Friday, April 27, 2007

Nikki Giovanni's Violent "Poetry"

Thanks to the commenter in the "Bad Poetry" post below who sent me the terrific link to "The Professor of Hate" article by Steve Sailor on Nikki Giovanni that appears in Front Page Magazine.

From that article, here is one of Nikki Giovanni's more famous "poems." Considering how she tutored Cho Seung-hui, I wonder how much her "poetry" influenced the killer. It is a real gem:

The True Import Of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro (For Peppe, Who Will Ultimately Judge Our Efforts) by Nikki Giovanni
Ni**er
Can you kill
Can you kill
Can a ni**er kill
Can a ni**er kill a honkie
Can a ni**er kill the Man
Can you kill ni**er
Huh?
Ni**er can you
kill
Do you know how to draw blood
Can you poison
Can you stab-a-Jew
Can you kill huh?
Ni**er
Can you kill
Can you run a protestant down with your
‘68 El Dorado
(that’s all they’re good for anyway)
Can you kill
Can you piss on a blond head
Can you cut it off
Can you kill
A ni**er can die
We ain’t got to prove we can die
We got to prove we can kill
They sent us to kill
Japan and Africa
We policed europe
Can you kill
Can you kill a white man
Can you kill the ni**er
in you
Can you make your ni**er mind
die
Can you kill your ni**er mind
And free your black hands to
strangle
Can you kill
Can a ni**er kill
Can you shoot straight and
Fire for good measure
Can you splatter their brains in the street
Can you kill them
Can you lure them to bed to kill them
We kill in Viet Nam
for them
We kill for UN & NATO & SEATO & US
And everywhere for all alphabet but
BLACK
Can we learn to kill WHITE for BLACK
Learn to kill ni**ers
Learn to be Black men

"Huh?" definitely is the most notable line, one that aptly sums up the literary merit of the "poem." I'm still scratching my head wondering how this woman could be so praised (and also how this is poetry). Cho Seung-hui sure proved he could kill. Way to go, Nikki! If liberals can complain nonstop that guns cause killers to kill, can we not also question whether campus celebrities tutoring unstable students can also influence them to go off the deep end?

Gotta love her anti-semitic propaganda. But of course, most on-campus liberals do seem to be anti-semites these days with their anti-Israeli posing and fascination with radical Islam. I question how Virginia Tech can award a woman who has written this type of hate trash "University Distinguished Professor" status, considering that she only has a B.A. and that much of the critical praise for her came from her lesbian lover Virginia Fowler (fashion note: the loose ties are getting really old), who pushed Virginia Tech to hire her.

Then after one of the worst massacres in modern history (the worst being in a country with strict gun control, South Korea. A deranged policement shot and killed 58 people and no one could stop him because no one had guns), Virginia Tech asks a noted anti-semite and advocate of massacres to pen a poem commerating the dead? Amazing. I analyzed the mediocre result in my post below.

Judging from my friends who graduated from Tech and the comments in the post below, many people are not pleased with Giovanni's political "poem."

Yet when I wrote Carolyn Rude, head of Tech's English Department, complaining about the poem by the "University Distinguished Professor" (despite only having a B.A.) Nikki Giovanni, I was told in a polite email response that I was virtually the only one not to like the poem. Here is her response:


I am responding to you as an alumnus. I am sorry that you do not like Nikki Giovanni's poem. By a margin of about 250:1 according to responses that have come to the English Department, most people are grateful for its words of courage and hope.

Not everyone can like every poem, and I respect that. I hope you are finding other ways to come to terms with this tragedy. In the department, we are mourning deeply. A number of the students killed were in our classes. The tributes to them by faculty and classmates are heartbreaking. That's another side of the department for you to ponder in this time of deep sorrow.

Carolyn Rude
Professor and Chair
Department of English (0112)
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg VA 24061
If the margin of people claiming to like Nikki Giovanni's poem is 250:1, then the professors in Blacksburg are really living a sheltered life. We need to let ourselves be heard. Please email Dr. Rude at Carolyn.Rude@vt.edu.

One point in her response cannot go unanswered. Exactly where are the words of "courage and hope" in Nikki Giovanni's "poem?" One line from the "poem" states: "We are brave enough to bend to cry." That is hardly brave.

In fact the true heroism and bravery in the massacre was shown by the heroic and noble Liviu Lebrescu, the Holocaust survivor that Nikki wanted stabbed in her above "poem" solely for being a Jew. Again, this woman is "University Distinguished Professor?"

Here is another "poem" written shortly after the massacre. It is just as good (so to speak) as Nikki Giovanni's "poem" and it is by none other than the Termagant Rosie O'Donnell. (termagant n 1. a violent, turbulent, or brawling woman. 2. (cap.) a mythical deity, understood in the Middle Ages to be worshiped by the Mohammedans, represented in some morality plays, etc., as a violent overbearing personage.)

Actually, I would consider Rosie's poem to be far superior to Nikki's because while both poems are incredibly narcissistic, Nikki's shows no talent, structure, or originality, whereas Rosie's is deliriously bad in the sense that Plan Nine From Outer Space becomes a very good movie because of its sheer awfulness.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shocking - the violence in that poem - and more so 'Nikki' having been chosen to honor the slain students.

Anonymous said...

Good on you, Gabe, for scrutinizing the Giovanni phenomenon. This is a matter of morality and also bred & butter: college teaching gigs are a very big deal among the literary Left.

If I can muster t&e (time & energy) collect more thoughts in response to this provocative post, I'll let ya know.

Pax vobiscum. (btw, good on you for the Latin!)

Anonymous said...

You are reading the poem in terms of black and white. You are looking at what the text says but you are not looking INTO the text. She is sending a message here. Not that you would understand. This is a message for Black people. Over the decades the Black population has fallen and not for something positive. Nigger is not Black people, it is ignorance. In this piece she asking them to leave Nigger (the context of ignorance) behind and rise as a people.

Anonymous said...

what kinda fuckin poem is that bitch???????????????

Anonymous said...

I want not approve on it. I assume polite post. Specially the designation attracted me to study the unscathed story.

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Anonymous said...

I don't think the gist of the poem is realized. What she is saying is that the mentality of an "N" is to kill but in turn to become a Black man. The dying of the "N" is what produces a Black man. Though the poem may be perceived as violent the "N" that is there in the poem are the black people who were called "N" (and not for encouragement) but were used to defend the country but back home were still discriminated against. This is the understanding of the poem.

Anonymous said...

Easily I acquiesce in but I about the list inform should acquire more info then it has.

Anonymous said...

the poem is a lot deeper in meaning than just face value

Syd Viscous said...

Yet MORE retarded NIGGER babble.

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Anonymous said...

I find it interesting that you aren't able to actually delve into the poem to see that she's saying that Black people need to not be dummies to white oppressors training them to be killers and to kill those who cruel white people and white governments are known to hate. She is saying stop the power of whites to influence black people to be evil "niggers" and instead be strong black people. Any person with a brain could realize that. Go back to a lit class.

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