The niece of Martin Luther King Jr. has censured Vice President-elect Kamala Harris for allegedly plagiarising one of the iconic civil rights leader’s narratives.
Dr. Alveda King appeared on Fox Business on 5 January to level scorn at Harris for making a "big stretch" by drawing parallels between herself and her uncle.
"Kamala knows that her world view is totally different than the world view of Martin Luther King, Jr. so it's a big stretch for her to compare herself or to sound like him or to use some of his some analogies," said Alveda King.
The American activist, author, and former state representative for the 28th District in the Georgia House of Representatives continued:
"For instance, Kamala believes that it's okay to abort babies up to 9 months. And if you meant to abort the baby and the baby lives, then let the baby die. Martin Luther King Jr. served the public. He did not kill the public, and that would include babies in the womb."
The Fox News Channel contributor quoted her Uncle’s words that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, emphasising that Kamala Harris and the views she advocated rendered her “nothing like Martin Luther King, Jr.”, adding that the California politician continued “playing on those emotions again".
‘Fweedom’
In an October interview with Elle Magazine, Kamala Harris had shared the story of how when she was a youngster, in a stroller, she was present at a civil rights protest in Oakland with her parents and uncle.
Harris claimed she had tumbled from the stroller, while her parents continued to walk past her, ‘caught up in the rapture of the protest.
After realising what had happened, they rushed back to find the youngster upset. As the parents sought to find a way to placate the youngster, they asked her ‘what she wanted’.
Harris is quoted as saying:
“And I just looked at her and I said, ‘Fweedom’.”
The story quickly gained traction on the internet, as users found the contents of the interview suspiciously resembling an incident described by Martin Luther King, Jr. in a 1965 interview in Playboy.
King had been sharing his experiences in leading civil rights demonstrations in the South, and was quoted as saying:
“I never will forget a moment in Birmingham when a white policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother… ‘What do you want?’ the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked him straight in the eye and answered, “Fee-dom.”
The late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was subsequently cited as saying:
“Many times when I have been in sorely trying situations, the memory of that little one has come into my mind, and has buoyed me.”
The perceived plagiarism was not unnoticed on social media, as some shared side-by-side screenshots of the Kamala Harris interview and the story narrated by the civil rights spokesperson, assassinated in 1968. The story was also quickly picked up by a spate of media outlets such as Fox News, The Daily Wire and Daily Caller.
There has not been any comment on the report from the transition team of President-elect Joe Biden and the Vice-President elect Kamala Harris.