Saturday, October 22, 2005
Kamau Kambon
Realizing that racism exists on every side, it was no less appalling to read Jon Sanders' report in the Carolina Journal Online about North Carolina State University affiliate professor Kamau Kambon's remarks during a panel discussion of hurricane Katrina media coverage. Just as Bill Bennett's recent ridiculous remarks were widely publicized and ridiculed, so should Dr Kambon's be, and so should he be excoriated and taken to as loud and angry task as Bennett was. Presumably realizing that his audience was national since the panel was being broadcast on C-SPAN, Kambon said that white people are "monitoring our people to try to prevent the one person from coming up with the one idea. And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate white people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem. . . . [W]e need to solve this problem because they are going to kill us." He added that "White people want to kill us. I want you to understand that. They want to kill you. . . . They want to kill you because that is part of their plan." (Kambon's remarks are under "Black Media Forum on Image of Black Americans in Mainstream Media" at C-SPAN online www.cspan.com.)
It's difficult to do anything other than stare in disbelief at the screen. It's appalling that hate and anger persist as ideological tools. Someone needs to speak loud enough, compellingly enough, be heard enough, convincingly, that hatred solves nothing. Cuz, let's say whites kill blacks and blacks kill whites; how does it help to knock everyone off? Meanwhile, there are plenty of things to sink one's energy into. How about cures for cancer, Parkinsons and tb? How about educating everyone well and creating worthwhile work for everyone? I would continue but the choir already knows and the hate mongers apparently skip along on their (un)merry way. Killing Kambon and Bennett won't help - they're just messengers.
It's difficult to do anything other than stare in disbelief at the screen. It's appalling that hate and anger persist as ideological tools. Someone needs to speak loud enough, compellingly enough, be heard enough, convincingly, that hatred solves nothing. Cuz, let's say whites kill blacks and blacks kill whites; how does it help to knock everyone off? Meanwhile, there are plenty of things to sink one's energy into. How about cures for cancer, Parkinsons and tb? How about educating everyone well and creating worthwhile work for everyone? I would continue but the choir already knows and the hate mongers apparently skip along on their (un)merry way. Killing Kambon and Bennett won't help - they're just messengers.
Labels: politics, reflections
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