For two and one-half hours a diverse audience heard a panel of five’s exploration of race in America. The Jan. 15 panel, held in the Alfonso Elder Student Union as part of this month’s the Martin Luther King celebration, was titled “Race Still Matters — What Would King Say?”

The panelists shared the common view that some progress has been made since Martin Luther King’s intense examination of race in America in 1968 and that much work remained.

“What are we going to do to pull our intellectual resources together. What are we going to do to pull our economical resources together?” asked motivational lecturer Abdul Waheed.

After this initial agreements panelists dissected the question of race in America and audience’s questions sparked a passionate debate on how Martin Luther King Jr. would view society today if he were still alive.

The five panelists elaborated on different aspects of the obligation to continue his legacy:

Bendu Sherman, a Liberian educator, explained racism as a psychological disorder that distorts the perception of the true nature of blackness. Thus, it is the symptoms of racism that should be treated.

D’Weston Haywood, a political science and history junior at NCCU, recalled his experience of a fellow classmate who, while in residence at another university, found himself talking with a white student who had never shaken hands with a black man.

Abdul Waheed pointed out that the root causes of racism are stemming from plain bad human behavior. In Waheed’s opinion one of the root causes of racism is imbedded in religious iconography, as for example in the depiction of Christ as a Caucasian, and its prolonged effects on African-American self-identity.

Pervis Saab connected scholarly aspects of the discussion to popular culture when he stated that “Cream,” Wu Tan Clan’s rap song title and lyrics, is a metaphor for the need that African-Americans have to control their resources.

Finally Michael Frank, a history teacher at Northern High School and a graduate of NCCU, said that American Jews were able to achieve success after years of social and economical hardship.