Okay well stop everything right now and pay attention to me and to Rihanna and to the glorious news that the singer has received Harvard University’s Humanitarian Award and given the speech we need and deserve.
Because of her extensive philanthropic work (honestly, the woman has been on the charity circuit since being a teenager and has done a ton of work in Barbados, where she’s from), the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations honoured her with the 2017 Humanitarian of the Year Award, and with it she reminded us of how invested she’s always been in helping people.
“So I made it to Harvard,” she started, creating the only gif any of us should ever use. “Never thought I’d be able to say that, but it feels good.”
“All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return,” she continued. “To me, that is a humanitarian. You don’t have to be rich to be a humanitarian, you don’t have to be rich to help somebody. You don’t have to be famous, you don’t even have to be college educated. But it starts with your neighbour . . . just do whatever you can do to help in any way.”
The entire speech is worth listening to, and you can watch it right here. She comes in at the 1 hr, 13 minute mark and makes everybody’s life better. Also, she’s right: any of us can hop to it and start helping people — in whatever way we’re best suited (whether it be via donations or our time or by listening or by simply showing up in solidarity) — whenever we feel like it. Which, in this political climate, should be right now.
