Oluchi Omeoga will deliver the keynote speech for Antioch College’s 2023 Commencement. Eighteen graduates will turn their tassel Saturday morning at 10 a.m. on the main campus.
Based in Minneapolis Minnesota, Omeoga is promoting reforms within the Minneapolis Police Department. They were part of the initial 2020 protests after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a former white Minneapolis police officer.
Omeoga also organizes global support for Black LGBTQIA+ individuals migrating from other countries into the United States.
WYSO’s Kathryn Mobley spoke with Omeoga, who said his vision is for a world where people are judged only by their character.
Kathryn Mobley: Oluchi You are co-founder of BLMP, which stands for Black LGBTQIA plus Migrant Project. What is that project?
Oluchi Omeoga: Yeah. So Beyond P is a community based organizing organization that works with black LGBTQ migrants and first generation people in the United States to build power for and liberate all black people.
Mobley: You work on a global platform, correct?
Omeoga: Yes.
Mobley: Talk a little bit about that.
Omeoga: We do advocate towards folks that are coming into the United States, but we also take a look and see why are people choosing to migrate in the first place or why are people forced to migrate in the first place? A lot of the work that we do outside of the United States is actually supporting folks that have chosen to stay in the places that they live and are really doing the work in there in their homeland.
For example, we work with an organization in Jamaica called Translate Jamaica. Those are folks who are trans are going to find that they are doing a lot of trans liberation work inside of Jamaica.
There's an organization in Nigeria that we were able to visit called Peers and also Aware, which are two LGBTQ orgs in Nigeria. We worked in Honduras. One of our organizers works with folks that are in Honduras on behalf of our people. We also are doing some work at the US-Mexico border in San Diego to help folks who are seeking asylum in the San Diego Tijuana border, and recently met Pepper, who was the co-founder of an organization in Uganda called Sexual Minorities Uganda, or Smug.
We've been communicating about what can we do. We created a press statement on behalf of the MP for Smog, and we're also helping support some folks in Kakuma and the refugee camp that are queer or LGBTQ that are living in the refugee camp in Kenya.
Mobley: When you're advocating, what are your goals?
Omeoga: Yeah, I think my goal always is every human being, regardless of their output, regardless of the identities that they hold, deserves to live a life in which they can thrive. They can live a life in which they feel safe and they can self-determine their own lives. We are told that we are less than when we can't walk down the street and express ourselves in different ways.
Redlining is a very easy way of saying that we are told that we cannot live in these communities. And so my goal and my Northstar at the time that I'm organizing is what is the most equitable and inclusive way that we can be in community with each other. And what that is going to require is that people that have been and are continually comfortable have to give up some of their comfort so that other people can be comfortable.
Mobley: You are the 2023 commencement speaker for Antioch College. What cautions would you share with these new graduates?
Omeoga: The world that we dream of is not only possible, but inevitable. But it's going to take a lot of work to get there. And you do not have to concede in order to get to that world. And what are the strategic points that we have to incrementally move forward in order to get to the world that we all want to be in?
When we're seeing things that are happening that are like, actually, this does not sound like the values that I hold for humanity and for human beings and autonomy. How are we able to speak voices, even if it's not our fight to fight, even if it's like, I'm not LGBTQ, but I still care about people? How are we advocating for those people, even if it's not within our ideals?
Mobley: Oluchi, I thank you so much for taking out a few moments to talk with me and to share your ideas.
Omeoga: Thank you.
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