Kamau Kambon Wants To Exterminate White People

North Carolina State University has distanced itself from comments made by an occasional instructor who recently said blacks must "exterminate white people off the face of the planet.'' Kamau KambonKamau Kambon, an author who taught in N.C. State's Africana Studies program as recently as this past spring, made the comments during a conference at Howard University in Washington, D.C., that was televised nationally by C-SPAN. The conference was organized to discuss mainstream media coverage of racial issues after Hurricane Katrina. Kambon explained how he grew up in Brooklyn and eventually began to wonder why so many of his black friends were dying. He concluded that the reason was systematic oppression by a society designed and run by whites. "We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet to solve this problem ...,'' he said. "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.'' Lawrence Guyot, a civil rights leader and speaker at the conference, immediately challenged the remarks, warning that blacks can't work toward full freedom with "racial fanaticism.'' Opio Sokoni, a filmmaker and broadcaster who helped organize the event, also has distanced himself from Kambon's remarks. Kambon, who owns a store in Raleigh called Blacknificent Books, said he was aware of the controversy but wouldn't comment on it. Citing personnel laws, N.C. State officials refused to discuss why Kambon was hired. But they have denounced the remarks. "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,'' said N.C. State Provost Larry Nielsen, who oversees academic programs at the university. He said Kambon taught at the school occasionally between the spring of 2001 and the spring of 2005. N.C. State spokesman Keith Nichols said Kambon taught at the school on an "as needed'' basis and wasn't slated to return even before his comments on Oct. 14. Nichols said he didn't know why Kambon wasn't rehired this school year and couldn't discuss whether he'd ever be hired again by the university.