All We Need Was Already in the Building: The Yolanda Williams Speech, the SC State Controversy, and a Lesson for Black America
- Ghetto Philosopher
- May 22
- 5 min read
INTRODUCTION
Imagine sitting in graduation robes after four years of papers, exams, debt, stress, and sacrifice. The school spent weeks fighting over who deserved to speak to you. Social media was on fire. Alumni were mad. Students were mad. Everybody was arguing over who should stand at the lectern.
Then a 5' foot Black woman from your own family stepped to the microphone and reminded everybody of something we keep forgetting:
We are all we need.
Sometimes...the lesson ends up being bigger than the controversy.
For weeks, South Carolina State University found itself trapped inside a political and governance storm after the university invited Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette to deliver commencement remarks. Students pushed back. Alumni pushed back. Community members pushed back. Petitions circulated. Public debate exploded. Questions emerged about who was making decisions, whose values were being represented, and whether the institution was listening to its own people.
Then the university reversed course.
In place of the Lt. Governor, SC State turned inward. National Alumni Association President Yolanda Williams and Student Government Association President Zaria Tucker took the stage. More than 25,000 signatures had reportedly been gathered against the original invitation, with critics arguing that Evette did not represent the values many associated with the institution.
And then something happened.
The story stopped being about who wasn’t there.
It became about who was.
Because after all the controversy, all the headlines, all the boardroom maneuvering and public backlash, the right person for the moment may have already been sitting inside the SC State family all along.
That message extends beyond commencement.
It's a message for Black America itself.
The Barbershop Test
If you walk into any Black barbershop Saturday morning and say:
"We brought in a White lady, caused chaos, then realized the person everybody needed was already here..."
somebody in the back gonna yell out:
"Man, we do this all the time! Black folks SWEAR that the White man's ice is colder! "
We wait for celebrities.
We wait for politicians.
We wait for rich saviors.
Meanwhile Big Mama, the local teacher, the alumna, the organizer, and the community leader already been doing the work.
The Controversy: A Quick Timeline
The controversy began when Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette was selected as commencement speaker. Opposition was swift.
Students and alumni questioned the decision, arguing that her political positions and public rhetoric conflicted with the culture and history of the state’s only public HBCU. The backlash became large enough that university leadership ultimately moved in another direction citing safety considerations.
The Lt. Governor’s office did not quietly accept the criticism.
Evette responded by connecting the controversy to broader debates over DEI and campus politics, stating:
“The fact that a speech had to be canceled for credible safety threats is exactly why we cannot give up the fight to end indoctrination and DEI on campuses once and for all.”
That statement reframed the issue as part of a larger ideological war.
But once commencement actually happened, much of the public discussion shifted somewhere else entirely.
To Yolanda Williams.
“We Are Family” Became “We Are All We Need”
Williams told the audience:
“We are family. Families may fuss. Families may disagree. But when it’s time to stand together, we stand together.”
On the surface, that’s a statement about unity.
Underneath it, there was another message.
Black America has spent generations being told that legitimacy comes from external approval.
External validation.
External rescuers.
External gatekeepers.
External institutions.
Yet here sat an accomplished Black woman, an alumna, someone who understood the culture, the institution, and the people in the seats before her.
The irony was impossible to miss:
All that controversy only to discover that the right person was already in the building.
This Is Not New
HBCUs themselves were built because Black people got tired of waiting on someone else to educate us.
During segregation nobody was lining up to save us.
So Black communities built schools.
Built banks.
Built churches.
Built fraternities.
Built businesses.
Built newspapers.
Built institutions.
We've always been our own first responders.
Black Self-Determination
Black institutions historically succeeded because they built internally.
Churches.
Mutual aid societies.
Fraternities and sororities.
Civil rights organizations.
HBCUs themselves.
None began with massive outside investment or outside permission.
They began because Black people decided:
“We’ll build it ourselves.”
Williams’ speech unintentionally touched that nerve.
The moment felt less like importing prestige and more like recognizing our own.
Internal Talent Pipelines
Organizations fail when they ignore talent sitting directly in front of them.
Businesses do it.
Governments do it.
Universities do it.
Sometimes leadership becomes so focused on bringing in a “big name” that it misses the people who already possess trust and credibility.
That’s a lesson not just for SC State.
It’s a lesson for boardrooms, churches, political organizations, and communities.
HBCUs Looking Past Homegrown Leadership
HBCUs have always wrestled with a tension:
Should legitimacy come from external power or internal excellence?
Sometimes institutions chase the headline.
Sometimes they chase political access.
Sometimes they chase donors.
And sometimes while chasing all that, they accidentally overlook the people who built the house.
This commencement became a reminder:
The house already had furniture in it.
Respectability Politics
Another uncomfortable conversation surfaced.
Black institutions often feel pressure to prove they can “play nice” with power.
Respectability politics says:
“Look acceptable enough and maybe you’ll be accepted.”
But HBCUs were never created because people accepted us.
They were created because acceptance wasn’t coming.
The Savior Problem
Black communities sometimes fall into a pattern of waiting for somebody else:
The politician.
The celebrity.
The wealthy donor.
The charismatic leader.
The outside champion.
Meanwhile, solutions are often sitting in classrooms, alumni associations, neighborhoods, and local communities.
Sometimes we’re waiting for Superman while Superman is already in the room.
Public Reaction: The Internet Saw It Too
The public response seemed to carry a common thread:
Many alumni and observers felt relief.
Social media reactions leaned heavily toward appreciation that graduates heard from voices connected to the institution itself. Community reactions resembled the same thing you’d hear in a barbershop:
“That felt like SC State.”
“That felt authentic.”
“That felt like us.”
Because authenticity is difficult to manufacture.
People recognize it immediately.
What Happens Next: The Board and Chairman
The bigger question remains governance.
Controversies like this rarely disappear after the ceremony ends.
They leave residue.
The board chair now faces a difficult reality:
Trust once spent is hard to replenish.
If major institutional decisions repeatedly generate backlash among students, faculty, alumni, and stakeholders, eventually attention shifts from the decision itself to leadership.
Not:
“Why did this happen?”
But:
“Why does this keep happening?”
That is where board chairs become vulnerable.
If I were reading the battlespace here, I’d say future board appointments and leadership discussions may begin focusing on restoring stakeholder trust rather than merely defending decisions.
Leadership isn't just making decisions.
Leadership is maintaining legitimacy.
When students are angry, alumni are angry, faculty are uneasy, and the public is asking questions, eventually people stop asking:
"Why did this decision happen?"
and start asking:
"Why is this leadership still here?"
Universities cannot survive long-term legitimacy problems.
CONCLUSION
All that fighting over who should speak at commencement only to discover that the perfect choice had been eating chicken and strolling at Homecoming the entire time...
Yolanda Williams delivered more than a commencement speech.
She accidentally delivered a reminder.
To SC State.
To HBCUs.
To Black America.
We keep looking out the window for validation, leadership, and legitimacy, when the solution is right in there sitting at the kitchen table.
It's just waiting to be recognized.
Sometimes all we need is already there.
Sometimes all we need is us.
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