Getty Image
On January 20, the world celebrated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. Typically, people reflected on the late civil rights leader’s past humanitarian work. However, Sexyy Red decided to shake things up. Instead of uploading a clip from a speech or inspirational quote, the “Pound Town” rapper shared an image generated by artificial intelligence–which didn’t go over well with the King family.
Yesterday (January 21), in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Dr, King’s daughter and fellow minister Bernice King slammed Sexyy Red for the AI-generated image (viewable here), which depicted her and the activist holding hands while sensually staring into each other’s eyes. “This is intentionally dishonoring, deplorable, and disrespectful of my family and my father, who is not here to respond himself because he was assassinated for working for your civil and human rights and to end war and poverty,” she wrote. “Please delete.”
Shortly after being reprimanded for the image, Sexyy Red issued an apology. She subsequently removed the image. “You ain’t wrong, never meant to disrespect your family my apologies,” she wrote. “Just [reposted] something I saw that I thought was innocent.”
King followed up by thanking Sexyy Red for taking shift action. “Thank you for your apology, which I sincerely accept,” she wrote. “Please know that it was not my intention that you be denigrated. I value you as a human being. I hope you understand my concerns about the image. I know that my father has become a bit of a caricature to the world and that his image is often used with no regard to his family, his sacrificial work, or to the tragic, unjust way in which he died (a state-sanctioned assassination).”
