by Sara Russo

New Jersey Governor James McGreevey has called for the resignation of the state's poet laureate, Amiri Baraka, a professor emeritus of Africana Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Baraka provoked outrage by delivering a poem blaming Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Bush Administration for the September 11 attacks. Despite a history of encouraging anti-Semitism and racism, Baraka has taught at many colleges and universities, and is an esteemed figure in academia.

Titled "Somebody Blew Up America," Baraka's poem spans six pages, and consists mostly of numerous questions asking "who" has committed various acts. While it is not stated outright, it is heavily implied that white Americans are at fault for the atrocities detailed in the poem, most of which are wholly unrelated to the terrorist attacks on the United States.

The most controversial and outrageous verses of the poem explicitly blame Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Jewish people for the attacks on the World Trade Center. "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 Sharon stay away?" Baraka asks.

A verse earlier in the poem also suggests an Israeli conspiracy. "Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion/And cracking they sides at the notion," Baraka writes, implying that Israelis were laughing at the attacks.

The poem insults President Bush directly. "Who made Bush president/Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying/Who talk about democracy and be lying," reads one verse, while a second asks, "Who the fake president."

Another stanza insults prominent black Republicans, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice. "Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for/Who doo doo come out the Colon's [Colin Powell] mouth/Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza/Who pay Connelly [Ward Connerly] to be a wooden negro/Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere," Baraka writes.

Other segments of the poem insinuate that white Americans are responsible for the numerous wrongs perpetrated against blacks, all over the world. "Who live on Wall Street/The first plantation/Who cut your nuts off/Who rape your ma/Who lynched your pa," asks Baraka in one of many stanzas detailing the abuse of African-Americans.

Written in deliberately poor English, the poem asks, "Who have the colonies/Who stole the most land/Who rule the world/Who say they good but only do evil/Who the biggest executioner."

Baraka's Marxist beliefs pervade the piece. He twice claims that the Rosenbergs, executed for committing treason against the United States for the Soviets, were falsely charged. "Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs," he asks. "Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt/Who murdered the Rosenbergs/And all the good people iced/tortured, assassinated, vanished."

"Somebody Blew Up America" is not the first of Baraka's poems to garner criticism for its anti-Semitism and racism. A controversial figure throughout his life, Baraka has undergone many transformations. As a young man, Baraka (formerly Leroi Jones) associated with white intellectuals of the beat generation and married a Jewish woman. Following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, he became a black nationalist, divorced his wife, left their two children, and became active in the Black Power movement. He eventually converted to Islam, remarried a black woman, changed his name, and embraced Marxism. His writings have reflected these changing facades.

In "Black Art," written in 1966, Baraka repeatedly uses degrading and violent imagery to describe Jews. "We want poems like fists beating niggers out of Jocks or dagger poems in the slimy bellies of the owner-jews," he writes.

A clause in the same piece describes, "cracking steel knuckles in a jewlady's mouth" while another exhorts, "Setting fire and death to whities ass. Look at the Liberal Spokesman for the jews clutch at his throat & puke himself into eternity."

"Atheist Jews double crossers stole our secrets….They give us to worship a dead Jew and not ourselves," Baraka writes in "The Black Man is Making New Gods."

Baraka's writings also display great hostility toward whites and Western culture. His poem "Babylon Revistited" describes "the great witch of euro-american legend who sucked the life from some unknown nigger" and exults, "May this bitch and her sisters, all of them, receive my words in all their orifices like lye….feel this s-t, bitches, feel it, now laugh your hysterical laughs while your flesh burns and your eyes peel to red mud."

Despite the racist and anti-Semitic attitudes inherent in his work, Baraka has met with overwhelming success in the academic world. He has taught at numerous prestigious universities, including Yale, Columbia, San Francisco State, George Washington, and the University of Buffalo, among others, and he is the recipient of the Langston Hughes Award from the City University of New York.

In addition, Baraka served as a professor of Africana Studies at SUNY-Stony Brook from 1979-1996, and is still on the university's roster as a professor emeritus. According to a spokesperson, Baraka taught a wide variety of courses at SUNY including "African-American Social Commentary," "Blacks in the City," "Pan-African Literature" and a number of writing courses. He served as a mentor to many graduate students, some of whom wrote their dissertations on Baraka himself, an obvious sign of his eminence at the school. Officials from SUNY-Stony Brook did not have any comment on the current controversy.

SUNY is hardly alone among academic institutions in revering Baraka. "Radical, controversial, influential, Amiri Baraka is one of the most sought-after speakers on the university and college scene," states a tribute on Howard University's official English Department web page. "Howard University is proud to call Baraka a member of the world of African-American literature and culture."

"In addition to being a prime influence on other poets and dramatists of his time, Baraka has also created an original body of work that belongs in the forefront of innovative avant-garde writing, regardless of ethnic background," states the introduction to an exhibit of Baraka's work, held at Brown University in the spring of 2000 and immortalized on the school's website.

Despite McGreevey's request that he resign his position as New Jersey's poet laureate, Baraka refuses to apologize for his incendiary poem or to step down from his post. "Everything said about Israel in the poem is easily researched," he told the press, claiming that his poem "aims to probe and disturb, but there is not any evidence of anti-Semitism."

The governor claims that he does not possess the power to forcibly rescind Baraka's title, and the $10,000 stipend that accompanies the two-year position, because a committee of arts and cultural groups appointed him. But McGreevey's ire prompted the New Jersey legislature to introduce a bill on October 7 to remove Baraka as poet laureate.

The arts and cultural groups that appointed Baraka have risen to the poet's defense, and they are not alone in their efforts. Members of the New Black Panther Party and the People's Organization for Progress recently organized a demonstration outside of the City Hall in Newark demanding that Baraka be allowed to retain his position. "We stand in support of our elder Amiri Baraka 150 percent against the Zionists," the Panthers' minister of culture, Zayid Muhammad said.