Keith Boykin
Illini Union 314A
2/4/13 7pm
This weeks lecture was given by Keith Boykin. Boykin is an openly gay author,commentator, Tv personality and political consultant.His lecture was on what his journey has been like from his time in college to now as a gay african american man. Boykin started off his lecture with how he was inspired to make the choices and decisions in his life. That inspiration came from Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken"
After his undergraduates degree Boykin went off to do campaign work for the governor of Massachusetts. There he would only earn 250$ a month being that he just finished college his family questioned his decisions to go through with this decision. But debts and doubts aside Boykin was able to follow his heart, go on an adventure, see the world and find a passion for what truly interested him.
After that he did other odd and end jobs like teaching 8th grade social studies and 10th grade english but hated it and decided to apply for law school, another decision questioned by his family. He got accepted to Harvard and went on to become a major part of ensuring campus diversity.
he spoke of the importance of "speaking truth to gain power"
confronted dean and actually had the dean running from him avoiding questions, he held sit ins to gain the deans attention and even took the dean/president of Harvard law to court(they lost due to "didn't have proper standing" but won in the public's opinion gaining the recognition and respect they deserved)
he then went on to work for the Bill Clinton administration especially with the topic of gays in the military
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/comparing-civil-rights-gay-rights/510a8c422b8c2a138f000395
Boykin's thoughts about this article
-people choose their religious beliefs yet they are still discriminated against
-pointless to prove whether or not
-irrational people
Coming out vs Out
-coming out= you need some sort of affirmative disclosure/prof
- out= open and honest
"if you tell the right people you don't have to tell everybody else"
Words/Tips to audience
-follow dreams
-make difference
-share stories
-inspire change
-" you will always be afraid in the service of your vision but that fear gets less and less important"
-"diversity benefits everyone not just the minorities and women"
-"dont be afraid to say what you feel/ don't sacrifice what you truly mean in order to please someone else" "you say your side they say theirs and find a way to meet halfway"
This lecture was really interesting it focused a lot on his background and how he got to where he was today and also the speed of change in todays world with accepting differences. Towards the end he spoke a little bit about his book and his inspirations for those excerpts as well. Overall he kept me entertained and interested in each of his stories and life lessons.
-books were available for purchase
-he was signing books
-open for questions
-free food and drinks after the presentation
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