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
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.
>> 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. <<
And, of course, keep in mind Al lost his draft deferment by flunking out of a liberal-arts major (divinity school). Not exactly a rigorous mind. I once read an article by him on theology. Despite an amazingly complex diagram and several pages of verbosity, all he managed to do was describe (as if it were some new thing he stumbled apon) was the concept of “transcendence.” He had discovered the most rudimentary of spiritual concepts, yet had the egotism to believe he had struck apon something fanstastically new, and the clouded mind to be incapable of expressing it any simpler of a form.
Give him 100 years of schooling, and I dare say he’d never cut it as an environmental scientist.
“hip hop” is the chantings for a cargo cult. Sad waste.
Don’t know whether it would be a best seller, but it certainly would be awarded a Grammy.
I just don't see how the former can result in a person being FIRED [i.e. a loss of making a living] and the latter be called FREE SPEECH with no consequences at all.
Political Correctness trumps all!!
Auteur!Auteur!
So, there is an equivalence to saying something mean spirited about a team of basketball players, some of which were white, and saying something mean spirited about the First Lady of the United States of America?
If she wants to make a true equivalent observation, ask her to explain the term “snow bunny” as used by the (c)rappers...
Stupid old woman. The left has said terrible things about Republican First Ladies that make “nappy headed ho” look like a compliment.
I heard on radio this morning that Snoop categorizes ‘hos’. In other words, the ones he refers to in his lyrics are no-count, not working, looking to take advantage etc. So, in his view, girls who are making something of their lives like the Rutgers girls, don’t fit the category.
My thing is he shouldn’t call any woman that.
Maya Ange-who???
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