Posted on 04/20/2007 6:17:09 PM PDT by joeclarke
Killer Cho at Virginia Tech is, of course responsible for the rampage that scourged the college this past week. We can spend time for the rest of eternity attempting to dissect his psyche. What provoked him? Why did he fall into the cracks? Why was he constantly excused by the school for aberrant and even criminal behavior? What were his parents like? Were his plays inspired by Quinton Farrentino who probably dipped his pen into blood to write those monstrous screenplays such as Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction? What does Ismail Ax mean?
Let Nancy Grace decipher his modus operandi, I have more important things to do
I looked at something else: the English Department at Virginia Tech and some of the courses which would drive me crazy if I were subject to these most fem-lib core courses led by the ideals of Professor/Poet Laureate/ Racist Nikki Giovanni who led a convocation at Virginia Tech April 17 after the slaughter, which was not as mournful as it was mean.
This is Giovanni's convocation speech which was commissioned by VT to console and encourage the thousands of Virginia students who were probably even more stunned and discouraged by this hardened political screed:
Convocation Address April 17 By Virginia Tech English Professor, Nikki Giovanni, who also taught Cho Seung Hui at the same school
"We are Virginia Tech
We are sad today We will be sad for quite a while We are not moving on We are embracing our mourning
We are Virginia Tech
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly We are brave enough to bend to cry And we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again
We are Virginia Tech
We do not understand this tragedy We know we did nothing to deserve it
But neither does a child in Africa Dying of AIDS
Neither do the Invisible Children Walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army
Neither does the baby elephant watching his community Be devastated for ivory Neither does the Mexican child looking For fresh water
Neither does the Iraqi teenager dodging bombs
Neither does the Appalachian infant killed By a boulder Dislodged Because the land was destabilized
No one deserves a tragedy
We are Virginia Tech The Hokie Nation embraces Our own And reaches out With open heart and mind To those who offer their hearts and hands
We are strong And brave And innocent And unafraid
We are better than we think And not yet quite what we want to be
We are alive to imagination And open to possibility We will continue To invent the future
Through our blood and tears Through all this sadness
We are the Hokies
We will prevail We will prevail We will prevail
We are Virginia Tech"
Nikki Giovanni, delivered at the Convocation, April 17, 2007
I was first introduced to the madness of Nikki Giovanni last year when Ms. Giovanni campaigned against an honest, Christian, gentlemanly Republican candidate for Ohio Governor, Ken Blackwell. Here are a few of her man-eating remarks:
"I am not a son of a bitch like Kenny Blackwell"
From Giovanni slams Blackwellin the Cinci Enquirer:
If Ken Blackwell does manage to become Ohio’s governor, don’t look for Nikki Giovanni to be appointed the state’s poet laureate.
Giovanni, a native Cincinnatian, read an original poem entitled “I am Cincinnati,” a paean to all that is good and great about the Queen City, like three-way chili and Spring Grove Cemetery. She read her poem during re-opening ceremonies to the new Fountain Square Saturday.
But along with her nostalgic references, Giovanni remained true to her reputation of being an outspoken activist.
“I am not a son of a bitch like Kenny Blackwell,” Giovanni said near the end of the poem.
“I will not use the color of my skin to cover the hatred in my heart. I am not a political whore jumping from bed to bed to see who will stroke my knee.”
I don't know what her sexual preference is, but I was unlucky enough to have English teachers in high school and college who had a man-hating lesbian persona which Nikki reminds me of.
This once great military oriented college has become another lib playground housing those "Most Dangerous Professors" which David Horowitz so eloquently speaks of in his book and at http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/default.asp
Here are a few other gems hatched at VT and a hundred other universities. These anti-male essays did not cause Cho to go mad. They certainly did not help.
Feminist Perspectives on Pedagogy and Academe: Feminist Academic Memoir (WS 5984)
Bernice L. Hausman (Virginia Tech)
++ Post Modern Speculative Fiction: Fe(M)ale (English 4784)
Len Hatfield (Virginia Tech)
+ Women Writers Re-Presenting Marriage (English 4784)
Bernice L. Hausman (Virginia Tech)
More of Nikki Giovanni’s “work” from Wikipedia
Works
Giovanni has had a successful career as a poet, earning her the nickname “The Princess of Black Poetry” in the late 60s and early 70s. The civil rights and black power movements inspired her early poetry that was collected in Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967), Black Judgement (1968), and Re: Creation (1970). She has since written more than two dozen books including volumes of poetry, illustrated children’s books, and three collections of essays.
Giovanni’s writing has been heavily inspired by African American activists and artists. She has a tattoo with the words “Thug life” to honor Tupac Shakur, whom she admired.[5][6] Her book Love Poems (1997) was written in memory of him, and she has stated that she would “rather be with the thugs than the people who are complaining about them.”[7] She also tours nationwide and frequently speaks out against hate-motivated violence. At a 1999 Martin Luther King Day event, she recalled the 1998 murders of James Byrd, Jr. and Matthew Shepard: “What’s the difference between dragging a black man behind a truck in Jasper, Texas, and beating a white boy to death in Wyoming because he’s gay?”[8]
Giovanni has received numerous honors for her contributions to literature and society. She has received more than twenty honorary degrees from national colleges and universities and has been given keys to more than a dozen cities in the United States, including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, and New Orleans. Giovanni has been named woman of the year by several magazines, including Mademoiselle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Ebony, and Essence. She has been awarded the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry and was the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award. She is also the recipient of three NAACP Image Awards and an a honorary membership of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.[9][10]
Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983) acknowledged notable black figures. Giovanni collected her essays in the 1988 volume Sacred Cows...and Other Edibles. Her most recent works include Acolytes and On My Journey Now.
She also featured on the track Ego Trip By Nikki Giovanni on Blackalicious’ 2000 album Nia.
http://Maybe someone more skilled can link directly to it and post it.
And every year, in every state, lawmakers are cowed by the education community into providing more and more money for this brand of indoctrination.
*yeesh*
another try
Unfortunately, her sort are icons and far too common throughout academia.
Isn’t that just precious, though?
/ext sarc
Too bad they're in such dangerous places.
Thanks for posting this. I didn’t realize the speech was that PC. Yet another reason to homeschool through grades 13, 14, 15, 16.
Yeah, I notice they edited out those parts on TV.
Like any organization, you make it so unpalatable that decent, ordinary people don't want any part of it and leave. You know--good people doing nothing, etc.
Some prize winning poetry by Nikki Giovanni. Virginia Tech should be proud to have such a literate professor on staff in the English Department.
“Seduction”
“one day
you gonna walk in this house
and i’m gonna have a long African
gown
you’ll sit down and say “The Black...”
and i’m gonna take one arm out
then you-not noticing me at all- will say “What about this brother...”
and i’m going to be slipping it over my head
and you’ll rap on about “The revolution...”
while i rest your hand against my stomach
you’ll go on-as you always do- saying
“I just can’t dig...”
while i’m moving your hand up and down
and i’ll be taking your dashiki off
then you’ll say “What we really need...”
and taking your shorts off
the you’ll notice
your state of undress
and knowing you you’ll just say
“Nikki/
isn’t this counterrevolutionary...”
This poem by Nikki is so deep, it put me in a deep sleep.(Evidently, looking at the wording, it also put her in a deep sleep)
“I’m Not Lonely”
i’m not lonely
sleeping all alone
you think i’m scared
but i’m a big girl
i don’t cry
or anything
i have a great
big bed
to roll around
in and lots of space
and idon’t dream
bad dreams
like i used
to have that you
were leaving me
anymore
now that you’re gone
i don’t dream
and no matter
what you think
i’m not lonely
sleeping
all alone
Despite her past inexcusable comments and her leftism, when it came to Cho she was the only professor I read about that recognized he had a problem, reported it, asked that he be removed from the class, and even went so far as to say she would resign if he were not removed. That level of concern should have stemmed some action from the administration—unfortunately, it didn’t stimulate enough.
While I personally did not like her speech at the convocation, the students obviously did — giving her a long, hearty, standing ovation.
Criticize her for many things, but I don’t think they should include either circumstance.
My favorite Nikki poem because it exposes her fragility and humility, except which she says, “My bowels deliver uranium.” That sounds like a terrorist threat of some kind.
“Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why)”
I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can’t catch me
For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever on
My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
across three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by my permission
I mean...I...can fly
like a bird in the sky...
And no one threw anything at her from the audience? I would have. How dare she inject race and politics into this solemn occasion.
If I were Mr. Blackwell (who impressed me during the campaign), I would have quietly responded: “No, I’m not. You’re not my mother!”
She read the entire poem at the convocation. She didn’t edit anything.
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