Jan. 22, 2008
15th Annual Martin Luther King Day Symposium
Kusimo Brings the Noise; The Struggle is Not Over, Just Different
By Tony Seaton
Huntingtonnews.net Producer
Keynote speaker Dr. Patricia Kusimo, CEO of the West Virginia Center for Professional Development didn't want to talk about how far we've come so much as how far we have to go when she addressed the multi racial gathering of hundreds at Huntington's Sixteenth Ave. Baptist Church Monday at the 15th Annual Martin Luther King Day Symposium.
She pulled no punches as she lit into the shortcomings of the cultural influences she said are keeping African Americans down now just as Jim Crow laws and segregation did in Martin Luther King Jr.'s day.
Only now Kusimo said, it's a more insidious form of oppression: one brought upon the black community by itself when it buys into influences she sees as controlling the mind from within. Watching BET and rap videos instead of PBS; allowing three year-olds to have tight braids and earrings, six year-old girls to wear halter tops, black students perceiving academic achievement as not for them and more.
Dr. Kusimo addressed HIV-AIDS, which preys upon communities of color out of proportion to their numbers, lack of higher educational goals among African American students, kids who curse out their elders, sexuality run amok, too much permissiveness by parents and the use of the 'N' word by blacks, among other hot topics.
Also at the symposium, Arley Johnson did his best Martin Luther King, Jr. rendition of King's "I Have A Dream'' speech, Huntington High's Chamber Choir and the Voices Supreme Gospel Choir sang, awards were handed out to students who'd won the 'Martin Luther King, Jr. Awards' competition and an Islamic prayer from the Qur'an and a Jewish prayer along with traditional Christian ones were invoked.
Speakers also included Dr. Stephen Kopp, President of Marshall University, Mayor David Felinton, and Rev. Paul Willis, Co-Chair of the Symposium and Pastor of First Baptist.
Click on a picture above to watch the video report and hear the fiery rhetoric of Dr. Patricia Kusimo.
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Kusimo Brings the Noise; The Struggle is Not Over, Just Different
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By Tony Seaton
Huntingtonnews.net Producer
Keynote speaker Dr. Patricia Kusimo, CEO of the West Virginia Center for Professional Development didn't want to talk about how far we've come so much as how far we have to go when she addressed the multi racial gathering of hundreds at Huntington's Sixteenth Ave. Baptist Church Monday at the 15th Annual Martin Luther King Day Symposium.
She pulled no punches as she lit into the shortcomings of the cultural influences she said are keeping African Americans down now just as Jim Crow laws and segregation did in Martin Luther King Jr.'s day.
Only now Kusimo said, it's a more insidious form of oppression: one brought upon the black community by itself when it buys into influences she sees as controlling the mind from within. Watching BET and rap videos instead of PBS; allowing three year-olds to have tight braids and earrings, six year-old girls to wear halter tops, black students perceiving academic achievement as not for them and more.
Dr. Kusimo addressed HIV-AIDS, which preys upon communities of color out of proportion to their numbers, lack of higher educational goals among African American students, kids who curse out their elders, sexuality run amok, too much permissiveness by parents and the use of the 'N' word by blacks, among other hot topics.
Also at the symposium, Arley Johnson did his best Martin Luther King, Jr. rendition of King's "I Have A Dream'' speech, Huntington High's Chamber Choir and the Voices Supreme Gospel Choir sang, awards were handed out to students who'd won the 'Martin Luther King, Jr. Awards' competition and an Islamic prayer from the Qur'an and a Jewish prayer along with traditional Christian ones were invoked.
Speakers also included Dr. Stephen Kopp, President of Marshall University, Mayor David Felinton, and Rev. Paul Willis, Co-Chair of the Symposium and Pastor of First Baptist.
Click on a picture above to watch the video report and hear the fiery rhetoric of Dr. Patricia Kusimo.
Make HNN Your Homepage
