Eddie Glaude Jr. Challenges Stony Brook to Confront Hard Truths in Presidential Lecture

Celebrated author and scholar Eddie Glaude Jr. challenged students, faculty, and other members of the Stony Brook University community to engage with the complexities of history, truth, and democracy at the Presidential Lecture on February 27.

Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Carl Lejuez welcomed the crowd in the Charles B. Wang Center Theatre, saying, “We are here to hear and speak with Dr. Glaude, but we’re also here to celebrate Black History Month, 100 years of James Baldwin, and locally to prepare for the 50th anniversary of Stony Brook’s Poetry Center, founded by June Jordan, a fierce political activist and powerful poet.”

Glaude, a distinguished professor at Princeton University, engaged the audience with his insights on American democracy and social justice. His latest book, We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For, a New York Times bestseller based on his Du Bois Lectures at Harvard, calls on ordinary Black Americans to embrace self-cultivation and grassroots activism to create a more just society.

“History is not just about the past; it’s about the stories we tell ourselves to justify the present,” Glaude began. “And if those stories are dishonest, then our present is built on a shaky foundation. Universities have a duty to engage in the kind of truth-telling that allows us to imagine a different future.”

Glaude emphasized the need for individuality within history and tradition. Drawing on jazz, he described how the unique improvisations within a composition mirror the ways individuals contribute to societal progress. “Because sometimes you’ve got to sing off-key to be heard right,” he remarked, stressing the importance of distinctive voices in shaping conversations about justice.

In a time when misinformation dominates public discourse, Glaude spoke about the frustration of trying to convey information during arguments. He reflected on his role as a public intellectual, explaining that his appearances on television are not about personal branding but about using his philosophical training to shift the center of gravity in public debates. He noted, “If you read John Dewey’s The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy, he says ‘the philosopher at her best brings her skill sets to bear on the problems of men and women.’ And so this is what I’m trying to do when I’m on television. How might I do it? How might I reframe this in a way? But it’s often very difficult.”

Glaude acknowledged the difficulty of engaging in meaningful discourse. “America has a tendency to live on the surface of things,” he said, while insisting that people are capable of understanding complex ideas. “If people can follow Game of Thrones, they can follow complex arguments.”

Following Glaude’s initial lecture, he joined Lejuez for a question and answer period to address questions submitted by community members. The discussion also turned to Glaude’s personal background, including his mother’s sacrifices and his deep commitment to making his work accessible. “I want my mama to understand what I’m saying,” he said, sharing how he measures the impact of his words by how his mother, who left school in ninth grade, responds to them.

At the core of his message was a call for honesty, both at the personal level and as a nation. “Baldwin says we’re at once miracles and disasters,” Glaude noted, urging the audience to confront the difficult truths of history. “We’re going to work hard at this marriage,” he said, as an analogy for the current state of the country, “but if you don’t deal with the lie at the heart of it, it’s just going to sit there.” He used the imagery of a body hidden in the closet to illustrate the unspoken truths that keep societies from healing.

Glaude also addressed the role of love in social change. “Love is not sentimentality,” he stated. He referenced Baldwin’s critique of sentimentality, explaining that true love requires vulnerability and a commitment to building genuine relationships. “What does it mean to actually love on the ground?” he asked, pushing the audience to consider how they engage with their communities.

He warned against the rising efforts to erase progress in areas like diversity, equity and inclusion. “There’s a reason why these folks are going crazy over immigration,” he said. “There’s a reason why these folks are attacking DEI. They want to take us all the way back to the 1920s.” He stressed the importance of resisting these efforts and not censoring difficult conversations.

“The questions around diversity and raised today are bound up with assumptions about who matters, who has a sense of possession of the country, and who some believe should sit down and shut up and be grateful,” he said. “But the heart of it is the moral consideration, the character of the country. At the heart of it is the unfinished task of actually discovering who we are.”

One of the most powerful moments of the lecture came when Glaude spoke about the difficulty of confronting prejudice within personal circles. “We all know what we hear around our tables,” he said. “Sometimes that’s just Uncle Joe, and you try to move on, but the intimate spaces are where hatred survives unchecked.” He acknowledged how challenging it is to push back against casual bigotry, especially among family and loved ones, but emphasized the need for courage. “The idea is not to be seen as good, but to be good,” he said.

Glaude concluded the talk with a powerful visual metaphor about race in America. “Imagine the parchment on which the Declaration and the Constitution are written. Imagine the inkwell spilling all over it. The only way to see the writing is to hold it up to a candlelight,” he said. “That’s the way race functions in the United States. It stains everything.” He clarified that the stain was not Black people themselves but the idea of whiteness, a pervasive construct that shapes institutions and power structures.

Glaude encouraged Stony Brook to continue fostering an environment that leans into its mission of truth and justice. “We must wrestle with our past, not to dwell in guilt, but to understand how we got here — and, more importantly, how we can chart a different course. That’s the work of democracy, and that’s the work of a great university.”

A reception and book signing followed the lecture.

— Beth Squire