'Exterminate white people': Ex-NCSU instructor sounds off

The News Observer
Oct. 22, 2005

Political Web sites throughout the country are crackling this week in response to statements by a former instructor at N.C. State University, who said blacks must "exterminate white people off the face of the planet."

Kamau Kambon, an author who taught in NCSU's Africana Studies program as recently as last spring, made the comments Oct. 14 during a conference at Howard University in Washington.

The conference was televised nationally by C-SPAN, and bloggers picked up on the comments immediately. But it wasn't until Thursday that his links to NCSU were discussed directly in The Locker Room, a site run by the John Locke Foundation of Raleigh.

NCSU Provost Larry Nielsen, who oversees academic programs at the university, said Friday that Kambon taught there occasionally between the spring of 2001 and the spring of 2005.

"This type of speech is counter to any reasoned discussion on the issue of race relations and is absolutely unacceptable in the N.C. State community," Nielsen said.

Kambon, who owns a store in Raleigh called Blacknificent Books, said he was aware of the controversy but wouldn't comment on it.

The conference at Howard was organized to discuss mainstream media coverage of racial issues after Hurricane Katrina.

But Kambon's comments had little to do with that topic. He started by saying, "I'm gonna go out of bounds."

He then explained how he grew up in Brooklyn and eventually began to wonder why so many of his African-American friends were dying. He concluded that the reason was systematic oppression by a society designed and run by whites. He talked about the role of blacks in "an international plantation" and suggested that "white people want to kill you."

His address lasted about 10 minutes, and he saved his most scathing remarks for last.

"We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem. ... So we just have to just set up our own system and stop playing and get very serious and not be diverted from coming up with a solution to the problem, and the problem on the planet is white people."

Kambon was challenged immediately by Lawrence Guyot, a respected civil rights leader and speaker at the conference. He warned the relatively small crowd that African-Americans cannot work toward full freedom with "racial fanaticism."

Opio Sokoni, a filmmaker and broadcaster from Vancouver, Wash., who helped organize the event, also distanced himself from Kambon's remarks.

"The people at that conference do not support the extermination of white people," Sokoni said Friday in a telephone interview. "That is ridiculous. You can't back up a statement like that. It is immoral. Even the most radical people don't talk like that."

Sokoni said he has apologized to officials at Howard University who "were not at all pleased with this."

NCSU officials refused to discuss why Kambon was hired, citing personnel laws.

Kambon has made clear in his writings, which include the book "Subtle Suicide," that he thinks American society systematically oppresses blacks. In that regard, his views are shared by many prominent authors and academics.

But most academics and civil rights leaders argue that the surest path to black progress is by working together in a positive way, said Craig C. Brookins, director of Africana Studies at NCSU.

Kambon's remarks came just over two weeks after William Bennett, the former U.S. secretary of education, created a stir when he said on his radio show that "if you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett added that such an idea would be "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do."

The message boards were buzzing again as Kambon's comments were circulated, including a suggestion that Kambon and Bennett be locked in a room together to resolve their differences.

In his blog entry on The Locker Room, Jon Sanders posted excerpts of Kambon's remarks and a link showing his previous affiliation to NCSU. But in a phone interview Friday, Sanders said he did not intend to pursue the issue much further.

"I thought it was serious because these were comments that were broadcast nationally by someone who at the time I thought might be teaching at a nationally known university," Sanders said.

"I'm glad to see he is not. So I thought it was serious, although I don't know how seriously people will take him."