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Connections Leader Wins Martin Luther King Essay Contest

Monday, February 19, 2007

(Howard County Connections)Brianna Bradford, a Connections youth leader, recently won the essay contest sponsored by the Howard County Office on Human Rights together with the Howard County Martin Luther King Holiday Commission.  In addition to being a prolific writer, Bri is an outstanding athlete and was awarded the team's MVP again this year for her role on Reservoir's Girls Varsity Basketball team. She has also been named an All County player by three local newspapers.   She provides leadership on the Sophomore Board at Reservoir and is a member of MESA.  She recently was awarded membership in the National Society of High School Scholars.

Bri wrote about how she felt Dr. King would feel about today's music.  Her argument was that he would have mixed feelings and that he would be especially proud of music that criticizes the government because it is a friendly form of protest that can reach thousands of people.  She explained, "It felt really good to write something that might open people's eyes to the fact that there's new music that promotes peace and other positive actions, as well as the fact that there are several genres to take into consideration."

Here is her essay:

"Martin Luther King Jr. was a man of peace.  His dream saw a place and time where race no longer mattered. He was a pacifist who thought it best to find solutions that did not include violence. 'Violence as a way of achieving racial justice,' he once said, 'is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.'  Dr. King's philosophy of peace has led me to believe that music heard around the country today would cause him both peace of heart as well as great concern.  His mixed reactions would be strongly influenced by the positive music that promotes love, self-empowerment and wonder, the negative music that by its language and images is the very embodiment of violence and discrimination, as well as the controversial music that criticizes the government.

"I strongly believe that Dr. King would be tapping his feet, swaying to the beat, and joining in on the music that sings of peace and unity. This is because music in this category is unique, offering the serenity our nation craves. So many people listen to music. Look around.  See every other head wired to an I-Pod or its equivalent, tuned into downloaded music. Dr. King was a visionary.  I'm sure he would wonder that if all songs fostered the notion of harmony, what tremendous impact they would have on our actions to come together. The song 'One World' by jazz singer Roberta Donnay is a good example. It was obviously created to highlight that people have more in common than not, that we all live in the same world and that we all aspire to do many of the same things.  'One world, one dream, one universe/ One dream of peace, of unity/ One hope, one love, one family/ One wish for all humanity.'  I think these lyrics would have resonated with Dr. King.  They are, after all, what he tried and mostly succeeded in getting across to us. We need to capitalize on his visions and help them evolve even further by using our music to create a sanguine environment.

"Derogatory language and negative images of women in other music that hypes violence as cool, would, I think, cause Dr. King great pain.  Songs such as 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp' by Djay featuring Shug, including the lyrics 'That's the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly pimpin/ Gotta have my hustle tight, makin change off these women' have a negative impact on the minds of not only youth but adults as well. Negative imagery corrupts the mind, and it is with this type of corruption that the worst things in history repeat themselves. To come so far and yet know that all of the lessons learned, battles fought, and work accomplished, seem worthless when this type of music is heard. Many of these songs promote the very violence that Dr. King stood against.  African Americans were lynched, strung up and hung by the neck, just for existing. To hear the words 'N*****' and 'B****' used so commonly in some music and violence sung about as a badge of honor would make Dr. King wonder what he went to jail for, what he marched for, and perhaps most importantly, what people died for.

"Music critical of government policies would, I think, make Dr. King feel very good.  Though this type of music wouldn't be anything new to him, as the 1960s were filled with protest songs.  Its constructive criticism at its best, in a non-violent form that makes sure the artist's voice is heard while echoing the thoughts of thousands of people. A wonderful example of this kind of song is 'Where's the Love' by the Black Eyed Peas. With lyrics such as 'Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism; But we still got terrorists here livin'; In the USA, the big CIA; The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK; But if you only have love for your own race; Then you only leave space to discriminate; and discriminate only generates hate'  An enormous part of Dr. King's dream was to express and solve our problems in a non-violent manner so that we may be more unified. If anything, songs such as 'Where's the Love' epitomize Dr. King's dream.

"Music today takes many forms, ranging from hip-hop, to jazz, to rock and heavy metal. However, no one genre makes a specific statement or relays a specific message to the public. For sure, Dr. King would not be undecided over today's music but I think his feelings would be mixed. Any one song can make a difference, whether it is positive or negative. Music is like an epidemic, slowly or rapidly spreading throughout, causing joy (remember the Macarena), or creating shock (the Academy Award winning 'Its Hard Out Here for a Pimp').  I think Dr. King would pose the question of whether we want this epidemic to be a horrible infection that destroys the world or a rare mutation that speeds up our evolution and gives us the urge to drop our feelings of resentment and unify."