Eric Thompson (Hip-Hop Preacher) is one of my favorite motivational speakers of all time.
He was a fatherless high school dropout who became homeless (he had to eat out of trash cans and live in abandon buildings) but is now a very sought-after motivation speaker who now earns between $50,000 to $100,000 each time he speaks to corporations.
You would imagine that if a successful speaker with such an amazing story came to speak to you for free you would show him the utmost respect. However, last month he visited Vashon High School in St. Louis, a school where 70% of the students read below their grade levels. While he was trying to inspire them to change their lives but the students continued to talk.
Instead of letting it go, the Hip-Hop Preacher confronted them and that’s when things got real…
Motivational Speaker Confronts Disrespectful Students
Listen to me very closely, they pay me 50,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars when I speak to corporate America.
I got to a basketball program they pay me good.
I ain’t gettin’ a dime here.
I’m here because I love you, but I’ll be darned if I come here for free and you disrespect me.
I ain’t 20 years old, I ain’t 19 years old.
I’m a grown man.
I’m here because I love you.
I’m here because I love y’all.
They ain’t pay me a dime, as a matter of fact I came and used my influence to raise money so a group of kids can go to Costa Rica.
I’m not here to get nothin’, I’m here to give you somethin’.
I’m not here to take nothin’ from you.
I’m here to give you somethin’.
And listen to me closely, when people love you, you don’t do them like dirt.
When people care for you, you don’t disrespect them.
You ain’t got but a few people who care about you in this world.
Didn’t you hear what I just said?
You in the wrong place you gonna get shot and killed and ain’t nobody gonna go to jail for it.
Ain’t nobody gonna go to jail for it.
Ain’t nobody gonna do no time for it.
So the few people that you do have that care, you can’t treat them like garbage.
You can’t disrespect the people that’s tryin’ to look out for you.
‘Cause you ain’t got a whole bunch of, you ain’t got a lot of dudes.
Look me up.
You ain’t got a lot a dudes that do what I do comin’ to your school.
No disrespect, the dudes you listenin’ to, you listenin’ to my man and jammin’ to his album, he ain’t comin’ here.
And I just heard we had a rapper here last night.
How many schools did he go to?
How many elementary schools?
He came and took your money, but he didn’t invest nothin’ back into you.
And you gonna have the nerve to laugh and joke when teachers tryin’ to teach you?
You got the nerve to act a fool when somebody cares about you?
You talkin’ while I’m talkin’?
Do you know if I go to a Jewish school, them kids quite.
If I go to a White school, them kids quite.
If I go to a Latino school, they quite.
The only kids that disrespect me is black kids.
That’s it.
My own are the only ones that disrespect me.
I walk into any other school, they like there got E.T.
We takin’ notes.
I come home, you talkin’
You copin’ jokes, you think somethin’ funny.
Look how we’re livin’, ain’t nothin’ funny.
Ain’t nothin’ funny, y’all.
They, look when I got my PhD it would embarrass me.
I’m in there they askin’ me, like what’s wrong with our urban schools?
Like why are you askin’ me I’m in class like you in class.
The teachers wanna know, professors wanna know, why are your kids, what’s the problem in the school system?
I’m embarrassed y’all.
I’m a grown man, I’m embarrassed that they talk about y’all.
You know why I’m embarrassed?
Because what they don’t know is that you ain’t even tryin’ when you take the test.
You didn’t give your best.
They think you dumb, you ain’t dumb.
You can’t take our people from Africa and put us in a diaspora and spread us all over the world and we still survived slavery and we can’t pass a test?
Come on.
I ain’t stupid.
You take everything from us and we still survive, you gonna tell me we can’t learn how to write?
Have you lost your mind?
We are survivors.
That’s all we do is survive, and you gonna come and tell me you can’t take a test.
You can take a test, the problem is when you take the test you barely take the test.
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What do you think of Eric Thompson? Are you a fan?
