Black Collegian News & Views

King Daughter Knocks Violence, Hip-Hop Culture

By Aliece McNair
Black College Wire

Bernice King

With a reference to the fatal shooting of a graduate student at North Carolina Central University, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King promoted nonviolence and criticized hip-hop culture as 2,000 attended a university commemoration of Martin Luther King's birthday. The real celebration is living the lives her parents advocated, Bernice King said.

"We've been having a great legacy in the life of Coretta and Martin King; what are we going to do with it?" King asked.

"I believe we're at a time now that my father's legacy is calling for the people that . . . are willing to risk their lives," said King.

"We have to make a decision that we're a part of something greater than ourselves."

King was the keynote speaker at the Jan. 12 celebration.

In discussing nonviolence, King referred directly to the death of North Carolina Central graduate student Denita Smith.

"How much longer do we have to witness . . . young people losing their lives and innocence by gunshots?" she asked.

King was critical of the entertainment industry and hip-hop culture and said she's afraid this generation doesn't see the humiliation that results when entertainers set their values.

She said women should understand they are not "bitches and whores," and men should understand they "are not dogs . . . but princes."

King also instructed students not to carry financial debt because it distracts focus.

"We've got to redirect our energy and raise our standards," she said. "We are letting others define us, image us and even brand us."

According to King, her father was busy trying to reduce the economic gap between the "haves and have-nots" before his 1968 assassination. She said she shares his belief that the gap is too big between rich and poor.

She said at another point, "Many times we die with our dreams inside of us, our visions inside of us, our artistic abilities inside of us."

Students from Durham public schools attended the event.

"They were all focused and attentive," said Cynthia McCrimmon, an Ivy Prep coordinator for Shepard Middle School, who brought 27 students whom she thought would get a lot out of the program.

McCrimmon said many of her students fall into the hip-hop trap King spoke about.

"All they know is the industry of entertainment," she said.

McCrimmon said one of her female students allows the boys to disrespect her.

"They call her a 'ho,' and she answers," said McCrimmon.

Aliece McNair, a student at North Carolina Central University, writes for the Campus Echo.

Posted Jan. 22, 2007