on the question of ethnicity, the NAACP, and the tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

After reading “DOES RACE MATTER? (a new article from BETnews, published November 30, 2007)“, one can only feel enraged and upset at the fact that there is so much disregard for what Dr. King stood for. How can a group, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which usually advocates equality amongst all people no matter what their background is, advocating against someone of a different ethnicity other than African American? Just because the artist is not American, nor is he from an African American background, does not make it right to discriminate against him. Out of the own mouth of the Atlanta-based artist Gilbert Young, who is against the fact that a Chinese artist has been given the job to create a sculpture to honour Dr. King, Dr. King was fighting “against racism in this country [the United States]“. How can an organization dedicated to fight racism, be advocating racism?

Quoting Gilbert Young again: “I do not think that anyone outside of my immediate community [the African American community] should have been looked at first. We need a Black artist to interpret Dr. King and a Black name at the base of the monument, because he died for us.”

This statement just puts it over the top. Dr. King may have been African American, the main focus of the civil rights movement was to give liberty, freedom and rights to African Americans, but that was not what Dr. King was about. He was about ensuring the rights of all people, no matter what the colour of their skin is, no matter what their racial or ethnic background is. He did not only die for the African American community, he fought and died for the rights of all people, for the equally amongst communities and groups.

This sort of behaviour from groups such as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and individuals such as Gilbert Young undermine what Dr. King fought and died for, undermining what he stood for. If the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People cannot except that a man from a different ethnicity or from a different culture other than African American, then their existence is meaningless, and do not deserved to be called National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but the National Association for the Advancement of One Group of People.

For rejecting someone of a different culture and ethnicity and thereby rejecting their core values, I say to the NAACP:

Shame.