Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate -- Unlikely Stories

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Date Posted: 19:32:21 02/06/03 Thu
Author: Tobias
Subject: Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate
In reply to: jp 's message, "Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate" on 15:15:28 01/30/03 Thu

>I'm behind the times. One week ago, the NJ Senate
>voted to dissolve the position of NJ Poet Laureate.
>There was no legal way to remove Baraka from the post,
>so they destroyed it entirely.
>
>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030
>124/ap_on_re_us/nj_poet_laureate_1
>
>Any thoughts?

Yeah:

Baraka never shoulda been named NJ laureate, has been talking crazy racist(and sexist) shit for years, and poeple have been afraid to call him on it. Even the normally reliable, snarky New York Observer ina recent interview couldn't bring themselves to ask about his anti-Semitic beliefs; they just ignored all of it. He was once a very good poet, but he let the rage eat him up. "Who?" is a good question, but not asked like that.

As for removal of whole laureate position, I have doubts that was entirely necessary. After working as a legislative aide in NY Senate for 2 years, know a bit about process of these things and NJ easily could have passed a law simply redefining laureate position, rammed that through, and canned Baraka next day. But that would have maybe made headlines, and politos don't like stirring up possible angry (read: bigoted) voters, so easier to just salt the earth. Is a shame.

Sorry if gone on too much, but Baraka has been pissing me off for years. Malcom X post-Mecca would have sat him down and schooled him- as Denzel said in "Training Day": "The shit gets deeper."

Jonathan, hope you're well. Look forwqard to issue, and just discovered the Unlikely message board. A very cool thing.
Cheers
Tobias

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Replies:

Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate -- jp, 16:28:52 02/07/03 Fri
- Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate -- Tobias, 15:02:42 02/09/03 Sun