Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs said Monday night that people shouldn’t wait for the government to fix the education system, as he was receiving an award for starting a charter school.
“As we wait for the government to call a state of emergency on the unfairness of the education system, and how it’s going to be fixed, we have to do it ourselves,” Combs said as he accepted an award from the Harlem based Boys & Girls Harbor, according to the New York Observer.
“We can’t slow down. We have to lead by example. We have to show the success rate, and we have to instill the importance of education in our communities, and how hard you have to work to really be a leader.”
Combs founded Capital Preparatory Harlem School earlier this year, fulfilling what he has previously described as a lifelong dream to educate inner city youth in the neighborhood where he grew up.
Combs, whose best known foray into politics is probably the “Vote of Die” campaign he launched in 2004, encouraged voter registration but urged people to “hold our vote.”
“Yeah, I said it,” said Combs.”We need to hold our vote. We need to make sure that we’re not standing here 8 years from now when nothing has drastically changed to deal with these issues. We give aid to other countries, but we need aid right here in Harlem, and we need it now.”
