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Duke University welcomed John Legend to give the commencement speech on Sunday.
“You know, I’m feeling good because today because this is the first time I’ve been in front of a live audience, hearing live applause, since last February, 14 months ago,” the singer said at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
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During his speech, Legend looked back the pandemic over the past year and how it has affected everyone.
He continued, “Your class lost a lot: Some lost job offers, some lost loved ones, and all of you lost a whole year those little moments that make college so special. I feel your pain: You’ve lost something that you won’t get back. I won’t sugarcoat that – it sucks.”
Saying how everyone had to “slow down” and take proper precautions has meant we have all had to “care for one another.”
“This perspective you gained will serve us all, because while that competitive drive that got you here can be an incredible gift, it can get in the way, too,” Legend said.
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Legend also spoke of the social inequalities that so many still face.
“America’s story has always been marred by efforts to exclude, to dominate, to subjugate, to keep certain groups of people with no voice, no power and no opportunity: Workers, women, indigenous people, Black people, immigrants, the LGBTQ community. All because of a fear that if those people did better, somebody else would have to lose. But the miracle of our story is that as we expanded opportunity, in our best moments, we proved that those fears were unfounded. When more people made more money, rich business owners didn’t suffer, they got more customers. Prosperity increased for everybody.”
Concluding, “once we recognize our interdependence, our mutuality, it’s clear that love is precisely what our society needs.”
This isn’t the first time Legend as been at the school. In 2004, he and Kanye West put on a Last Day of Classes concert.