In the wake of the Imus affair, MSNBC is airing an all-day discussion on the theme "What's OK to say?" Poet Maya Angelou appeared at 11:05 AM EDT, and in the course of her interview with MSNBC's Peter Alexander, had this exchange:Posted on 04/13/2007 8:52:36 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
In the wake of the Imus affair, MSNBC is airing an all-day discussion on the theme "What's OK to say?" Poet Maya Angelou appeared at 11:05 AM EDT, and in the course of her interview with MSNBC's Peter Alexander, had this exchange:
ALEXANDER: Dr. Angelou, you're an author and an artist. I guess the question is, is there a need for more censorship of our media and of our arts, are you comfortable with that? And if that happens, when does it end? What is OK to say?
ANGELOU: Exactly. I agree with that. I think the society decides upon the censorship. Each person censors himself or herself. Do you think, if any of these hip-hoppers, if they said about Mrs. Bush what they say about black women, do you think they would be given a microphone? Do you really think so? So we have to censor ourselves. And then, the society makes that decision.
View video here.
Leave it to Angelou, she who read a poem [YouTube here] at Bill Clinton's first inauguration, to drag partisan politics into it. What we do know is that Don Imus lost his microphone for saying those kind of things about the Rutgers basketball players. Could hip-hoppers say them about Laura Bush? I don't know, but just looking at Michelle Malkin's recent cataloging of rap lyrics, I see that George Bush is fair game [see lyrics from Unk].I'll venture the name of one woman who would almost certainly be off limits: Ms. Angelou herself. What do you think: could rappers rap Mrs. Bush and keep their gigs?
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
Angelou-Laura Bush-Imus ping to Today show list.
Oh, what a ditz.
Is Angelou saying it's okay to call black women ho's, but not Laura Bush?
They’d suffer a worse fate if they slurred Hillary.
They would probably be given the seat of honor next to Jimmy Carter at the next DNC convention.
Does she not remember the rappers lyrics about raping or killing Gore’s daughters or wife?
What if you said bad things about Clarence Thomas, including wishing an early death on him like Julianne Malveaux did? What if you called him an Uncle Tom and made jokes about him being HNIC?
I know this is slightly off topic, but all this discussion of rap music has me thinking. If bad things were said about Laura Bush in a rap song, would anyone know? I can’t understand a word they’re saying.
Yes she is.
Too bad. She was an above average poet. Now she is just a bitter old woman. That’s a Kwame West style slander of the Bush administration.
-well, I believe Imus slurred hillary on a regular basis.
Of course, we all recognize this as a call to slur the First Lady. I’ll bet money on it...
Maya Angelou is a coddled, self-indulgent, pretentious, untalented pseudo “writer”, hack and phony.
If she were white, nobody would give her the time of day.
And now, Maya Angelou for Butterfingers:
“The wind. The rain. The fire.
The Butterfinger.
Did the Caveman know your delicious goodness?
Did the Mayan Priest exhalt in your buttery crunchiness?
Did the slothful Mastodon, upon his extinction, declare,
“Don’t lay a finger on my Butterfinger?”
Oh, you finger of butter!
You proud confection!
Sugar brown roasted peanuts,
fructose, glucose, sucrose, lactose,
partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil.
Crispity, crunchity, peanut buttery—
I... give... myself... to... you.
Butterfinger.
Glad mantle of golden chocolaty hope upon my breast.”
If any Rapper said bad things about Hillary, they would find themselves Arkancided.
Too bad Bernard McGuirk’s can’t parody of Maya Angelou again.
OMG!! She looks like an OLD OLD OPRAH!!
Has been, overrated, PC, “I wrote one good poem and I’m living off of it,” alert!
All that’s missing is the sound of fingers snapping...
Addendum: Try slurring Saint Maya on any college campus or on Oprah. I’m sure there’d be no blowback! (/sarcasm)
They just can’t leave it alone. When it all leads to race riots and killings, the finger will be pointed at Don Imus as the cause, rather than at themselves for stirring the pot.
Welcome to BIZARRO WORLD
“A planet where alarm clocks dictate when to go to sleep, ugliness is beautiful and the world’s greatest hero is a chalk- faced duplicate of Superman.”
Do not post racial slurs here again. Thank you.
If Don Imus called Condi Rice a “nappy-headed ho” all the liberals would be praising him.
I was forced to watch that in social studies class. It was awful.
Not only that, but they would be addressing the convention in prime time and getting rousing applause, just like Sharpton and Jackson.
I can’t stand this woman. After reading some story she wrote where she called the white kids “po’ white trash” I have no stomach for her. I don’t care if the kids were mean to her. Another lefty dihmocrat hypocrit.
Please tell me she’s kidding. Media would be standing in line handing out microphones to anyone who had that type of “courage.”
LIAR!
Hey! She's Dr. Angelou! She must be very smart.
Calling Angelou a “poet” is like calling Algore an “Environmental Scientist”...
At least that's how I read it.
From Wikipedia:
in her later career, received several honorary doctorates, she never received a college education
Ya know, the silly thing about Snoop Dogg’s reaction (and a lot of others’) is the notion that the Rutgers team somehow is exceptionally virtuous. I mean, they excel at what they do, which is play basketball, and they deserve some kudos for all the effort that entails. But let’s not kid ourselves, here: state-university television-sport athletes are not scholars. If these women happen to be, that’s a case that’s yet to be made.
I think everyone agrees that Imus’ description of the women was uncalled for, but trash-talk, as foul as it is, is hardly unprecedented. So tune Imus out. I always have. I find nothing of merit in his show. But if you say he has to be taken off the airwaves in spite of his ratings, then shouldn’t we also take off the airwaves nearly every hip-hop song ever written?
Malkin’s rap list wasn’t comprised of cherry-picked songs; she just went through the top 5 at the moment. Heck, a lot of kids these days go through every waking moment bombarding themselves with lyrics brutalizing women. Does Snoop Dogg really think a single one says, “well, yes, but Rutgers women are different, because they are scholars, not merely ghetto-dwellers.” In fact, I dare say, that if anyone did say that, Snoop Dogg would desire to kill that person for their dis on “black culture.”
Methinks that if Laura Bush’s name was invoked in rap lyrics....that CD would be the TOP SELLER..and the rapper would probably win a Grammy Award.
Exactly!
She’s the female Chauncey Gardiner.
Point of order: Maya Angelou is not a poet.
She is a poetess.
(A professor I once had told us that “actor/actress” is the only male/female title dichotomy permitted, except it’s okay to call a female poet a poetess if she writes bad poetry and you wish to insult her.)
I think you have a point...but, Maya is such a deep thinker...do we really KNOW what she really meant??
Seriesly...perhaps she was making the point you said she is...but, I think invoking Laura Bush’s name made the message different. (should have used generic white woman)
>>She was an above average poet.<<
With all due respect, in what parallel universe was her “poetry” even more than mediocre?
>> Calling Angelou a “poet” is like calling Algore an “Environmental Scientist”... <<
She may be a bad poet, but she is a poet. Al Gore is not an environmental scientist, and probably couldn’t read word one of an atmospheric-science journal. To be a poet, you only have to write poetry that SOMEONE likes to read. To be an environmental scientist, you have to learn the scientific method to identify valid information, study statistics and vectors to identify significant data, practice objective analysis, and of course, learn a hell of a lot of calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology.
This makes total sense for a leftist artist.
“What do we in the black community do about our self-hating attack on black women via hip-hop and rappers?
Answer: It’s Bush’s fault. They don’t care enough about women of color, but if it were Laura Bush...
From one of the most over-rated human beings in the history of man. You would think those nasty teeth could hold back idiotic comments......
I’ve never liked this woman since she done that “poetry” at Clinton’s inauguaration.
Hip-Hoppers Would Lose Microphone If They Slurred Laura Bush
Not hardly. Mrs.Bush is way too classy to give such blather the time of day. This is not to say that there may be no call for an immediate apology,which,after all,is the decent thing to do when one offends someone (although the smear would more than likely be dismissed or swept under the rug,rather than to be addressed at all...considering the source.)
Andrew Dice Clay is a better "poet" than Maya.
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