Nikki Giovanni is perhaps our greatest living African-American poet and a well-respected voice when it comes to issues of race in America. Thoughtful and provocative, Giovanni's words command attention and respect from anyone who listens to her.
And she does not care for Bill Cosby.
At the Miami International Book Fair in 2007, Giovanni was onstage to do a poetry reading when she got sidetracked talking about Cosby. She set the tone for her comments by leading with “Will somebody please hospitalize Bill Cosby?”
From there, she discussed her serious problem with Cosby’s argument that the problems of black communities within the United States were caused chiefly by African-Americans themselves. Giovanni completely slammed this idea, offering this denouncement of the comedian:
“We ate that Jell-O and that mighty fine pudding, whatever he was doing with that. We would go in to have our pictures made and demand Kodak paper to try to help that Negro out and then he’s going to turn around and tell me I’m a bad mother? Uh uh, I’m not buying that. He’s going to tell me that I’ve done something wrong because I’ve tried to give my kid what every other kid has? Because I’ve tried to do the very best that I can do?”
As for Cosby’s problem with sagging pants? Giovanni then went in on what we now know to be the myriad allegation of sexual misconduct leveled against him:
“He’s mad because they drop their drawers? He’s mad because he has to look at [their] cracks? It’s not the only cracks he’s mad at looking at because he’s looked at a whole lotta other ones…[hasn't] he? I’m not the one with a whole bunch of illegitimate children.”
While it has taken the rest of America a little time to catch up to Giovanni’s thinking, more people are adopting her opinion every day.
[via The Grio]
