A Black female graduate recently went viral after she posted a video that shows her snatch the microphone out of a professor’s hand during the graduation ceremony, express herself feverishly and then drop the microphone as she walks off.
The female graduate attended LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, New York, and has her name listed as Kadia Iman on all of her social media accounts. She considers herself a social media influencer, music artist and DJ. She has over 11,000 followers on Instagram, over 45,500 followers on TikTok and an OnlyFans account.
The viral video was posted on TikTok, and made its way to other social media apps such as Twitter. The woman was seen in the video snatching the microphone out of the white female professor’s hand aggressively.
“I want the mic! Let go! You didn’t let me get my moment,” she said before announcing her name to the audience gathered outside. “And 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!”
The woman followed up with another video on her TikTok to explain the graduation-related incident. She said that they were instructed to say their own names and major into the microphone. But she claimed that when it came to her and some other Black students, their announcements were cut short when the person holding the mic lowered the mic from their mouths.
“Basically, what happened was I was walking on and we had to say our names before we get on the stage,” she said in the video clip. “So I was saying my name and she literally — my name is long, obviously, I have like three syllables in my name.”
She continued, “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. 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, but that was the tea. So I mean, I just couldn’t let her and I just couldn’t let that happen.”
She added, “I just feel like I worked so hard to graduate and went through so much s*** to graduate that I just felt like I had to reclaim my moment. I’m sorry. I’m not a problematic person. I don’t want to ruin no one’s day,” she said.
The video received 23.6 million views on her TikTok, and social media users commended the young lady for her stance. A response from the school points to an incident that involved “one graduate who demonstrated their frustration during the student procession for not being able to hold the microphone while they announced their name.”
That’s according to Manny Romero, vice president of Communications and External Affairs for LaGuardia. Romero spoke to and provided a statement to Atlanta Black Star.
“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,” the statement read in part. “None of the students are allowed to hold the microphone to avoid any delay of the student procession and the ceremony. We regret that the student’s disruptive and inappropriate behavior impacted the celebration for graduates and guests. Her mistreatment of a staff volunteer was unacceptable. We are currently reviewing the incident to gain a better understanding of what occurred and what we might do in the future to prevent something like this from happening again.”
The statement also reads, “At LaGuardia, we take pride in providing our students with the academic, emotional, and developmental support they need to be successful inside and outside of the classroom.”
