I started paying attention to John Legend in 2004, when I was part of a new and already failing marriage, while driving down a dark North Raleigh road with Legend’s “Ordinary People” playing on the radio.

The plaintive song was so good and spoke so directly to my heartache, I thought he was a local artist.

“Who is this guy?” I remember thinking. “Maybe I can catch him at the next open mic.”

Well, his latest open mic came last weekend, when he delivered Duke University’s commencement address. 

Speaking at a university known for its enterprising academic environment, Legend spoke of competitiveness as “an incredible gift” but noted that it “can be a slippery slope,” especially when it becomes a zero-sum game.

“The American story has always been marred by efforts to exclude, to dominate, to subjugate certain groups of people with no voice, no power and no opportunity,” he said. “Workers, women, indigenous people, Black people, immigrants, the LGBTQ community—all because of a fear that if those people did better someone else would have to lose.”

The singer-songwriter said the same zero-sum thinking is at work in efforts to deny people the right to vote and with “shameful attacks on trans rights.”

“We see it around the world,” he said. “In places like China, Hungary, Russia, India, Myanmar—across the globe, nativism, sectarianism, exploitation, and authoritarianism are gaining ground.”

But this zero-sum thinking, he said, is readily evident here in our nation, too. 

“In the simple fact that so many people heard ‘Black Lives Matter’ and assumed that it meant other lives couldn’t matter too. That’s zero-sum thinking if I’ve ever seen it,” he said.

Legend urged the graduating class to let love be their “North Star. Let it guide you.” And he challenged them to rely on their own “wisdom, strength, and power of community.”

“Bring your own gifts to the table to engage in the real, tangible bettering of your community,” he said. “You’ve learned that here at Duke. But don’t forget it as you find and build community elsewhere.”

Follow Durham Staff Writer Thomasi McDonald on Twitter or send an email to [email protected].

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