United States-Mexico border and has proposed a temporary ban on Muslim travel to the U.S.
This was the last commencement address of Michelle Obama’s tenure as first lady.
Over the course of its 169-year history, City College became known as the poor man’s Harvard when it began educating displaced Jews and other monitories shut out of elite private colleges.
