Black poet Nikki Giovanni addressees a group of college students at the University of Minnesota on the subject of the violence in Los Angeles after the verdict of the Rodney King case.
Transcript:
(00:00:00) Some of us in this room are young. I have never ever in this life Envy young people. I don't now I never thought that it was a good thing to be young. It was the process by which we grew to be old. It is too hard. We had juice we're going to juice that Minerva popped out of his head. Nobody like that juice didn't like it. Minerva didn't like it we decided no we have to get him here another way. So we do it. No, we had to figure out human, right? Yeah sure so you come out a little and we keep growing
(00:00:27) you. That's the way it goes
(00:00:30) you who are young will spend most of your life being old. I'm going to recommend old. I think it's wonderful. I think one of the great periods in life is middle-aged someplace between I will soon be 49. I remember my life starting to make sense someplace around 35. I really like 35 I recommend it. I do it's a wonderful age. You can talk to your kids your parents understand your leave you alone. You have friends that you actually like I'm in a lot of things happen because up until then you're not sure
(00:01:00) but for those of you who are young, I just want to say but maybe nobody's saying to you. We're not giving you a good world. I'm sorry if I can give you a good world. I would I'm sure if your parents could give you a good World. They
(00:01:15) would if we could all do like Dorothy and Flip out heels three times. We would anything that we could do to make it easy for you.
(00:01:23) We would do that. But I would point out to those of you who are young. We have made it easier my generation at Great expense to itself. I might point out and I'm talking financial and talk and emotional
(00:01:35) my generation of the 60s black and white youngsters decided to break down these
(00:01:40) yours segregation in this country and it was good.
(00:01:42) I know a lot of people laugh about my generation they will tell you all you did was get a cup of coffee. It was one more cup of coffee. coffee then you could get So I'm going to take the cup of coffee, but we did a little bit more than that. I
(00:01:53) think we as a favor as a gift to White America.
(00:01:59) We released you from the necessity to hate. The rest of it is up to you. We forgave you for all of the foolishness and you have been too dumb to accept that forgiveness. You have assumed that somehow we lie. We didn't really mean it and we're just waiting. We're just going to get you I don't think so.
(00:02:17) I think that we forgave you and I think that we forgave ourselves and I think that what my generation proved with that was that human beings are capable of giving
(00:02:27) forgiveness what your generation has
(00:02:29) to prove is that human beings are capable of accepting it
(00:02:34) it will be the hardest thing that you do all of us in this room are old enough to know that it's always easier to
(00:02:41) give a gift than to take one. But you're going to have to learn to give to take one. You're going to have to learn to accept all that has gone. For and to say but we must put that aside this is not for us. It's for you. You have a future and that future cannot be what we
(00:02:58) saw on the video. It cannot be David Duke or Pat Buchanan we came
(00:03:03) together because we are afraid of being apart
(00:03:07) cities grew up the word civilization as you well know comes
(00:03:12) from cities cities did not come from civilization. We came together because we are a lonely. And I daresay vulnerable species.
(00:03:22) It is a sad thing to be a human being like any termite. If you for those of you who run termite experiments if you have your little termite and you know that for those of you in signs you get your one little termite is stupid ugly thing. You've seen it.
(00:03:36) I hate termites like all homeowners. I hate them
(00:03:40) but you put your little termite in a jar and it's confused. It'll run around for a while and eventually becomes
(00:03:45) depressing it will in fact die because it's all alone. You put two termites in the jar and you have a community and they mate and they build we are like that
(00:03:57) there are some myth going on about the loan sort of human being on his horse. You know, that whole come back shame that oh, you know that whole cowboy. I'm riding out into the sunset that whole John Wayne crap. It's a lie you and I come together because we need each other. It's so basic what is wrong with admitting that if you could talk to a mother be or worker bee or any other little bees if you could stop them and say why did you do that? And it's because I'm lonely I want to be with these why do we have to lie? Like we don't want to be together. We want to be together. We build malls. We build big universities. We do we want to be together what's wrong with it? What's wrong with men and women admitting that we like each other what's wrong with black and white people admitting that we do in fact exist together, we may as well be friends. What's wrong with Ariana's and occidental's coming together? What's wrong with the human heart saying I am in need we are there's an old gospel song and I've always loved it and said,
(00:05:00) it's me, it's me, it's me O Lord standing in the need of prayer. What I remember and being in church, always wondering what does it mean teach me to pray it has to be a communal because the Bible and I'm this is not Nikki's. biblical expressions But the Bible says Make a Joyful Noise. Why would you do that? If you are philosophy major and I was then the question came up does a tree make a noise when it falls in the woods with no one around. So if you just look at that all together, which people like me do I start to wonder? What does it mean? I think a tree makes a noise because I think there's always something to hear it. We don't always know what we hear. Sometimes. We think we hear bitterness and anger and what we are hearing is a cry for help.
(00:06:01) Sometimes we hear
(00:06:02) words that say, I love you and what we are hearing is how can a new be of use to me.
(00:06:09) Sometimes we hear words that say, why don't we come together and what they mean is why don't you
(00:06:14) understand what I'm saying? We have to learn to hear with our hearts as well as with our ears. We have to learn how would I talk under these circumstances all words do not come from here. A lot of them come from the body language that we have. I do know this civilization is important to me. I do know that I like planet Earth. I think it's an interesting thing one of the things I hope I do before I'm way too. To know that I'm doing it. So I would like to go into space when Reagan was President. Remember when Ricans president I used to run into his men all the time and I kept saying to them. When are you going to put me on a shuttle and they sell Nikki, you know, we can't let you go. I said I kill you if you send John Denver.
(00:07:02) No, they had Denver lined up. And I know we're not sending any bad music writer in the in the space. We need a poet. Why do we do we do? Thank you. Why do we need a poet and specifically this
(00:07:15) poet? Because the only person on Earth who has consistently believed in human life and its possibilities if I may say this chauvinistic Lee is the black woman
(00:07:27) the only person that's true. Thank you. That is true. The only person who has refused to close her heart
(00:07:35) to human life has been the black woman. It is an honorable history that I represent. I do know that if there would be other life in space because there's no question of life in space. We're in space. We know that life is there the question is other life. It would
(00:07:49) take somebody like me to
(00:07:51) see it. Now my mother drinks beer and I would not go she does. I would not go beyond the forces of gravity without taking a Pabst Blue
(00:08:01) Ribbon. I would have to do that because my mother will never go into space and I would not go without remembering my mother so I would have to go and I would pop with beer now physics tells me there's no sound in space, but I'm forced to
(00:08:15) reject that.
(00:08:16) I simply cannot believe that I would pop up apps and nobody would hear it. No, somebody would and somebody's bound to come to my shuttlecraft and say what you got. And I have course because I smoked would light a
(00:08:33) cigarette. And I would say I have a beer care to join me. What is a beer?
(00:08:44) That would be communication. You see what I'm saying?
(00:08:49) We can't keep sending the same people
(00:08:52) because these people are no fun. We have to do something different I do this is an aside. I do resent alien 1 2 and 3. I do I resent that I don't know what makes Earth think anything is trying to hurt us. We do enough
(00:09:15) damage to ourselves
(00:09:17) anybody looking at us. We don't have to bother they're killing themselves. No. I would do that. I would go into space. I like Star Trek for just that
(00:09:26) reason I sat and watched the other night again, and I will watch it yet again the the search for peace. It was wonderful because I like you who are for those of you who do pop culture. I love what they did with you her because you're her is the voice not of the Enterprise in fact, but of the Federation the first voice that anybody hears from the Federation, which is all the Of the yellow sun is the voice of a black woman and I think that's so right when you hear a
(00:09:59) sugar is anybody out there the entire universe answers? Yes. I can't imagine another voice we could put as our communications director that would always get a positive response. This is not against those of us who are not black actually, what's nice about being black as you can join me. All you have to do is wake up one morning and say hell, I'm going to be black too. And that's it. Nobody would challenge you people say gosh, you really don't look like and you just look at him. So well, I am and I send of it. That's what I like about Black Americans what I don't like about African-American to be an African-American as a whole. Another thing to be a black American is a decision. It would be good if white Americans would make that same decision that you just wake up in the morning everybody. Well, I'm white and okay. You're right. Well, gosh, I didn't know white people came that dark. Yeah, they do any go on. None of us chose our race. I've always been amazed at things like that. None of us chose. Our
(00:10:55) race our parents made that determination
(00:10:58) and have anything to do with us. Most of our parents weren't even interested in us. They were doing something else and we came along it's true. We hate to admit it, but it's true. None of us chose our gender. So there's no point in being proud of being a man of being a woman. He had nothing to do with it. You came out you lived we look there you are.
(00:11:20) What we are proud of our never the tangibles, it's the intangibles that make human beings worthwhile
(00:11:29) it is whether or not we are stand-up people it's whether or not we can be dependent upon it is the intangibles that make human beings.
(00:11:36) Wonderful. I do like, of course. Luke Colonel Spock, what is Fox Spock? Mr. Spock? I like Spock because he respects everything from the harder which is a creature who moves through
(00:11:53) silicon and it made such sense Spock
(00:11:55) is going to be the one to talk to her. They're killing the babies. I like spot because fox looks at and says Captain I think it wants to talk. I love that. Because you and I would look at people who walk upright as do we and not know that perhaps we need to talk. I think it'll be a wonderful thing one
(00:12:15) day when some other life form
(00:12:16) does indeed decide to come to Earth
(00:12:19) because if we know nothing else about
(00:12:20) earthlings, we know that earthlings are a very fragile scared group the minute we can bring
(00:12:28) something with scales or something with three heads or something just totally different purple polka dot from what we are.
(00:12:36) We who are under the province of the yellow sun. Well, then pull together. It's sort of you know, like any other tragedy. I don't know if you keep up with tragedies I do because they always interest me. I shouldn't my sisters in the murder to so you can see something about the
(00:12:51) family. No, I like a tragedy because the minute we have when you get a flood going you here on the Mississippi you get your basic flood going all of a sudden. We don't have a race problem. We don't have a gender problem. We don't have an age problem. We have a problem with water and everybody's trying to stop it from coming at us. We have plane crashes and we've seen them all over. I'm a member of Delta Sigma Theta several years ago. We had our regional we had our national in Dallas and it for those of you who keep up with plane crashes, which I do, you know the delta Airlines went down at the VFW the Junior League of Dallas and if a bunch of white women had never won my heart
(00:13:30) those did the
(00:13:31) Junior League of Dallas came out and man. The phones were my sorority. They called people to say this person is okay. They called families to say I think you better come to Dallas Governor white came out. But the Junior League was the first on the line. These were women that wouldn't speak to us. These were women that had no time for black women who thought all black women should be their servants and yet
(00:13:54) when that flight went down they came to say, how can we help my question to the Junior League was and it is
(00:14:01) why do we have to wait on a tragedy? Why are we going to have to wait till something horrible happens in Minnesota before you and I decide we can come together. Why do we have to wait on hurricanes? Why do we have to wait always on something ugly to make us be beautiful. I am simply here to suggest this evening civilization requires that we be beautiful without a reason. We don't have to have an excuse to say good morning. How are you? I do indeed wish you well because actually it doesn't matter. Most of us don't care about each other. I'm not standing here trying to require that you do. I'm trying to say that in your bead - can't it be pleasant
(00:14:42) because you don't
(00:14:43) care anyway, not you right. Are you black as we don't care most of us are involved in our own lives? Why do we spend our time? Gossiping about each other. I live in a small town. Everybody knows who's sleeping with everybody and it always take those me because it's all I can keep up with us who I'm sleeping with. It really is. I have a very dull sex life because I'm old now, but you hear people sitting around not menopausal man, but you hear people sitting around discussing it as if they had some steak in
(00:15:13) it.
(00:15:17) Really, you know she's going with her he's going with him and she's got you think well, who are you upset
(00:15:23) about? I'm tired of homophobia
(00:15:28) because it has nothing to do with us. I'm tired of it. Either you're sleeping with her or are you not either you're sleeping with him? Are you not and if you're not what do you care whether or not he is I'm tired of it. We approach it as if somehow another there is a finite amount of sex and if somebody else uses it up, I won't get mind. I don't think
(00:15:47) so.
(00:15:53) No, it's crazy. I'm sure you feel it's crazy and you end up spending your time worried about something that not only is none of your
(00:16:03) business, but that you don't really care about
(00:16:07) I watch those women and that was kind of sad
(00:16:09) the women make me sad the men make me angry
(00:16:12) running around talking about
(00:16:13) abortion. So I'm not pregnant. I like to point out the realities. I'm not pregnant if I were it would be nobody's business but mine and the gentleman involved in the pregnancy and if I were mean it could be nobody's business but mine because I'm the only person who sure about this situation
(00:16:39) I need as true.
(00:16:42) I need a friend. I need a friend if I am going to have a baby. I need a friend. If I'm going to have an abortion. I am really tired of people treating abortion as if it were a day at the mall or going to the movies is if this
(00:16:56) is some casual decision that women decide huh? Hey girl, I have been pregnant a couple of months. I beg your friends I can give me another Bush knows what is wrong with people? These are difficult decisions. Women don't wake up in the morning saying I think I'll go out
(00:17:10) and defeat a fetus. I don't think so. When did human female become an enemy? Of human infants let alone human fetus we are
(00:17:20) not. I resent it.
(00:17:26) I resent it. I resent men trying to act like they they in fact are really concerned about life those same people that were beating somebody's child or running around saying to somebody who looks like Rodney King. You have to have a baby. No, come on. Now. Somebody said conservatives believe that life starts at conception and ends at Birth. It made sense to me it made sense to me. No, because it's not right. These are none of our decisions the woman who's pregnant has a
(00:17:58) decision can't we be a friend and ask that woman and that's a young woman because we older women don't get pregnant can't we be a friend and ask her, how can we help? It's a simple question. It's a civilized question. It's a proper way to go about it. How may I help you? If she needed advice, then she can ask for it. She doesn't need advice. She didn't need help. She needs a friend. She did a friendly thing to some man he needs to do a friendly thing with her ask how you can help. It's so basic. Being alive because all of us and I have said we don't care and in a general sense, I do believe that we don't but on an individual sense can't we be friends can't we try to find out how we can be of service to each other every Wednesday I go to a retirement home. It is the joy of my life. It is probably the single thing that keeps me in, Blacksburg, Virginia. Because it's one of the things that I love so much I have a Writers Workshop. I've been with them for five years. My oldest writer is 98 years old. My youngest writer is 76. They Delight me. I will not make any they Delight me. I watch people deal with older people and they will say things like, you know, gosh it's really a shame that grandmother great grandmother is getting so old and I'm saying why I think it's a wonderful thing to be old. Well, she doesn't hear well, well, you don't you can hear but you don't listen.
(00:19:49) She can't get around. You know,
(00:19:51) I've said to my son and I tease him about this and I trust that he's teasing me maybe not
(00:19:55) but I say Thomas when I get old, you know, and I do I want him to
(00:19:58) live a long time because I would like to live at least, you know until a hundred I come from a long line of livers say Thomas be careful who you marry
(00:20:06) because I'll be stuck with her. He said you won't be stuck with any but that's true. I'll say this for all mothers for you son's out there. We're the ones have to
(00:20:13) live with your
(00:20:13) choices because you get tired of and you go on and we're stuck at home with him. He said no. Put you in an old folks home. You won't have to wear I said, oh no
(00:20:21) Thomas. I'm going to live with you
(00:20:25) I am. Because I don't see the difference. I don't know why you're even thinking otherwise when you
(00:20:33) were bald and Toothless couldn't
(00:20:37) talk couldn't hear didn't understand what was going on couldn't hold your head up could not control your feces your deformation or your urine.
(00:20:48) I thought and my friends thought that you were cute.
(00:20:52) We wiped you up. We bathed you. We went kitchy-kitchy-koo we fed you. We talked to you like you had sense. And when I get to be a hundred years old and I am dripping and I can't hear anything and I can't hold my head or control my bodily functions. I expect to be wiped and kissed and gone kitchy-kitchy-koo to because there is no difference. The only difference
(00:21:16) is and I say this to all of you when you see a baby you see what you used to be and you think it's cute because that's the future and when you see an old person what you're afraid of is that that's what you'll look like one day and what you see are the superficiality is not the person behind and you ought to get over that I will submit to this audience if nobody said it to you recently you will die. You were born and you will die. I have a friend in this audience. Oohs and the health and I tease her about it a lot because I don't care how healthy you are. I don't care how thin you are. I don't care. How many miles you jog? I don't care if you smoke or don't don't care. What you do. You will die.
(00:22:00) I would suggest that murder is not a good idea because people will die. Anyway, it always tickles me the people do something now. They kill you like, huh? I got her like you would live forever. No damage. You're gonna die. You will die. Nobody has to kill you. Nobody has to do anything because if you live long enough you're getting out of here one
(00:22:18) day. A part of what we do. A part of what the human species does is we recreate ourselves just as we celebrate the birth your generation. I give you your second challenge of the evening your generation must learn to accept the death. It cannot be escaped. I am not urging you to it. I would like for you to take care of yourself. I just said I would like my son to live. I'm sure your parents feel the same way. You will die. I would point out that you had nothing at all to do with your birth. You are the beneficiary of a number of things, but you had nothing to do with it. You couldn't choose it had nothing to do with it. If you put enough time in it, you will have nothing to do with your death. It will happen if it's accidental. I'm sorry if it's old age. It's okay, but it will happen what you have something to do with is that are in between this thing in between your birth and your death that is your life. This is a precious thing. It is a miracle and it is a gift it is not necessarily a gift that your parents gave you even they are just the recipients of that. That it is a gift and it is like any gift to be used for the betterment of something. We will never make life. So easy on Earth. That we will avoid the reality of our deaths. We will never find a human being
(00:23:50) whose life can be so
(00:23:51) wonderful that there will never be paying her sorrow it all sort of goes together without the rain. You don't get the flowers if I want to go to cliches. I'm trying to say to you as we are contemplating our world, isn't it? A wonderful thing to be a human being this is not something we're ever going to understand. It's something we will continue to pursue and I like Puri, I don't have a problem with that. I am interested in DNA and how we learn things but we will not know life. It is not given if I've learned anything. I have one child and it was sufficient but the pain of birth is so overwhelming know we always act like birth is one of the hurts the
(00:24:33) pain of birth is so
(00:24:34) overwhelming that that period from non-life to life. None of us remembers pain is an important part of life. I would not seek it. Do not recommend it but I know that there are pains that we must feel your generation must shared the idea that you can go through your life without pain. Whatever it is that human beings are we have to have an emotional commitment to the species
(00:25:01) not to Minnesota not to the United States not to the North American continent not
(00:25:07) to Europe not to Asia Africa to this to the whole kitten caboodle. It makes me sad and I'm not an animal rights. I'm standing here. I've got leather on I've got a lot of things it's not that but it does make me sad to watch us destroy things like the elephant because we're destroying their home, but then I run around in my car with little electronic things to kind of push the deer away. I don't want to hear the dear. I don't want to hit a possum. I have a
(00:25:33) possum that's in my yard. She's really sweet and
(00:25:36) I've got an infection for the possum. I live in the country and she said baby. She has five little baby. She's in my front yard, and I've got
(00:25:43) He
(00:25:43) doesn't live up the street. So I've been talking to him don't hurt my possum because teenage boys, you know, 13 years old. They throw things all the time. That's silly leave my possum alone. I have no reverence for life. I eat meat I wear it, but I think if there's no particular reason can't I leave it alone. I have to challenge myself on that because I'm not a hundred percent. I'm not trying to stand here and say I'm wonderful and perfect I'm saying I go with what I believe and what I actually have to do this to me is all I can ask of myself. I know I can do better and I know I try I'm a writer so I get to write about these things. I know that you also will have to struggle and never be able to fulfill their ambition never be able to see the dream because that's what it means to be a human being
(00:26:42) you will never if you have been able to fulfill what you want. Something was wrong with what you were seeking when we look at the yippee either. Yuppies are whatever they're called in the 80s. They all wanted to be rich what a pitiful excuse. I mean any school they went to and I stood in said I wouldn't mind being a millionaire but that's not an object it that's no real kind of goal. That's foolish those sick and all of them. We want to be millionaires. Well, they are there is such a thing called the Midas touch and if we read literature, may I speak for literature Mastery through Reading remember? It's something you did words were on a paper and you read I'm sure you've heard about it.
(00:27:27) Nobody reads anymore, and
(00:27:29) we should but it reminds you of the Midas
(00:27:32) touch. You have to be very very careful. What you ask for. Are you might get it? I think that it's fascinating to be a human being. I really do like it. I like being alive. I recommend that totally I think it's interesting. I know that it's all a risk. I know that nobody is or can be safe. I know that most of what we as human beings do we do in a belief that it has made most things better. I want to urge you to hold onto that. You are a part of a community of educated human beings. This is not to say those of us who don't go to college or Not educated. It's just a A in reality that you are special you are having an opportunity to utilize our to know about all of the knowledge that we have. We study the Golden Ages. We study the Greeks we study the Romans we study in fact earlier literature's and of England the lay Age of Enlightenment. We study the French or whatever. And we always praising these ages and we're always saying
(00:28:46) isn't it? Wonderful. Look at what they
(00:28:48) did but your generation those of you who are young? Your generation has the accumulative knowledge of all of it. How can we be less? How can we be less than the possible when everything that you need is there for you? You may
(00:29:07) say well I don't have time but you're not
(00:29:09) busy you do have time. You do have time to read a book because we've given you time
(00:29:15) on the only times that people have
(00:29:19) are either college or prison. You're in college. I I commend College over prison all day long.
(00:29:25) I will but that's the only other time we have a free free floating experience. I'm going to recommend that you try to take a class that you know, you can't pass because nobody wins all the time. I've gotten such tired of that
(00:29:36) whole wind mentality. Nobody can win all the time.
(00:29:40) Nobody can make all A's I worry sometimes about the kids who have the Four Points because one day they won't make an aid
(00:29:48) and they'll either shoot themselves or they'll shoot us. No, Buddy should grow up thinking they should be perfect but they should grow up knowing is that we as a community of human beings wish you well, we wish you the best. We hope that you can actualize something that will bring joy to you. It is good to be alive. It is a wonderful sort of marvelous gift that we have you must use your life in service of life. You must use the gifts that you have the Special talents whatever it is to make it better to be on this Earth. The one thing you are not allowed to do you're not allowed to ignore the agony around you you're not allowed to stand around and pretend that the homeless are making decisions about sleeping in the street.
(00:30:39) You're not allowed to sit around and say that obviously, you
(00:30:42) know, it's okay that we don't have adequate medical insurance. I live in Southwest. We don't people don't see doctors. They die people get pneumonia and they died kids get measles and they die. We don't have enough doctors. I know that we could do better but I'm not here to harangue you on that. I'm just here to remind you that you must see that which is in front of you and not only to look at it. But to internalize it is good to be a human being but you must actualize yourself because everything that has gone before you is known it is never the known that we seek. It is the unknown your unknown. Is very futuristic. You are the Watchman at the gate every now and then there is a generation and I'm sure you're aware of it that has the responsibility of being a watershed generation. We in the 60s were sort of a watershed but you and the 90s. You are taking us into the next Century. Some of you are afraid some of you are unsure. Some of you don't know. It's all right, what you have to do is believe that there is a future and that you must be a part of it that we must go forward. You are a lot better than you think you are. You have a lot more to give than you think you do and you can't let those of us who are afraid of change who are afraid of difference. You can't let us stop your Isn't there something emotionally that we are looking for if we can shed the fear of finding it we can open ourselves to a new possibility. I think it must be fascinating to be young to be on the brink of a discovery Alexander. Did it and Alexander said and I like Alexander because he had the sense to carry a philosopher around with him and he sat around and he said I have reached the edge. He said of the world. But what he meant was the known world it was not the world and I submit this evening that as we as a species go forward. We recognize that we have not even tapped into the limits of possibilities. We're only on the brink of some great and I would like to think wonderful change. We are counting on you because we are doing our best our job as the previous generation is to keep shouldering it and I think we're good soldiers keep pushing and to keep reminding you that it is a wonderful thing this Earth and when we talk of conserving it, we know that you don't save anything by putting it away. You save something by opening it up. It is good to be alive. I'd like to think it is good to be a human being. I like to think that we are going to make it.