Amiri Baraka frequently sends email messages to a large mailing list in response to current events and encounters. From now on these will be posted to this site, along with other news & sundries...
_________________
NOVEMBER
OCTOBER
PEOPLE HAVING ANY INFORMATION ON THE MURDER OF SHANI BARAKA & RAYSHON HOLMES, AUG 12, 2003 IN PISCATAWAY, NJ, SHD CALL LIEUTENANT GEOFF KERWIN, MIDDLESEX PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE, 732 745-4178
*
BARAKA ISSUE OF AFRICAN AMERICA REVIEW IS AVAILABLE
SEPTEMBER:
* House of Nehesi's is publishing two new titles by Amiri Baraka (w/ these two books, he is thought to be first major US author to publish in the Caribbean. Cover images/data can be seen at www.houseofnehesipublish.com ). We hope to kick off regional/US promo/mass mailings/amazon.com etc. over next two weeks.
The Essence of Reparations by Amiri Baraka
Price: US$15
Paperback, Essays/American history/Black studies, 44 pp. + xx, 5”x7.5” (2003)House of Nehesi Publishers
ISBN: 0-913441-60-0"Baraka sees the struggle for reparations not as end in itself but as part of a wider struggle for full citizenship and equal rights in a program for genuine democratic transformation in the United States. In this context he poses issues that go way beyond the challenges of reparations. One does not have to agree with his ideological framework to appreciate the timeliness and urgency of his case for reparations."
- Rupert Lewis, Professor of Political Thought, University of the West Indies
Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems by Amiri Baraka
Price: US$15
Paperback, Modern Poetry/Literature, 57 + xxvi pp.,5”x7.5” (2003)
House of Nehesi Publishers
ISBN: 0-913441-61-9"The publication of Amiri Baraka’s Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems makes one more mark in the development in modern Black radical & revolutionary cultural reconstruction."
- Kamau Brathwaite, Comparative Lit., New York University
Cover images of both titles are visible at www.houseofnehesipublish.com
* The Book of Trane
called LATER TRANE w/ AB's cover available from JOHN LEBOW
lebowbks@comcast.net
* The amazing Frederick
Douglass Douglass Creative Arts Center
is doing it again! They've put together an extraordinary Black Roots Festival
(their 31st!!!!) which will take place the weekend of September 20th and 21st.
This is just
a preview:
Festival Saturday night @ 7pm features
Amiri Baraka
Lucille Clifton
Maryse Conde
Quincy Troupe
Colson Whitehead
Kevin Young
and Sunday's
Main Event is a
DIALOGUE WITH DEREK WALCOTT and AUGUST WILSON!!!!!
And this is
not all. There's lots more going on. So if you are a lover of words, a writer,
both this is the place to come and bathe in the ocean of bliss!!! All of the
events will be taking place Uptown, at
Aaron Davis Hall
135th and Convent Avenue
for more info
on the other activities and on prices
you can call Aaron Davis Hall at 212-650-7100
or go to the Center's fabulous website
www.fdcac.org
If you don't know, The Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center has been offering up to 15 different writing classes taught by professionals in the genre 4 times a year for 31 years! Check out their upcoming workshops while you're on the site!
*
What
has happened to God's words in the Holy Book?
==================================================
Jerusalem
Post Says 'Kill Arafat'
9-11-3
http://rense.com/general41/jerusalempostsayskill.htm
The Jerusalem Post took a strong editorial stand today, calling on
Israel to kill Yasser Arafat: "The world will not help us; we must
help ourselves. We must kill as many of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad
leaders as possible, as quickly as possible, while minimizing
collateral damage, but not letting that damage stop us. And we must
kill Yasser Arafat, because the world leaves us no alternative."
The Post writes that Arafat prevented Abbas from combating terrorism,
and "the new prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, clearly will fare no
better, since he, if anything, has been trying to garner more power
for Arafat, not less." The paper then explains why expelling Arafat
would not work: "he will be as much or more of a problem when free to
travel the world than he is locked up in Ramallah," especially in
light of the fact that the U.S., Germany and France will not boycott
him. "When the breaking point arrives," the paper concludes, "there
is no point in taking half-measures. If we are going to be condemned
in any case, we might as well do it right. Arafat's death at Israel's
hands would not radicalize Arab opposition to Israel; just the
opposite... Arafat does not just stand for terror, he stands for the
refusal to make peace with Israel under any circumstances and within
any borders. In this respect, there is no distinction, beyond the
tactical, between him and Hamas."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=49615
*
7-23-03
Now is not Then.
. That is the problem, too many are "waiting" and not doing!! Still
partially duped and hypnotized by Negro intellectual versions of "the American
Dream"
The failure for those of us who were at the center of the last political upsurge
in the US which included the Afro American Cultural Revolution, to more aggressively
disseminate and distribute the teachings, the pluses and negatives of that period
is a critical vacuum in the essential continuum of revolution, and we shd make
self-criticism for that.
That is partially a failure to set up the new structures necessary NOW, and
stop rhapsodizing about what was happening "back in the day" But the
Black Liberation Movement was also, naive to class and class struggle and this
facilitated
Betrayal (by [petty bourgeois politicians, academics, soi disant activists,
& artists, )
YOumust also factor in murder of the maximum leaders of the BLM, and the failure
of the Revolutionary sector of the BLM, to regroup reorganize, particularly
the cultural wing, which allowed the cultural arts organizations and institutions
to be dismantled and covered, thus making it easier for the revisionists (Negroes
and whites) to distort history and sell a bill of bads that preached that there
was no value in the BLM, the BAM, nor even the Civil Right Movement. Though
the very Negroes and white folks who benefited most by this period of political
upsurge were recruited to deny and obscure and attack it.
We need an alternative superstructure, orgs, institutions, schools,
journals, venues, networks, while at the same time struggling to maximize democracy
within those arts-cultural forms in the mainstream that are still racist, submissive
and controlled by white supremacy and imperialism.
DuBois "Double Consciousness" must be understood to mean that we have
a double edged sword to our struggle, for Democracy in the mainstream US and
Self Determination, i.e. at the same time, to create those instruments and weapons,
orgs, institutions, to develop our Productive Forces &c we must have even
to demand equal rights and Peoples Democracy in this satanic prison
AMIRI BARAKA
Right now we need a publication, of politics, and art, issued weekly
or BI weekly that reasserts the philosophy, principles, experience and intellectual
preparation for struggle. Will you help?
AMIRI B
7-16-03
OFFICE OF NEW JERSEY & NEWARK SCHOOLS
POET LAUREATE 7/15/03
Thoughtful citizens have wondered what was behind Governor McGreevey's blind
support for the infamous Israeli Lobbyist organization, Anti-Defamation League.
The Governor and the cowardly opportunist majority of the NJ Legislature have
allowed the ADL to strong arm and dismiss the US constitution by denying New
Jersey Poet Laureate, Amiri Baraka's First Amendment Right to Free Speech. Even
more bizarre these agents of a foreign power have such influence over the state's
(and US) lawmakers that they can actually decide whether the state of New Jersey
needs a Poet Laureate or not!
But one wonders what such slavish support is based on, even more mysterious,
albeit tragic-comic, is the newspapers report of the recent "Yowsa Boss!"
given by Reginald Jackson's NJ Minister's Council in minstrel show support for
these same outrageous violations of the rights of US citizens. One wonders does
the "Faith Based Charity" extra pork chop have anything to do with
it.
One also wonders how these allegedly well informed individuals can support an
organization like the ADL, which has been at the lead of opposing all Affirmative
Action in the US for over 30 years!
Enclosed a grim record of the ADL's hidden but notoriously racist record in opposing all affirmative action legislation throughout the US.
+AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND THE INTENSIFICATION OF CONFLICT
Hill, p609 Relations Between Blacks & Jews in the US ed Adams, Bracey, U
Mass Press)l An examination of briefs amicus curiae filed in Supreme Court cases
involving affirmative action reveals the very active role of Jewish organizations
in attacking affirmative action. In 1974 in the De Funis case, where the issue
was access to higher education for minorities, briefs to the Supreme Court opposing
affirmative action came from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the
American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Jewish Rights
Council. The National Organization of Jewish Women, however, filed a brief in
support of affirmative action which was endorsed by the Commission on Social
Action of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. In 1978 in Bakke, also
an education case, among the groups which filed amici briefs against affirmative
action were the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation
League, Jewish Labor Committee, and the National Jewish Commission on Law and
Public Affairs. The two Jewish groups that had supported affirmative action
in the De Funis case did not file in Bakke.
In Weber, a 1979 case involving employment discrimination, the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith and the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public
Affairs urged the Supreme Court to decide against affirmative action. In 1980
in challenge to an Act of Congress providing a cont set-aside for minorities
in federally subsidized construction, the Anti-Defamation League joined with
employer groups and the reactionary Pacific League Foundation to argue against
affirmative action. The Anti-Defamation League also filed briefs in opposition
to affirmative action in several lower court cases and has been among the most
active of all groups in attacking affirmative action in the courts. For example,
in 1983 the ADL filed a brief against minority interest in Boston Firefighters
Union, Local 718 v. Boston Branch, NAACP; and it did so again in 1984 in the
Memphis case known as Firefighters Local
Union No. 1784 v. Stotts. This pattern of opposition to affirmative action was
to continue. In addition to filing briefs amicus, ADL has also initiated its
own litigation against affirmative action. For more than two decades, Jewish
organizations have led the attack against affirmative action a prominent Jewish
leaders, institutions, and publications have engaged in a campaign against affirmative
action characterized by misrepresentation and the exploitation of racial fears.
They have succeeded in making the term "quota," like "bussing'
a code word for resistance to demands for the elimination of prevailing patterns
of discrimination.
The pages of Commentary have been repeatedly filled with shrill denunciations
of affirmative action. Jewish neoconservatives such as Irving Kristol,* Nathan
Glazer, Norman Podhoretz*, Elliot Abrams*, and Carl Gershman, among others,
have provided the ideological basis for the civil rights retreat of the Reagan
and Bush administrations, the most reactionary administrations on civil rights
in the twentieth century. In defense of their attacks upon affirmative action,
Jewish leaders often cite the past experience of Jews as victims of discriminatory
quota systems. But no justification can be found for the continuing attack on
affirmative action by invoking the memory of discrimination against Jews in
the Czarist Empire or by elite educational institutions in the United States.
The issue is current racial discrimination and the purpose of affirmative action
is to include those groups that have long been excluded on the basis of race.
Herbert Hill 609
AMIRI BARAKA, NEW JERSEY &NEWARK SCHOOLS
POET LAUREATE
7-1-03
FROM THE DESK OF: THE NEW
JERSEY AND NEWARK SCHOOLS' POET LAUREATE
NJ LEGISLATURE VOTE TO ABOLISH NJ POET LAUREATE
POSITION IS A VOTE TO REPLACE DEMOCRACY WITH GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP, AN ATTACK
ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF US CITIZENS, AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION , AS
MOUTHPIECES FOR A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT AND CO-SIGNERS OF BUSH' NEO-FASCIST POLICIES
The vote in the NJ Legislature today (38-2) to eliminate the NJ Poet Laureate
position is confirmation of the ignorance, corruption, racism and
criminal disregard for the US Constitution.
To their credit Assemblyman, Wm Payne and Senator Donald Tucker were the sole
voices trying to up hold the poet's Constitutional First Amendment rights.
But this finally illegal vote is also a violation of Article 1, section 10(1)
of the U.S. Constitution ( that neither congress nor the states could pass Ex
Post Facto Laws, i.e., a law in the present that will make something that happened
before that subject to the contemporary statute
The vote is also an infamous confirmation of the anti-democratic , neo fascist
direction that the entire US nation has been headed since the right wing coup
that passed as the 2000 National Election that brought to ascendancy and murderous
power, a counterfeit President for an increasingly fake democracy.
This attack on the US Constitution has been led by the Israeli Lobbyist Anti
Defamation League who cite three lines of a 244 line poem as proof of the poet's
"Anti-Semitism" ("Who told 400 Israeli workers at the twin towers
to stay home that day/ Who told Sharon to stay away").
The ADL in characteristic dishonesty claims the mention of Israeli nationals
is an attack on Jews, as if they did not understand the difference between the
religion, Judaism and the reactionary nationalism of Israeli political Zionism.
But that is done to cover the fact that American Jews were left to be killed
in the World Trade Center with the rest of we Americans, because ISRAEL REGARDS
AMERICAN JEWS AS AMERICANS, FIRST, Whom the ADL and the state of Israel regard
only as sources of wealth and influence which they must not lose. Zionist Israel
sees the American people the same way, as a cash cow and political justifier
of their historic policy of ethnic cleansing of Arabs out of Palestine.
That is why it was Israeli Nationals that were warned and NOT American Jews.
The CEO (Micha Macover), of an Israeli messaging company, ODIGO, has already
admitted to being warned. (See Israeli Company Workers Were Warned Of 911 Attack
By Yuval Dror Ha'aretz Daily 12-20-2)
The 911 Twin Towers attack, as tragic as it was, has allowed the Bush regime
the opportunity and power to carry out an unprecedented dismissal of historic
allies, the United Nations, international treaties, and permitted the hideous
imperialist assaults on the Arab peoples, Islam, generally as a "Rogue
Nation" specializing in attacks at the Third World , and human rights internationally,
even flatly refusing to join the World Court., With justifications as bizarre
as to cite the reason for invading Iraq , it's failure to abide by UN resolutions
as the justification for the US dismissing UN resolutions & invading Iraq.
Bush declaration of "An Axis of Evil", turned out to be a scapegoat
of the month , supported by open lies to justify a foreign policy of slander
, violence, destruction and greed, as inhuman as Hitler's
With the names of the scapegoated leaders and nations as cheers and battlecries,
the US imperialist superpower bombs and invades Afghanistan screaming "Osama
bin Laden, Taliban (both enabled by Bush-1), Queada. Noxt with hideous reversals
of blame calling the Palestinians terrorists and, with their leader, Yasir Arafat
the main obstruction to peace for the "suicide bombing" while Israel
uses US tanks, planes, bombs, guns, destroying entire Palestinian neighborhoods.
The US sides with the Butcher Sharon, who was thrown out of office as Defense
Minister by The Israeli people , in 1984 for his responsibility in the massacres
of Palestinians in Lebanese refugee settlements. Israel has failed to recognize
a single UN resolution, refusing since 1967 to end its occupation of Gaza and
The West Bank or to stop the illegal settlements on Palestinian soil. Bush egging
the Israelis on with calls for "Regime Change"
Yet the US mouthpiece for such tyrannical violations of human rights and democracy,
the ADL, has so much influence among US and New Jersey politicians that they
can decide whether or not the state has a Poet Laureate position or not, or
for that matter, by overthrowing Cynthia McKinney and Asa Hilliard, who will
be elected as the Black Congresspersons from Atlanta and Alabama
The invasion of Iraq was forwarded by the demonization of Saddam Hussein, as
the worst dictator in the world, his failure to abide by UN resolutins, and
his possession of "Weapons of Mass Destruction:. Since Bush-1 gave those
alleged WMD's to Saddam Hussein to attack Iran, the CIA could have checked their
receipts We hear again the cry of "Regime Change", as example of Condoleeqa
Rice's description of a US "humanistic imperialism" necessary to bring
democracy to Iraq , when imperialist annexation of nations is the exact opposite..
Add the utterly fallacious search for "Weapons of Mass Destruction",
still to be found. What about the disgusting cry " Iraqi Freedom"?
The vote in the New Jersey Legislature is clear demonstration of how slavishly
reflective of the distintegration of US democracy as conducted by Bush counterfeit
presidency!
Ironically, Diimitrov's classic definition of fascism as "The naked rule
by terror by the most imperialist, jingoistic, sector of finance capital".
What Bush and company have done is Use The threat of terror as the justification
for their right wing assault on the constitution and the democratic rights of
American citizens.
So that now it is permissible for the state to disregard and violate a citizen's
lst amendment and other constitutional rights, slander and character assassinate
them if they question, or criticize a foreign power and the foreign policy of
the US super power.
This US plunge to the far right evokes the grim history of Germany's last democratic
Weimar Republic, before Hitler came to power to transform the German republic
into a fascist state. Although Hitler was head of the Nazi party, he was appointed
Chancellor legally by President Hindenburg, with more legitimacy than the Bush
Florida Coup!
But it was Terrorism, the mysterious" Reichstag fire (now universally understood
to have been set by Hitler himself) that allowed Hitler to pass the Reichstag
enablement act, much like the patriot bill and homeland security, and in the
name of eliminating the terrorist , jailed union members , communists, and later
liquidated them, including 6,000,000 Jews. 911 has allowed the same internal
citizen disorientation and fascist reorientation in Germany as inside the US
today!
Of course, I will sue. For starters, for violation of my democratic rights,
the US constitution, slander, character assassination, injury to myself and
my family, psychological assault, creating the context for possible physical
assault on myself and family. Bias crime, stopping my appearance on many campuses
thereby interfering with the right of Afro American and democratic minded students
the opportunity to judge for themselves whether the work was anti-Semitic or
not. Censorship as well as interference with my ability to make a living, and
restraint of trade. I would also like to take up the question of why the ADL
is not made to register as an agent of a foreign power.
An important factor related to our suit is news that recently ( 4/26/03 -Rense.com)
a Colorado couple successfully sued the ADL , for the same kind of attack, calling
them "anti-semitic", The ADL was defeated to the tune of $9.75 million
dollars rewarded to their victims for Slander and Wiretapping Violations!!
This obscene act of the NJ Legislature, real effect is to advertise themselves
as mindless, sub-literate stooges for foreign interests. And what does this
say about a state too backward to have a Poet Laureate?
Again and again I have asked that there be a mass forum where the poem could
be projected and the poet and whoever is upset by it go down the work, line
by line, so any anti-Semitism could be shown. But the ADL and the NJ Legislature
have refused; though I doubt 10% of these political nincompoops have even bothered
to read it.
In practical terms, what the Legislature has actually done is to guarantee
litigation against themselves, individually and as a body, the Governor, and
the ADL. It is likely to be litigation of historic significance since it will
be an attempt to
oppose and help nullify the insidious anti-democratic trend Bush has set loose
across the nation. The irony is that even this legislation cannot remove me
as Poet Laureate, since the appointment was made by the NJ Humanities Commission
and not the governor or legislature and any attempt to remove me, would be a
further confirmation of the legislature's intent to violate the constitution
and the first amendment.
Even more disgusting and dangerous is the ADL's threat a few months ago, to
have the children of West Orange wear yellow stars of the Holocaust when Newark's
children go there to play sports! Now, in an attempt to prevent my appearance
at Barringer High School (my alma mater) June 30, to give the Commencement Address,
they threatened to picket Barringer and otherwise cause disruption. In addition
there was even the straight out neo-fascist pledge to begin to remove my books
from the schools.
Can it be that the US has become the wagged dog of the Israeli Zionist tale
(sic)? The 911 enabled US invasions of Afghanistan, overt support of daily Israeli
terror against the Palestinians while calling the victims the terrorist, and
most recently the completely dishonest explanation for the invasion of Iraq,
which now has US troops, mostly young working class and poor whites, Afro American
, Latino, Asian, youth, being killed every day. in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi
Arabia, or sometimes even by Bush' Israeli confederates.
Democratic minded Americans must oppose these violations of the US Constitution
, especially the Censorship which rises in its intensity, at the same time the
campaign to privatize media in the US, by trying to remove Public radio and
television, eliminating support of the arts by public monies, forcing artists
to rely more and more on private sources, foundations, corporations.
Opposition to this vicious and dangerous Right wing campaign to censor and control
all forms of public communication, (e.g., the attack on the New York Times was
inspired by the editors' consistent exposure of Bush wackier policies) is now
fundamental to any efforts to stop the US disintegration into a neo fascist
corporate imperialist state. Actually, such organized Peoples Democratic campaign
against violations of the first amendment and the general onslaught of the Bush
junta, (Asscraft, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, Pearle, Rumsfield, &c), are at
the base of the critical need to build a US Peoples Democratic Anti-Fascist
United Front.
Since January the Office of NJ Poet Laureate, in association with Kimako's Blues
People (Amiri & Amina Baraka, Directors), Celeste Bateman Public Relations,
with help from Weequahic Park Association's publicist , Joe White , Robert McRae,
Logistics Reggie Baker, Transportation ,supported by funds from the Newark Public
Library and the Newark Board of Education, has produced a series of readings
by important poets from all over New Jersey, as well as New York, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania in the Newark Schools and Newark Public Library the last Friday
and Saturday of each month (schedule included). So despite the slander, character
assassination, media disinformation and attacks by the Governor, the ADL and
the generally ignorant or specifically devious the work of the Second New Jersey
Poet Laureate (the first Afro American …one wonders does this have something
to do with the aggressiveness of the assaults has gone on, intentionally handicapped,
but nevertheless vigorous and important, alive and well. And it will continue,
no matter the slander and the dishonest
attacks.
AMIRI BARAKA, NEW JERSEY & NEWARK SCHOOLS
POET LAUREATE
We have received several hundred letters of support and copies of letters addressed to Gov McGreevey and the NJ Legislature denouncing this attack on our first amendment rights. But with the initiation of litigation, people who want to be part of what will be a growing anti-censorship anti-violation of the lst amendment movement, contact us at AMIRIB@AOL.COM or Fax 973 242-1509
6-12-03 brief recording session with Baraka at home in Newark before he travels to Colombia. recorded to DAT "Somebody Blew Up America" and Whoosh! (After the Rain) (check the mp3)
6-10-03 mp3 file of "The Mind of the President" recorded 9-19-02 at Dodge Poetry Festival (the day before the "Somebody Blew Up America" controversy exploded) "The Mind of the President"
5-27-03 photo of Nina Simone w/Obalaji (Amina & Amiri's son)
5-23-03
The Blair scam just beneath the, yo!, quickly transparent surface is:
1. Censure and Censor of NYTimes
(& its recent Editor, & Sulzbergers, &c for being for being to the
Left Neville Chamberlain (plus Sharon the deputy thinks AHS & NYT is not
being THE NEW YORK ZIONS (
a. Article exposing U Chicago coven of Right wing Zealots and Fanatical supposedly
crypto-Zionists doped up on being Satanic Insiders plus the us schutzstauffel
(SS) Cheney, Rumsfield
As well as the ersatz disintellectual
posse (sp?) of nerdstitutes who are the deputy
homeboys of neo fascist assault on the world, who readily Agree that the great
Mythomaniacal CULTURAL IMPERIALIST aggrandizing Of Greco Roman (read historic
Imperialism) is the only cultural entity that shd exist...and are loud cheer
leaders for the US Imperialist domination of the world (a form of conversion
to "Christianity" )
Like Crouch, The Colon The Skeeza The Tom Ass &C they want it to be like "if we join the completely out to lunch correctness of hating the great majority of the people in the world, who are COLORED, they might, these great white ravenous sharks, cure us from our deep set psycho/lectual inferiority by allowing us to insert our whole ass head and selfs way up deep in they ass, so we be healthy, from brain and sense suffocation, so they wd "like " us, or at least smiling near us like that!
b. Exposure of Bush'it economic criminality,
including giveaways to Haliburton, Enron
c. Exposure of Zillions spent by Bushwacker media makeup group, e.g., the landing
on the Carrier masquerading as PILOT, Films peaking as one of the heads on the
---million "Negroes" bucks spent to tie lights to illuminate the statue
of liberty & Bush\ as a couple
d. Attack is also sharp at AFFIRMATIVE ACTION via Blair, whatever the "actuality"
of his niggardliness to THE MANAGING EDITOR, WHO IS ALSO BLACK, AND ON TO THE
EDITOR WHO EVEN THINKS "APPARENTLY" THAT THE "MASTERS" MIGHT
NEED TO... ...
{SLAVE CAINT} ENTER GREAT W/ D MASTERS, MENS OR WIMMENS. And Like the Newsweek article stated, as alarming an indication of how we are to the trap door through which Weimar Democracy plummeted into the 3rd Reich, "to diminish The Times is to strengthen the government"
5-22-03
In a message dated 5/14/2003 9:38:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time, TOS writes:
Subj:Terms of Service
Date:5/14/2003 9:38:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From:TOS
To:Amirib
Dear Member,
America Online has been notified of a Terms of Service (TOS) violation in an
AOL chat room committed by one of the screen names on your account. A written
warning has been entered in your account record along with the information below.
On 05/14/03 04:06:38 Eastern the AMIRIB screen name violated the TOS in the
Authors Lounge chat room. The following is an excerpt from the chat room discussion:
Amirib: BY SOME CYBERSKINHEADS
Amirib: YOUR MOTHER SUCKS YOU FAGGOTT CAVEBOY
When creating an AOL account, all members agree to abide by America Online`s
TOS. These guidelines prohibit vulgar language, sexually explicit images, harassment,
discussion of illegal activities, and/or other activities that may impair the
enjoyment of our members.
Please take a moment to be sure all users of this account are familiar with
Keyword: TOS. To learn more about how to protect your AOL account, we recommend
you visit Keywords: Neighborhood Watch and Parental Controls.
If you have any comments or questions, please send e-mail to TOSGeneral.
Regards,
Mark
Community Action Team
America Online, Inc.
-
In addition to the rejoinder I sent to your office's contention that somehow I am responsilble for the filth you apparently want to imply I had something to do with,
On the DAte May 14 and time
you mention, my wife and I were in Barcelona, Spain, guests of the Instituto
del Cultura, as participants in the city's INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL. WE
DID NOT RETURN TO THIS CITY UNTIL May 29 @ 22:43!
Plus a social cultural flaw in the messages reported, I am an Afro-American
Writer and Educator, the quotes are the speech of someone unfamiliar with "Black
Speech".
I am forwarding your communication to my lawyerss and significant numbers of
my colleagues and associates. Since this attempt to FURTHER character assassinate
and disorient my family and I we deem Criminal Activity!
Please inform me of any other information you obtain in this matter.
AMIRI BARAKA, NEW JERSEY
AND NEWARK SCHOOLS'
POET LAUREATE ( APR 02-APR 04 )
fin
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