That video above is now the only YouTube available record of last week’s viral TikTok video showing Kadia Iman, a “social media influencer” and OnlyFans model who spiced up her graduation from LaGuardia Community College by forcibly taking the microphone from the school official announcing the graduates and using it to give her own defiant message. The video is also evidence that the representations made by Iman regarding the justifications for her behavior may not be exactly accurate.

In her own TikTok video of her attack, Iman is heard saying into the mic, “I want the mic! Let go! You didn’t let me get my moment!” Then she says “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!”before dropping the mic and walking away. Later, she took to social media to explain why her “moment” was justified, saying,

“To everyone saying I should be embarrassed or I’ll never get a job … I’m a black woman in America. I am always in the right … u will not gaslight me into thinking I’m the bad guy. I did it for girls that look like me. Love u.”

She claimed that the white graduating students were given an opportunity to say their names, majors and a few other details while up on stage, but that she and other black students were not granted the same privilege by the white administrator, prompting Iman’s anger and violent reaction.

“Basically, what happened was I was walking on and we had to say our names before we get on the stage,” she said. “So I was saying my name and she literally — my name is long, obviously, I have like three syllables in my name. 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,” Iman continued. “Me and another girl noticed that she was pulling down the mic super fast for some black people.”

“I’m not a problematic person, I don’t want to ruin no ones day, I don’t want to violate anybody, but that is what she did. She didn’t even let me finish speaking, she put the mic down and cut me off and that was the only chance I had to speak. I just feel that wasn’t right,” she concluded.

The school’s version, not surprisingly, is somewhat different.

“An incident occurred involving one graduate who demonstrated their frustration during the student procession for not being able to hold the microphone while they announced their name,” vice president of communications and external affairs at LaGuardia, Manny Romero said in response to inquiries about the incident. “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,” Romero explained. “None of the students are allowed to hold the microphone to avoid any delay of the student procession and the ceremony. We are mindful that this type of violent behavior demonstrated by this student impacted the celebration for all graduates and attendees, and we do not condone it.”

(Why do school administrators talk this way?)

Ethics Observations:

1 Giving Iman the benefit of massive doubt, I believe that had the situation been as she described, a legitimate case could be made that she is an ethics hero, immediately and courageously acting to address racially discriminatory conduct by the school.

2. However, it is virtually impossible to believe her account. No school its right mind would allow graduates to have control of the microphone at a graduation, because narcissists and self-promoting jerks like Kadia Iman cannot be trusted not to abuse the opportunity. The eye-witness account above from another graduate supports the community college’s version of the episode.

3. If, and it is a big if, Iman sincerely thought that the woman with the mic was discriminating against black students, this is yet another example of how presumed racism and racial paranoia is infecting the black community with a major assist from Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, and the presumption of white racism they foster.

4. “Today is all about me” is a pretty damning statement. Is it signature significance? Oh, maybe not: reasonable, non-narcisists may have a bad moment now and then, but speaking for myself, I would never hire anyone who said that in public, or worse, defended it.

5. The fetishization of graduations has been intensifying in recent years. The fact is that it is not much of an accomplishment today, particularly since a student practically has to set the school on fire not to graduate. A diploma, by itself, isn’t an achievement; it’s what an individual does with it that matters. My son doesn’t have a high school diploma (he was home schooled) and probably will never have a college diploma either. He could not care less, and neither could I.

6. The fact that this young woman virtually lives on social media creates the rebuttable presumption that her outburst was a publicity stunt, meaning that she was willing to mar the graduation of her fellow classmates and their families for her own benefit.

Yecchh.

7. How many ungrammatical sentences have we heard from the proud graduate? I fear this is what LaGuardia Community College is churning out. Conservative Matt Walsh, a columnist for the Daily Wire.tweeted ,

“ I guarantee this person writes at a fourth grade level and can’t name five US presidents. These are the people graduating from universities these days. Childish morons with egos the size of Jupiter.”

Harsh, but, sadly, not far from the truth.