Posted on 05/24/2017 9:21:36 PM PDT by rey
A spirited poem decrying racial injustice and conservative politics read before hundreds at Sonoma State University’s weekend graduation ceremony drew sharp criticism from some parents over its tone and coarse language while prompting an email apology from President Judy Sakaki.
Graduating senior Dee Dee Simpson recited her poem from memory Saturday night on stage at Weill Hall in the Green Music Center, where a record-setting 2,651 students received diplomas during the two-day commencement.
In the poem, Simpson, who is African-American, railed against police violence that has claimed black lives and made disparaging references to President Donald Trump and Fox News. The several minutes of verse contained a number of expletives.
Cara Freedman was outraged. The San Diego parent, who sat on the lawn waiting for her daughter, Alexa Grossman, to graduate, said she looked around to see people shaking their heads after Simpson “dropped the F-bomb.”
“We were shocked,” Freedman said Tuesday in an interview. “I’m still a little bit shocked. What kind of school is this? Who in the world would allow this to take place?”
Freedman and her ex-husband, Marc Grossman, also of San Diego, each fired off angry emails to Sakaki, who listened to Simpson’s poem from a few feet away. University officials said the two parents’ complaints were among four or five received to date.
“How could you allow anyone to give a hate speech like that?” Grossman wrote. “You should be ashamed of yourself. There were kids in the audience.”
Sakaki did not respond Wednesday to a either a request for comment through the school’s interim communications director or a message left on her cellphone. She was in Long Beach at the California State University Board of Trustees meeting where she received the California State Student Association President of the Year award.
However, Sakaki, who is completing her first year as president, apologized in an email to Grossman, saying she regretted the reading of Simpson’s poem. She blamed a new graduation format of six separate ceremonies for insufficient oversight of program content.
“While a university should include and allow for all kinds of voices and perspectives, and while this individual student is among our accomplished poets, having her offer this particular piece at the Arts and Humanities commencement was a mistake,” Sakaki said. “It simply should not have happened.”
Simpson, who graduated over the weekend with a degree in English education, did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
In her poem, she talked about black mothers instructing their children how to behave before police so they “come home at night.” She also seemed to chastise people upset by the Trump administration, saying black people have been suffering government abuses for decades.
“My people live in places you wouldn’t drive through in an armored truck,” Simpson told the crowd.
Kim Baptista, past managing editor of the campus newspaper who sat in the audience waiting to receive her communications degree, said she sympathized with the message but the venue in which it was delivered was wrong.
“People were taken aback,” Baptista said. “Here it was supposed to be a celebratory time. And you’re up there wagging your finger at us.”
A copy of Simpson’s poem was not available. In years past, graduation videos have been posted on YouTube in about a week.
Gillian Conoley, an English professor and the university’s Poet-in-Residence, defended the poem, which she said addressed a difficult time in race relations. Conoley, who also read a poem at the ceremony, said Simpson’s work was met with applause.
“I’m not surprised it evoked strong reactions,” she said. “That’s a sign of good work.”
Cultural appropriation....Ashly Judd.
Here’s the key, she graduated with a “degree” in English Education, so will never be called to task, or fired from any potential AA job she’s lined up.
Where are the white male STEM grads dissing the brutal system that got them into graduate or professional schools, or solid jobs starting right now? Oh, riiight....
Was she mentored by Tyrone Greene?
“In her poem, she talked about black mothers instructing their children how to behave before police so they “come home at night.”
You idiot once upon a time white parents taught their kids to respect police and they would come home at night. And you’re own statement that black mothers taught, where are the fathers? That’s the problem.
"Your people" destroy every place they live because they aren't required to pay anything to live there. Usually living off the taxpayers backs through welfare and housing grants.
When you have little or no skin in the game you really don't appreciate a damn thing around you and that's why "your people" end up living in violent, drug filled ghettos. Ghettos that "your people" have created for themselves. The more we give "your people" in freebees the more they come to expect, thereby perpetuating the problem.
In short, "your people" need to grow the f*** up!
Ugh! My daughter is transferring there in the fall.
My daughter is worried how they will treat a Trump supporter.
She’s majoring in Statistics and she’s taken most of her liberal courses at community college, so she thinks it will be okay.
There’s nothing wrong with your daughter keeping her politics private. And no doubt your family already knows this.
When I got my Driver’s License, I remember my Father sitting me down and telling me how to act if I was pulled over by the Police.
Hands visible on the top of the Steering Wheel and Yes Sir, No Sir.
So simple even an idiot College Graduate can do it.
Okay Buster, Mr. D.U. Hotshot! Listen up!
I win, you make the check out to Free Republic.
I lose, you make the check out to Jim Robinson.
Got it?
Yeah, yeah, okay! Hurry up and deal. I can't wait to kick your a**.
Time to do the deed FReepers!
More like Tyrone Shoelaces.
A classic that belongs on this thread:
Chris Rock - How not to get your *** kicked by the police!
https://youtu.be/uj0mtxXEGE8
From 10 years ago, so it’s not like this is something new.
This poet snowflake race hustler should never have been handed a microphone.
in case others don’t get the Tyrone Greene reference, he was an Eddie Murphy character 35 years ago on SNL with a “hate Whitey” message not dissimilar from that of this SSU poet.
Prose and Cons
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/prose-and-cons/n8838?snl=1
“My people live in places you wouldn’t drive through in an armored truck,”
There are no bad places...just saying.
Mention one’s religion or reference to God and the mic would have been cut pronto. Drop a few F* bombs and spew a love-fest to ‘black-power’, they let you go on for 7 min.
ACLU to follow /s
When everyone was outside for pictures/mingling, I saw him talking to some others and walked up. I said I'd like to compliment him on his speech and his face lit up - until I told him the real hubris was his thinking that his political views outweighed the accomplishments of the graduates and I wagered that there were more Republicans on the honor roll than Democrats. By the time I got to telling him he was a disgrace to higher education, his face was beet red and he was trying to holler me down. I smiled and wished him a good day. My son came over laughing his ass off and said he was glad he didn't have to deal with assholes like that anymore. Turned out to be a good day.
She would probably start crying if her graduation was filled with cussing. She hates cussing.
I’ve said it before: We have WAAAAAY too many people attending college.
Thanks Obama and the Dems: You’ve created a society that is afraid to tell children “NO!”....
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