World renown poet and author, Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni delivers the words that we all feel.
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World renown poet and author, Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni delivers the words that we all feel.
Comments are closed.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Steve,
Ali G. is a comedian. I don’t consider opinions from a guy who played Borat. Enough said on that topic. Nikki Giovanni is probably the most revered poet in our generation. As far as Tupac’s “homicide case” goes, he wasn’t convicted of any murder. Who knew who shot the kid? Did you ever think it was the gang shooting at Tupac’s crew? However, it was Tupac who paid the family money for the kid’s untimely death. Did the LAPD chief Gates pay the victims’ families of all the black males his cops murdered during the Watts riot of 1965? Did the Newark police department pay the victims’ families of innocents caught in “sniper fire” during the 1967 riot? These were verified cases of white racism in the police department. Quit debating reality with fantasy.
I find your comments about Ms. Giovanni very disrespectful. You can only hope to achieve a small percentage of social status she has attained. This wannabee poet has sat with heads of state in other countries. She has authored more than thirty books. What have you done in your life except criticize her greatness? You sound like you’re jealous.
If it wasn’t for Ms. Giovanni starting the 1967 Black Arts Movement, where would LeRoi Jones, James Baldwin, the Soledad Brothers, Bobby Seale and other noted authors be read at? She inspired a literary age. Just for that alone, Giovanni deserves credit.
The two things I really hate are:
When black people talked about retaliating against white terror, black people were looked at hate-mongers.
When people talked about civil rights, all I heard was Dr. King’s achievements.
For one thing, Dr. Rosa Parks is the pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. She did her through rebellion, not turning the other cheek. She defied the times with her strength, class and dignity. She stood up for the black woman, who later stood side by side with the black man.(1955)
The Movement was created on the defiance of a single woman. Dr. King deserves his just due. However, he was no way “the everything”. He and the other religious leaders were handed undeserved credit for its inception.
Ali G is a comedian, yes he is, and unlike Nikki G, he is funny by design. (BTW, I made up the Ali G “interview” to make my own points; the real Ali G had nothing to do with it.) From you, Giovanni gets credit for starting the Black Arts Movement, for inspiring a literary age? What? And “Dr. Rosa Parks” also gets credit for so much in your book. She has symbolic significance in the civil rights movement. If Rosa Parks got an honorary doctorate, I say, well deserved. Not so for Nikki G. It sounds as if you have a feminist monitor in your head insuring that you give lots and lots of credit to women. Fine. Anyway, it was the women and men of the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King and his followers, not the Black Panthers, who effected the most positive changes in our society. Giovanni and Tupac are both from families allied with the violent Black Panthers and both have acted accordingly. Hence, their influence has often been negative.
Tupac paid the Qa’id’s family because there was one gun, and one shot fired, and that one shot was fired from the gun that slipped from Tupac’s belt. He was back home in Marin County showing off his new car when other kids heckled him, and he showed how tough he is by losing the gun and causing a child to be killed. His lawyer would not have let him pay if he had not been responsible. This was hardly the first time he was reckless with guns, with his mouth (from which he spit on people), and with the words that came out of that mouth in between his spitting on people. He was a child not of poverty as is pretended but a child of the middle class. His mother took him out of Harlem and moved to Baltimore where he attended the Baltimore School of the Arts (with Jada Pinkett Smith). He was a bourgeois kid preparing for a life in entertainment, with the sensibilities of a Black Panther family (many of his relatives were heavily involved in Black Panther crimes). Nikki Giovanni also had it relatively good, but pretends to be from poverty. She, like Tupac, expressed anger, and called for violence, but in inappropriate ways. Now, after she has been called a poet, she can reinvent herself as often as she likes. But she will still be a poet who deserves none of the awards she has received.
“I have a feminist monitor in my head.” Wow, you should play baseball, because that stupid comment came out of left field! I am sorry I’m not a card-carrying chauvinist like you. But, I realize a man (like Dr. King) was only as strong as the woman who led him. Ever heard of the chicken and the egg theory? There would be no chicken without an egg. There would’ve been a King without a Rosa Parks. You swallowed all the history that showered the late reverend with all the Civil Rights’ successes. That belief was entirely false. Dr. King’s original boycott centered around the city of Montgomery, Alabama and the incident started by Dr. Rosa Parks. Only when the SNCC, the SCLC and CORE got involved did the nationwide sit-ins occur and the non-violent mass actions took place. In the end, one woman’s defiance got the ball rolling, whether you care to recognize it or not.
Now, I will further explain to you the Tupac situation. Unless, you were actually there during the shooting, you don’t know what really happened? The police and the media have always had a terse relationship with the late Mr. Shakur. What happened with the Qa’id murder was typical ghetto violence. Two groups were beefing and someone got shot. I take it you’ve never stepped one foot in a ghetto without protection. I have. I have seen senseless violence. That is what it was, senseless violence. Tupac had no reason to shoot anyone, let alone order someone from his crew to shoot anyone. He was a multi-millionaire, movie and rap star. Let me ask you a question. If Bill Gates suspected his wife was sleeping around on him, would he go out and have her killed? No, because Mr. Gates has money and can move on. Tupac Shakur was loved by a generation of people, (like Ms. Giovanni) and took that admiration seriously. He made a mistake and got trapped by a career criminal’s influence after signing with Death Row Records. He was more likely murdered because he wanted out of the label. However, before that night in March 1996, he wouldn’t have thrown his comfortable life over a ghetto beef. Quit believing a racist police force’s slander and anti-black male, media print. Don’t be such a pawn to the system.
Also, Tupac Shakur was born from poverty. His mother, Afeni Shakur was a crack addict and struggled mightily in raising him. Unfortunately, drug dealers and gang bangers took on the male, role model position. Tupac’s “father” was nowhere, until he heard his son hit the jackpot. To say Tupac Shakur’s life was a lie is pure venom. I hope Ms. Shakur reads your blog and sues you for libel.
*To note*- Afeni Shakur was a former Black Panther who the California police and the FBI knew very well. You shouldn’t expect a favorable endorsement of her from those two entities.
Finally, I think you are jealous of Nikki Giovanni. You have nothing to say but criticism, even though, the “bad university poet” had appeared on Oprah, been nominated for a grammy with her spoken word poetry, and won three NAACP Image awards. Her writing credentials are second to none. She is a revered professor at the prestigious Virginia Tech. She is also loved by millions of readers and avid fans literally across the globe. I believe every one of them would smirk, laugh or downright condemn your ridiculous comments about her. Everyone has a right to an opinion. But, the opinion should be creditable, to say the least.
I had some hope for you, Steve. But, you are proving just what this country needs to remove itself from. People, like you, who cannot see the forest because their head is stuck up their ass! Peace
To Ms. Vivian Paige,
Hello, I am Marcus Brooks. I have read your blog. I am very impressed with the conversation you have on this site. However, I challenge this “Steve” to an open debate, if he wishes to come to Des Moines and spew his drivel. I am a fan of Ms. Nikki Giovanni. I’ve had the utmost pleasure in reading her work and meeting her. I find Steve’s disparaging remarks about her achievements deplorable! I want to see this “intellectual” bring his sharp tongue to Iowa. It will be verbally muzzled by me personally!
Thank you.
“Tupac had no reason to shoot anyone, let alone order someone from his crew to shoot anyone. He was a multi-millionaire, movie and rap star.” Amen. He, therefore, had no business going out and looking for trouble, which is clearly what he was doing in Marin City, California, by showing up with a gun. He is the one who had the gun, which he would not have needed, and he is the one responsible for the death of that child, and that’s why he paid the child’s family.
“What happened with the Qa’id murder was typical ghetto violence. Two groups were beefing and someone got shot. I take it you’ve never stepped one foot in a ghetto without protection. I have. I have seen senseless violence. That is what it was, senseless violence.” Did you forget I told you I taught in Central Harlem in the late 1980s? I worked in a school surrounded by crackhouses and walked all through Harlem, back and forth from the subway, alone, in the mornings and often at nights, when I would be at the school for evening events. I had no protection, and I was never a victim of crime in Harlem. I also worked while a law student in a Westside neighborhood in Chicago and lived in that community the entire summer while helping the residents of that ghetto community with their legal problems. Again, no protection. If I had had the gun and acted like a punk, however, I could have gotten into trouble I suppose, like Tupac did.
“However, before that night in March 1996, [Tupac] wouldn’t have thrown his comfortable life over a ghetto beef.” Oh? Have you seen the video of that night Tupac was killed? I mean the video that shows Tupac and others cowardly beating up another man (whom many think was the likely killer of Tupac later that evening, and who was indeed ultimately killed himself). Tupac was Mr. Peaceful? I don’t think so. He was bringing it on right up until his death. And besides that he was so very irresponsible in so many other ways, and everyone, including Giovanni, loses so much credibility when he/she praises him. As Bill Cosby so aptly pointed out, Tupac bragged in his book that he was proud he could give his mom the money he made by selling cocaine. Great! What the hell? Here are some of Bill Cosby’s comments, with which I agree: “In the book, ‘To Momma With Love,’ or something like that, he is so happy that he’s able to take money from selling cocaine and give the money to his mother…How wonderful. Isn’t that wonderful. You’ve got to be kidding. How many lives have you ruined selling packets? How many mothers are not going to go to work because they want to snort? How many dead mothers because of crack, how many babies we got to make turn around because they are crack babies?” Cosby said the house Shakur bought his mother should be decorated with pictures of users who died due to drug use. “Hang up the pictures of the people’s lives you ruined,” said Bill Cosby. Amen to that.
Marcus, you think I am jealous of Ms. Giovanni. Actually, I am disappointed that she has taken away attention from more deserving artists and I think she is giving black poets a bad name. For example, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks is a wonderful poet. Nikki Giovanni is not in the same league with Gwendolyn Brooks but seems to be better known. NAACP Image Awards and honorary doctorates do not really impress me, nor does her poetry. I guess it is like the way I despise Al Sharpton for taking away attention from more deserving ministers and politicians in the black community. Maybe it is the fault of the media for making false heros of charlatans like these instead of focussing on the real heros, the real poets and the real leaders worthy of respect. I consider the children of the ghetto and the kids of all races, including my own bi-racial child, to be the concerns of all of us. I still feel horrible when I think about the bullshit that my former students in Harlem had to go through. Institutional racism that provided them with unequal opportunities and unequal education, and drug gang culture that lured them into the trap many have fallen into. Lets get rid of all the demons wherever they are.
And a woman has recently accused Bill Cosby of sexual harassment. I like Bill Cosby, but he’s mad because no one talks about him (in a popular light) anymore. Did you know Bill Cosby’s late son was a cocaine addict? He got shot down like a dog as Tupac did! Did he go “looking for trouble” as you put it so well?
Have you noticed I keep destroying every one of your points, Steve? I do that to simpletons who think they know so much. Tupac was raised by a crack-addicted mother and the streets. What did you think he’d do while growing up, plant tomato seeds? When he joined Digital Underground in 1990, he was out of the drug-dealing game. After “Apacolypse Now” came out, his solo album went gold, which back then meant something. He made a few more critically-acclaimed records, including platiunum-selling record called “Strictly for my Niggaz”. His singles “Brenda Got a Baby” and “I Get Around” both went double platinum and earned him hundreds of thousands and then that’s when his legal issues started.
In 1994, he was robbed and shot five times in NYC while at a recording studio. During the same time, a young woman accused him of rape (which was alleged). Two Atlanta cops accused him of aggravated assault, after they were each shot in their buttocks. He wound up pleading guilty to sexual assault and served about two years in prison. He took a plea, instead of wasting hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollar on a ill-fated defense team. He was bonded out by Death Row Records owner, Suge Knight. That alone was over a million-dollar cash. In addition, Tupac Shakur (financially broke) was paid an $1 million-plus advance off a multi-million dollar six record, signing deal. This is what I described in my last posting. Tupac got trapped by a career criminal’s influence. He was trying to leave the street crime alone. Even though Suge was a mogul, he was a Piru Blood gang leader. He had hired Bloods and off-duty police to work security at his public events.
The man beaten at the Tyson fight in Vegas was a Southside LA Crip named Orlando Anderson. People say he was the one who killed Tupac Shakur. Others say a well-dressed Muslim gentleman committed the murder. Even more say, a crooked LA cop of the Ramparts Gang Unit killed Mr. Shakur. The only thing people agree upon was, Tupac got hit.
Tupac was like many impoverished kids abandoned by the fathers and struggling to survive in a single-parent household. He was a living, crapshoot. He rolled the dice early on and could’ve died young, but he didn’t. He pulled himself out of hell with his poetry. That is why Ms. Nikki Giovanni loves Tupac like we all do! He had a soul with all his demons. I bet you have demons you want no one to know about. You seem to enjoy criticizing from your pulpit, instead of making a valid point.
Please go back to your Ivy League and obtain a common sense degree with your bachelor’s. If you choose not to, please read your comments carefully before further posting. Destroying stupid theories, like yours, bores me to sleep.
Marcus,
Yes, Bill Cosby’s kid fell victim to crack, so did Tupac’s mother, and so did others he briefly supplied in his brief stint as a drug dealer. That is why we should not condone or support anything that supports that drug culture. That is why “Thug Life” tatoos and “poetry” that worships dead, violent, drug-dealing rap stars is unseemly or worse. Must you use loaded words and get personal with me, even as you say you are “destroying every one of” my points? I think you have to get so personal with me (and with another poster who was actually trying to help you out) because you really understand, on some level, that you are not defeating my points but you don’t want to agree with me even though you know what I am saying is true. I will not respond in kind to your angry words. You need to be honest with yourself first. Common sense, as you say, is in order. That’s all my posts have been about – that, and a justified outrage at false idols, which you seem to be blindly worshiping. But peace, brother,
Steve
ayo steve (#18)
thug life dont mean he was livin a life of a thug.. it was his way to tell THEM that The Hate U Gave to Little Infants Fuc*s Everybody .. thats why pac is respected here in the thirld world countries, cuz he was a revolutionary.. like che guevara and others
anyways .. this is a great blog actually, ill come back later
love from Sudan
Steve, I don’t agree with much you say. I don’t understand your disdain of Ms. Nikki Giovanni, other than outright jealousy. You condemned Tupac to no end. As I told you, his mother was a crack addict and he came from the ghetto. Bill Cosby’s kid had no excuse. Mr. Cosby should look to his own family failures before questioning Tupac’s upbringing.
Gradually, you are agreeing with me. The double-speak rhetoric be damned. I’ve made many points that begrudgingly, you’ve come to accept. As DZA pointed out, T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E. is an acronym. As far as “poetry”, Dr. King was honored in Nikki Giovanni’s words. Is he a dead, violent drug-dealing rapper? Besides, you really should stop with the blanket insults. That is no different than someone calling someone else a “nigger” in your presence and saying “Oh, I didn’t mean you.”
Some of my words may have been personals, as were your verbal attacks on Ms. Giovanni and Tupac Shakur. You get back what you put out! It’s that simple!
You won’t admit, but I am much more politically in-tuned than you claim to be. I did make one flaw and I apologized to “anonymous” for it. However, you owe humongous apologies to Ms. Giovanni, the Shakur family and the family of the murdered boy. You made a tragedy into a public forum. That was foolhardly and insensitive! Peace, idiot.
My “blanket insults” were not that, but were actually critical comments backed up by reasoned thought. No, Dr. King was NOT a violent, drug-dealing rapper. How silly of you to say that and think you are making a point. Tupac WAS a violent, drug-dealing rapper. Does the truth not matter when we criticize? And my criticism is like calling someone else a “nigger”??? Right. What about Nikki’s actual use of the word “nigger” in her pathetic Black Arts poetry? It strikes me as a bit of self loathing in some of the poetry I have seen – this nigger v. black man stuff. Her poetry, pretty much all of it which I have seen, is infantile, and your defense of it, and of Tupac (who is indefensible as a hero, and only has value, if at all, as a rap star) is quite feeble. Mr. Cosby has had problems in his marriage (even Dr. King apparently did as well), but that does not mean his contribution to the discussion is not valid. I admire Bill Cosby greatly for having the courage to say stuff that many don’t want to hear, and stuff that needs to be said. It may be PC not to criticize thug rap stars and their apologists among charlatan poets, but I, like Bill Cosby, have no interest in being PC. You apparently do, or you just insist upon backing the indefensible. Fine. You are calling me an idiot. Now that’s funny. Peace, Marcus.
THUGLIFE: The Hate U (Tupac and your defenders) Give To Little Infants Fucks Everybody. I agree with that. Bill Cosby’s kid did not fuck over other children, but Tupac did. Giovanni’s violent, racist, infantile “poetry” and her worship, even to this day, of misguided criminals, from the Black Panther murderers to the false hero killer assholes like Tupac, is reprehensible. Now that’s stating it clearly, since, Marcus, you don’t seem to be able to get it. You, my friend, are an apologist for violence, racism, and stupidity, and bad art which flirts with all of those vices. Good luck finding a clue. I’m done with your dumb ass. Now that I’m speaking your language, do I finally have your attention, retard?
Steve,
Did you get the “Peace, idiot” reference? I was already done with you. Now let me be done with you once and for all!
You sir, are an idiot. You are a bigger idiot with the so-called bachelor’s degree from Ivy League whatever! It sucks when encountering someone smarter than you with a fraction of the tuition fee spent.
Nikki Giovanni’s “nigger vs. black man” issue in her poetry, might’ve dealt with you; if you are black. During the 60s, they were Negroes who talked about taking freedom slow and deliberately. They held their belief legislation would make it right. That notion was similar to a battered woman holding a belief that her abusive spouse would change. Remember the degree you’ve received came on the backs of black folks lynched, shot, beaten, arrested and harassed during a rebellious time. Now you’ve succeeded the American Dream. Hooray for you! Now you forget who made that possible! Yes Steve, that makes you an idiot.
The Nikki Giovanni’s, the Black Arts Movement, the Black Panther, Dr. King, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Nationalists helped get your ungrateful butt in those college doors! Once again, I am pointing out your lack of common sense.
I have nothing against Mr. Cosby. I admire the fact he graduated from Temple University. He was a very successful actor, even though his series “The Cosby Show” did little to reflect an average, African-American family at the time. I just showed even his “pristine image” got smeared by bad choices. His son was a crack head. He died a crackhead, shot in the street. Tupac did not deal drugs during his rap career. Why are you saying that garbage? It is a shame that you resort to outright lies because your points suck! I mean, Cosby’s son (with all of daddy’s money and fame) still bought and used street-level crack. That’s honest to the hard truth. Speak hard truth, instead of lying. You sound intelligent like that Ivy degree you’re so proud of!
And let me tell you this, Steve!
I would rather have a million Nikki Giovannis and Tupac Shakurs leading our people than ridiculous, assimilated, desensitized “black men” like you! Take what I said however you want! Peace, idiot.
All this talk about Tupac, WOW!! He truly does live on… I could say alot but I rather keep short for those who are finding it hard to read all these in-depth posts,lol. T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E.(The Hate U Give Little Infants FUCKS EVERYONE). If you don’t understand this you don’t understand Nikki and you definitly don’t understand the significance of Tupac and why he still is recognized today! I’m going quote Quincy Jones “If Martin Luther King died at age 25 he would known as a local Baptist minister following in his father’s footsteps, If Malcolm X died at 25 he would have been known as street hustler/pimp, If I (Quincy Jones) died at 25 he would have been known as a struggling trumpet player, Tupac died at 25.” Think about it people, this was a young man waaaaaaaayy ahead of his years… and yes it made mistakes but what 25 year old you know that hasn’t have mistakes?!?!?! And I don’t care how many degrees you people may have but if your not mentoring our trouble youth who are of African descent, Latino/a descent and Inodensia descent; you need to not to ASSUME because your making an ASS out U and ME! Like Nikki Giovanni I would rather be with the street thugs than with the ones who criticize them…I don’t blaim you all for not understanding, it takes an advance mind to truly understand and comphrend what these people are going through!
BrokePhiBroke, INC
You made great points. I’ve met Nikki Giovanni. She came to Des Moines and was wonderful! I wish I had met Tupac Shakur. Even though he came from little, his success inspired a generation of black men. Few people want to recognize that Tupac was a terrific poet, just like Nikki.
It is unfortunate that people just swallow up everything the media says. In Steve’s case, he suffers from “media-fed obesity”. If you read my comments, I verify that point.