By Dan Murphy
A speech for the 2020 graduates of Yorktown High School turned into national news when its commencement speaker, Regeneron co-founder Dr. George Yancopoulos called police “Scacegoats” in the national discussion over racial injustice and added, “I believe Black Lives matter, though I do not think it should be a crime to say, ‘All lives matter.’”
Yancopoulos’s comments were immediately rejected by many at the graduation, which was held as a Drive-In event at Yorktown High School, with many cars honking their horns during the speech in opposition, and with students and parents expressing their displeasure at a speech which instead of motivating graduates, created controversy.
After one car was kept their horn on for 30 second during his speech, Yancopoulos stopped and calling the action “another act of cowardness,” said “Whoever is honking their horn, you want to come up to the stage for a second if you have something to say?”
One parent then got out of their car and began walking to the stage, only to be stopped by Yorktown Police. Two YHS 2020 graduates spoke to Forbes magazine. Meredith Brown said, “All the students are saying that this is bringing up division. It felt like he was trying to derail from the problem at hand, and that was what really hurt me as well.”
YHS 2020 graduate Tamara Bashjawish, said, she was “horrified” by the speech. “I really hope that Mr. Yancopoulos would apologize to the seniors for making our graduation political and everyone divided.”
Yancopoulus is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a Tarrytown based bio-tech company that is working to create a vaccine for COVID-19.
During his speech, Dr. Yancopoulus, who lives in Yorktown, said, “Here in America, we have systematically, over centuries, denied the path to success for so many Black children by denying them the very keys to the kingdom that I was so lucky to have, We have to admit that we have destroyed that belief for so many and we have to restore that belief and that dream.”
He also called on the graduates not to “keep bias and prejudice from tearing us apart and scorching earth between us. Instead we should be fighting to unite in our common humanity, realizing that we are not each other’s enemies, and that we are all in this together.”
Many in attendance thougth that Yancopoulus’ comments about BLM and the Police were not appropriate for the event, including these words, “So, if Black lives matter, what about all of these Black lives? And what about the systemic inequity represented by these unjustifiable deaths? Why aren’t these numbers in the headlines or in the videos? Does anybody really believe the police are behind these unjustified deaths? Widespread hate and prejudice against all cops is just as wrong as hate and prejudice against any ethnic group.”
In the days after the speech, Yancopoulus said, “I apologize if my remarks about these difficult and complex issues deteriorated from the Yorktown High School graduate’s experience.”
Yorktown School Superintendent Ron Hattar released a statement which stated,“After speaking to (Yancopoulos) moments ago, I understood that he intended to promote a message of unity, but his message did not do so, and unexpected comments were made in that address that do not align with the principles of the Yorktown Central School District,”
“I apologize for any hurt caused by the keynote speaker’s remarks. Graduation is intended to recognize the wonderful accomplishments of the Class of 2020 during their journey through the Yorktown Central School District, and anything that takes away from that recognition is not acceptable.”
Comments about the speech by parents and students on Social Media were mostly aghast at Yancopoulos’ speech, with a few supporters. The biggest takeaway was that a graduation speech is supposed to be about “uplifting the graduates and congratulating them on this achievement,” and “Why would this even be a graduation speech??? Why not talk about the students accomplishments and giving support and encouragement for their future!!!! So inappropriate” were some of the comments.
Yorktown for Racial Justice Alumni and Students Coalition, said the speech was “exclusive, dismissive and tone deaf. Using graduation as a platform to spread misinformation was tasteless and disrespectful and contrary to the message of unity the school system wanted to promote.”
Mondaire Jones, the democratic nominee for Congress-District 17, said, “my heart goes out to the Yorktown High School community members who witnessed the ignorant, racially insensitive remarks made by a cofounder of the pharmaceutical company Regeneron. I am disappointed the company did not make a strong statement condemning his comments.”
Yancopoulus was also criticized after the speech for not understanding what the phrase-Black Lives Matter truly means. “He doesn’t get the fundamental idea behind BLM. Which is: Black lives are treated as if they do NOT matter. So it is not saying that other lives don’t matter, but that everyone needs to remember that Black lives matter as much as all other lives,”
