Ode To Cho - Virginia Tech’s Nikki Giovanni’s Poem
NIKKI Giovanni, of Virginia Tech English Department, has written a poem.
Ms Giovanni is no angst-ridden teenage student. She is a University Distinguished Professor in literature and black studies. Does her poem capture the mood?
This is her poem:
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
Just to remind you - Cho Seung-Hui was not a boulder but something that passed for a human being who picked up guns and murdered 32 people.
Is it fitting to speaking of Cho as Aids, a rogue army, a poacher, a terrorist bomber and drought?
Posted: 21st, April 2007 | In: Twitterings Comments (6) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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November 12th, 2008 at 12:42 am
this is good but sad at the same time
even do i like it it depreses me knowing on what we live today
this is the sad true but we the people that are out of the game
dont know what to do…..
if we stay silence our friend/family will die
or if we talk they will kill us!!
April 29th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
ALI G -Booyakasha, chek i’ out. I is here wif my main man, Nikki G, my bro from Staines. How is you become poet?
NIKKI G- We’re communicators, it’s in our blood.
ALI G: Blood, West Side. Now sis, you, I mean, sorry you is my bro now, you is get some edumacation. You went to America, right?
NIKKI G: I went to Fisk.
ALI G: Tell me about how you is expelled for crack…
NIKKI G: It wasn’t for smoking crack. I started at Fisk in 1960, was soon expelled, and later returned and graduated in 1968. I did enroll and quickly drop out of two graduate schools after that but I did complete that one degree, my bachelor’s degree.
ALI G: Wha’eve. You is still my main man. Now you has Tupac Shukar tattoo, right? Can I see that?
NIKKI G: Yes, I have said I would rather be with the street thugs than with the ones who complain about them.
ALI G: Now is you believe Tupac’s criminal record make him a better rap artist?
NIKKI G: Well, I don’t know about that, but…
ALI G: I like that poem you wrote about nigger can you kill, can you stab a jew, and you draw blood, can you kill a honkie. Ain’t that a rap!
NIKKI G: You’re talking about my poem “The True Import Of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro.” I wrote that a long time ago.
ALI G: But can’t you make a rap out of that? You is get the whole crowd to stand up at Virginia Tech with that one.
NIKKI G: No, that was my new poem We Are Virginia Tech.
ALI G: Wha’eve. That was my one an’ only main man, Nikki G, my big bro and big time poet, big shout out for Nikki G from VT.
April 29th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
It is intellectuals like Giovanni who are the creators of all the “Chos” in the world. Cho was not mentally ill, he was ideologically trained and justified by such as Giovanni. Her poem attempts to deflect the blame from herself.
Frankentstein’s monster had the good sense to turn on it’s master. Cho, not so much.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
We must educate ourselves about mental illness. Please visit the Mental Health Association of Maryland’s site, http://www.mhamd.org.
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 am
I applaud Professor Giovanni for her courage in the wake of one national tragedy. If we can give a name to “acts of God” tragedies…then the devastation caused by any human also bears remembering. You are probably very comfortable saying “9-eleven”, or “Columbine”, as you are saying “Katrina”. When you have stood bravely in the face of personal tragedy, then and only then, will you glean an understanding of another’s sorrow. Until such time…well, I suggest you think before you write (share) your opinion. Thanks for the platform.
April 21st, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Me personally i dont think it is cause we are all humans but he was a human with mental issues and other stuff!!!!
Yes he was most definitely wrong for what he did and now he’s paying for it in the lake of fire !!!!!!!!!
So everyone mite as well celebrate the GREAT lives of his victims!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!