Dissin' Mr. Jefferson - BIG time, PART II: Amiri Baraka at U.Va.

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SUMMARY: Apparently, some members of the University of Virginia's faculty and administration were unsatisfied with assaulting the legacy of Thomas Jefferson and his beloved "academical village" only once on the cusp of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In that assault, U.Va. provided a taxpayer-funded platform for one of the world's most prolific jihad-enablers & -apologists, former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami (see story here), to deliver a one-sided, insular rant on September 7, 2006 to an "invitation-only" group of individuals (in contradiction to U.Va.'s stated policy that all such events are to be "free and open to the public").

No, they had to go further and assault Mr. Jefferson's legacy again, only five days later.

This is the story of what happened at U.Va. on September 12, 2006 --- and some ideas on what we can do to make sure that such shameful betrayals of Mr. Jefferson's trust, and U.Va.'s legacy, are not repeated.


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KEY QUESTIONS:

How many taxpayers would voluntarily open their wallets and give cash to support an "artist-educator" who says & writes the following? How many would willingly entrust their children to an "educational institution" that invites such "learned" individuals to lecture to its students? And how many would accept (a) not being notified that such a lecture was to take place, and (b) being prohibited from attending, and from commenting on or challenging such statements?

He claims that white Americans and Jews --- not Muslim terrorists --- were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed? Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day? Why did (Israeli Prime Minister) Sharon stay away?... (W)ho know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion/And cracking they sides (laughing) at the notion?" (1)

"Israel and its prime minister, Ariel Sharon, as well as President Bush, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and many United States allies, knew of the pending (9/11) terrorist attacks…" (2)

When a white woman asked what whites could do to help the black cause, he admitted that he replied, “You can help by dying. You are a cancer. You can help the world’s people with your death.” (3)

“Atheist Jews double crossers stole our [black people’s] secrets.... They give us to worship a dead Jew and not ourselves.... Selling fried potatoes and people, the little arty bastards talking arithmetic they sucked from the Arab's head.” (4)

“(The white man) owes you anything you want, even his life. All the stores will open if you say the magic words. The magic words are: 'Up against the wall motherfucker this is a stick up!' ... Let’s get together and kill him, my man!” (5)

"Come up, black Dada nihilismus. Rape the white girls. Rape their fathers. Cut the mothers' throats." (6)

(Sources listed at the end of this post)

The answer to the above questions is: Practically none.

And that is precisely why "artists"/professors such as Amiri Baraka apply for and are routinely awarded taxpayer-funded jobs, grants and awards.

Because if they were required to survive in a society in which all values are exchanged voluntarily --- where no one is forced to support the propagation of ideas which they find abhorrent --- they would starve.

The problem, though, isn't primarily with lunatic whackjobs like Baraka.

In America, they are free to spew any nutjob conspiracy theory, any sociopathic premise, and any violence-laden racist diatribe they want to... so long as they aren't forcing anyone to support them in order to do so.

The problem is taxpayer-funded institutions --- primarily public universities --- that provide a taxpayer-funded platform upon which whackjobs like Baraka can spew his hate-filled nonsense directly to the students whose parents have entrusted them to said institutions.

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But the problem with what the University of Virginia did on September 12, 2006 --- merely 24 hours after the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks --- goes far deeper: (and is eerily reminiscent to what it did in regards to the speech it sponsored by former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami merely five days earlier, on September 7, documented here)

(1) In contrast to U.Va.'s stated policy and practice that all such lectures are to be "free and open to the public," there was no advance notice to the public --- or even the student body en masse --- that this event was even going to take place. (This is in contrast to the way in which U.Va. promotes other lectures that are, indeed, free and open to the public, as they are supposed to be ---see Section 2 in my Khatami blog)

September 4, 2006: Screens starting at U.Va.'s main Web portal, leading to "Upcoming Lectures" --- no mention of Amiri Baraka's speech on September 12 (or of Khatami's speech, on Sept. 7)

(2) The first time that the public and most U.Va. students became aware of Baraka's lecture was after-the-fact, via a front-page article in the student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily, the day after the lecture --- on September 13. .

The front page of the September 13, 2006 Cavalier Daily

Article excerpts:

"Poet, playwright and political activist Amiri Baraka addressed an audience of over 200 University students and guests last night. Baraka delivered a lecture about the current state of African-Americans in the U.S. and shared some of his famous lyric poetry.

"Who is there to remind us of how human experiences are set into history and brought to the surface -- the lyric poet,' (Maurice) Apprey said. 'Lyric poets like Amiri Baraka take embedded human emotions, lift them, from the depths and allow the rest of us to share in the experiences they want to share with us'."

(3) The fact that "Professor" Baraka was not only allowed --- but invited and sponsored by U.Va. --- to speak under such insulated circumstances, merely one day after the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, without allowing anyone other than a hand-selected group of students and "guests" to attend, comment or ask questions, is an assault on the most basic principle of free and open exchange of ideas that Mr. Jefferson's university is built upon:

"This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind.
For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, p. 417-418

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BACKGROUND:

For the past 40+ years, Baraka has been a self-professed Communist, who supports measures to (surprise!!!) radically alter the structure of our government --- of course, at the expense of individual liberty and our Constitution.

His profile on Wikipedia is located here. His rant against the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) for daring to document and challenge his Jew-hating diatribes is located here. The "poem" he recited for U.Va. students and (hand-selected) "guests" on September 12, "Somebody Blew Up America," is located here.

Baraka's personal website is located here. (Note: For clear-thinking America-lovers, I'd recommend at least one Valium and three shot of bourbons before venturing too deply into this site)

Here are several articles that expose the true nature of "educators"/"artists" like Baraka, and those who enable and foist him onto students and society in general. Note that all were published far ahead of this event, so there is no way that U.Va. adminstrators and faculty can claim ignorance:
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Amiri Baraka Hits a New Low by Ward Connerly (Oct. 11, 2002) Excerpt:

"None of this lunacy would even be noteworthy if it weren't for the fact that just last summer, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts formed a panel that appointed this 'artist' as poet laureate. That's right. They appointed him to this prestigious paid position ($10,000 for a two-year term, no less) in spite of the fact that he had published dozens of anti-Jewish, anti-white, pro-Black Panther screeds during the last 25 years."

Amiri Baraka Mouths Off Again by Michelle Malkin (Feb. 16, 2005) Excerpt:

Via the NY Post and Jeff Quinton, we learn that "poet" Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones has been spouting off against President Bush and Condoleezza Rice ("What kind of sleaza is Condoleezza?").I wrote about how your tax dollars help keep Baraka afloat a few years ago: Amiri Baraka hates America. Yet, in the land of the free that he despises so deeply, this black nationalist writer has had no trouble finding fellow Americans to show him love. At the top of Amiri Baraka's donor list: The American taxpayer.

In the 1960s, Baraka (then known as LeRoi Jones) received federal anti-poverty funds to run a "Black Arts Repertory Theater/School" in Harlem... "I don't see anything wrong with hating white people," Baraka bragged at the time to a U.S. News and World Report writer... One of Baraka's popular Harlem street performances in 1965 involved a black valet murdering white victims...

In 1981, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) apparently saw nothing wrong with Baraka's outspoken hatred, either. The agency forked over public subsidies to Baraka for "poems" that railed against capitalism and Christianity..."

Baraka the Banal, Establishment Boor by Ilana Mercer (Oct. 23, 2002) Excerpt:

"With some exceptions, government-supported art conjures the Soviet Socialist Realism. While the communists forcibly promoted prosaic, terrifically ugly, State-affirming works, our own supercilious liberals labor to trash what's left of Western culture. Think 'Piss Christ!' Think Andres Serrano of the barren soul, lazy mind and prolific bladder! As contemptuous as Baraka is, he is merely guilty of being a talentless and tasteless parasite. The real culprits are the politicians who create and fill these positions, then make the taxpayers pay for them."

Racist Yale Laureate by John Perazzo (July 24, 2003) Excerpt:

"(Baraka's) invitation to speak at Yale – to say nothing of the rousing ovation he received there for reading a poem accusing the Israeli government of having had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks – unfortunately reflects the depraved condition of academia today. When we examine the manner in which Baraka has expressed his thoughts and observations over the past forty years – his racist diatribes, his incomprehensible rantings, his virtual noncompliance with rules of grammar and punctuation, his strings of obscenities woven together into works whose elegance scarcely equals that of the average restroom wall scrawling – it is difficult to do anything but marvel at the fact that someone so unskilled has been able to achieve both fame and acclaim as a poet and college professor."

Applauding Falsehoods At A University by James Kirchick (Feb. 26, 2003)

I was present at the Amiri Baraka affair at the Afro-American Cultural Center on Monday and I must say that it was one of the most disturbing events in my entire life...

(M)idway through his diatribe he singled me out upon viewing my skeptical expression, loudly announcing that I had 'constipation of the face,' and thus required a 'brain enema.' Baraka, an avowed Communist, got a laugh from the crowd when he affectionately quoted Mao Zedong on the topic of public integrity, chanting 'No investigation, no right to speak.'

The audience loudly joined him in unison, repeating the words of a Chinese dictator responsible for the death of millions of his own people.Baraka told the audience that it is 'a pitiful thing to live in the world and not understand it,' strange words from a man who is so hopelessly deluded about reality...

(A)fter Baraka's talk, a Yale professor, who is also a Yale graduate, lamented the fact that so many students from his alma mater had just been 'applauding falsehoods at a university.' He said the Afro-American Cultural Center's encouragement of Baraka 'reinforces bias and prejudice. It is confining rather than liberating for students. It is anti-educational'."

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WHAT WE CAN DO TO PREVENT SIMILAR OUTRAGES IN THE FUTURE

Based on my experience in this controversy, I believe there are a number of steps that concerned citizens, students, faculty and alumni can take to prevent Baraka-like fiascos from happening:

1. Determine the policy of the educational institution regarding access to non-academic speeches and lectures that are being funded in whole or in part with tax dollars. A simple letter or email to the univeristy president should suffice for obtaining a definitive answer. Assuming you discover that the policy is one of openness (like U.Va.'s is supposed to be), then do the following:
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2. Identify and subscribe to all newsletters and email lists that are operated by the university and key departments that routinely sponsor speeches/lectures that are (supposed to be) open to the public.
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3. Regularly review the university's websites, particularly their "schedule of events," "calendars" and any other pages that list upcoming speeches.
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4. If you discover that a speech was held outside of public view, and without any kind of promotion, immediately contact the head of the sponsoring department, and ask to be notified of any such speeches in the future. Also, write a formal letter of complaint to the president of the university, and cc it to the head of the department. Keep copies of these letters, in case there is another breach of trust (or policy), and you need to take further action.
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5. If this becomes a persistent problem, then compile your documentation and forward it, along with a brief letter/email, to: (a) the local media, (b) your state legislators. Also, consider writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, as well as any run by the students of the university. If, as in the incendiary Khatami and Baraka speeches, you feel that another critical viewpoint was not presented, you might also request --- strongly but politely --- that the university bring in another speaker who will provide that missing viewpoint.
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6. All of the above are meant to (a) facilitate a "balanced" learning environment, and (b) remind professors, faculty, administration and support staff at tax-funded universities who they work for, and who they are accountable to: the taxpayers. In the case of the Khatami and Baraka speeches, U.Va. apparently forgot or were attempting to evade this indisputable principle. It's up to taxpayers like you and me to remind them, from time to time.

NOTE: I do not claim to be an expert in these matters --- so if any readers have more knowledge or constructive suggestions regarding the above, please email me at jonquix@hotmail.com.


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But this story wouldn't be complete without mentioning an irony of almost cosmic proportions:

The interim dean of U.Va.'s Office of African-American Affairs, Maurice Apprey --- who is quoted in the Cavalier Daily article complimenting Amiri Baraka in such glowing terms, and who presumably was helpful in organizing the Baraka lecture --- is also a U.Va. professor of psychiatric medicine, and the former Associate Dean (Diversity) of its School of Medicine!!! See his website here.

One can only assume that if Dr. Apprey were ever to evaluate Amiri Baraka's rantings and history without knowing his identity, he would likely consider submitting it to a prestigious psychiatric journal as a case study in paranoid sociopathic delusions, tinged with a hatred of white people, Jews, individual liberty and limited, consitutional government.

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Quotation Sources

(1) "Somebody Blew Up America" by Amiri Baraka
(2) Amiri Baraka Hits a New Low, Ward Connerly, The Washington Times, October 11, 2002
(3) The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones by Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones), pg. 285
(4) “For Tom Postell, Dead Black Poet” by Amiri Baraka
(5) "Black People" by Amiri Baraka
(6) "Black Dada Nihilismus" by Amiri Baraka

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© Copyright 2006 by Jon Quixote. All rights reserved. Qualified media representatives interested in publishing this item may contact jonquix@hotmail.com for information.

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