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

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Date Posted: 16:28:52 02/07/03 Fri
Author: jp
Subject: Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate
In reply to: Tobias 's message, "Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate" on 19:32:21 02/06/03 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/2003
>0
>>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

Everybody go read Tobias' stuff at http://www.unlikelystories.org/seamon.html; it features people having sex with shit.

The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth (Baraka, not the shit-sexing literature). I fully supported (from a dozen states away) the govenor's decision to call for Baraka's resignation, but to eliminate the post...

Let's break down the chronology: NJ appoints an inflammatory racist to the position of Poet Laureate. Said Laureate writes an inflammatory, racist poem. The elected officials of NJ decide that is inappropriate (duh) so they call for his resignation. No dice, since he is inflammatory, and has always been thus. So they remove the office, which is tantamount to an official decree that because of his inflammatory, racist poem, they no longer valued state-sponsored poetry.

Is it just me, or is the cure worse than the disease?

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Replies:

Re: Amiri Baraka and the great Jewish debate -- Tobias, 15:02:42 02/09/03 Sun