Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994 TAG: 9403030142
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
``I'm free enough to say what I believe,'' he says.
Parker, better known as rapper KRS-One, shared his message of self-education and social equality Sunday night in an hour-and-a-half lecture to about 300 students, cadets and educators at the Virginia Military Institute.
The man who stood at the podium in Cameron Hall was a serious, philosophical speaker. But later in the reception area, the 28-year-old entertainer clowned with cadets as they crowded around him, posing for pictures and getting autographs. This was the same man who, as a teen-ager, spray-painted ``KRS-One'' around his Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood. His deep laugh was warm and mischievous as one cadet joked that they could all be in his next video. Another suggested that Parker and he have a rap competition.
But it was getting late, and Parker's manager was handing him his coat. He had to continue his lecture tour in Washington, D.C., the next day.
Ten years ago, Parker was an unlikely candidate as a lecturer.
He left home at 13 and lived on the streets and in homeless shelters. He worked odd jobs to survive and spent a short time in jail at 19 for selling marijuana. But Parker hadn't given up on learning. He spent much of his teens in public libraries, which set the foundation for his doctrine of self-education.
The lecturer says: ``Self-education gives you the ability to decide what is important to you and what is not important to you.'' His voice is strong and clear.
``There's a big difference between education and intelligence. You can be educated, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're thinking.''
People take what they learn at face value without researching the information for themselves, he says.
The rapper and his group, Boogie Down Productions, have released seven albums - the latest is ``Return of the Boom Bap.'' His third album, ``Ghetto Music,'' caught the attention of the New York Times in 1989, and he was asked to write an editorial on education for the newspaper. The article spawned lecture tours and his promotion of humanism.
``Before everything you are a human being,'' he tells the audience. ``Everyone wants human rights, but no-one wants human duties [or] human responsibilities.''
Society, he says, is based on masculine principles, which are analytical and have a ``territorial war-like attitude.'' Instead, it should be based on feminine principles, which are creative.
``Only women have the ability to give life, to push civilization forth, push society forward,'' he says. ``When you study an education that demeans and degrades women as human beings there is no possible way that you are going to arrive at civilization.''
Despite the furor over rap lyrics that demean women, he notes, those songs remain popular.
``The question is not about the artist, it's about the women screaming for the artist,'' he says. ``If the artist would walk out ... into an arena and it was empty he'd be forced to change his message, I mean overnight. You wouldn't have to argue. You would not have to picket. ... But what happens is the artist shows up to an arena that's packed.''
Artists, like himself, who advocate education and non-violence are not heard as much on the radio or seen on television, he says.
Parker says sexism is worse than racism. But ``don't take my word for it - do some research.'' He tells the audience to dig up their own facts and make their own conclusions.
``My theory is that society can be cured in an instant when women and femininity are respected.... [then] we will arrive at a correct social equilibrium.
``When we add femininity to education, add femininity to spirituality, the total human being becomes awakened. ... You no longer use half of your brain, you use both sides of your brain, and that's called balance. Without this balance your society will continue to be violent, continue to be racist ... and continue to be sexist.''
by CNB