‘You didn’t let me get my moment’: Black graduate confronting white educator goes viral

A New York college graduate went viral last week for a video showing her grabbing a microphone out of a school official’s hand, claiming the woman wasn’t allowing students of colour equal time on the mic.

The incident occurred on 21 June at a graduation ceremony for LaGaurdia Community College, which took place on the campus of Queens College.

In a video that went viral on TikTok, graduate and content creator Kadia Iman, who is Black, could be seen wresting a microphone out of a white school official’s hands.

“I want the mic! Let go! You didn’t let me get my moment,” Ms Iman says in the video, which has since been taken private on TikTok. ”I’m graduating today. I don’t like how you snatched the mic out of my hand, so today is going to be all about me!”

In a subsequent video explaining the incident, Ms Iman said she wanted the microphone because she felt students like her weren’t getting equal celebration at the ceremony.

“Basically, what happened was I was walking on and we had to say our names before we get on the stage…So I was saying my name and she literally — my name is long, obviously, I have like three syllables in my name,” the content creator explained, according to The New York Post.

“So, I didn’t even get to finish saying my name, and then the people that went before me, they all got to say their name, their major, and even extras,” she added. “Me and another girl noticed that she was pulling the mic down super fast for some Black people – I don’t want to be that person, so I just couldn’t let her … I just couldn’t let that happen.”

The school said in a statement it condemned the “disruptive and inappropriate behavior” for impacting the “celebration for graduates and guests.”

“An incident occurred involving one graduate who demonstrated their frustration during the student procession for not being able to hold the microphone while they announced their name,” school spokesperson Manny Romero said in a statement. “As a process for keeping the ceremony running in an orderly manner, students are given the opportunity to say their name while a volunteer holds the microphone. None of the students are allowed to hold the microphone to avoid any delay of the student procession and the ceremony.”

In the video, and in the comments below it, some express approval for Ms Iman.

“Oh! Drops the mic! Congratulations!” a bystander can be heard saying in the background.

Others contested Ms Iman’s accusations of racism.

”I was at the graduation. There were two long lines and we were told to say our names when we approached the lady in the video. But she didn’t know any of our names – whether they were long or short,’ TikTok user @queldinero810 wrote in a comment beneath video of the incident.

“Basically there were some people who said some extra things in addition to their names, but they weren’t racist. There were a lot of people of all races there. We were just told to say our first and last names,” she added.