Maya Angelou’s email for the Obama campaign was great. It warranted much more coverage than it received (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Breitbart) if not only because liberals are often so snarky about ‘artists’ selling out through mass medium. And it doesn’t get any more massive than a campaign email blast. Angelou:
I am not writing to you as a black voter, or a woman voter, or as a voter who is over 70 years old and six feet tall. I am writing to you as a representative of this great country — as an American.
It is your job to vote. It is your responsibility, your right, and your privilege. You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich.
But remember this: In an election, every voice is equally powerful — don’t underestimate your vote. Voting is the great equalizer.
A parody of platitudes. They are so platitudinous that a response would be filled with just as many platitudes of its own: battleground state votes are worth much more than Red/Blue state votes; if something is considered a job but I don’t get paid for my time, doesn’t that make me a slave? – is Angelou saying that we are slaves to the system?
And if voting is the great equalizer then the various social justice movements have just been wasting their time. By pushing the vaunted vote we see just how undemocratic our system actually is. Voting should not be the highest goal of the democratic process. Becoming informed is more important and holding politicians and bureaucrats accountable equally so. But when it comes election time, when only votes matter to the candidates does voting get boosted up as such a noble thing. When and if that candidate gets elected, the other exercises of democracy aren’t all that important. Call it cherry-picking democracy.
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You should read “Tyranny of Cliches” by Jonah Goldberg. It slices and dices a ton of platitudes. Goldberg primarily focuses on the left, but mentions the right as well. (I know Goldberg isn’t popular in the alt-right segment of the blogosphere, but it’s still a good book.)
“I am not writing to you as a black voter, or a woman voter, or as a voter who is over 70 years old and six feet tall.”
But I’m going to remind you of all these things in my introductory sentence anyway.
Well, considering Ms. Angelou is the most platitudinous of all poets (so dreadfully bad that the only — the ONLY — reason anyone has heard of her is because she’s black), it does not surprise that her email is equally full of claptrap.
I got that email myself (me! an email from MAYA ANGELOU!!). It’s got loads more good stuff in it.
“My grandmother and my uncle experienced circumstances that would break your heart. When they went to vote, they were asked impossible questions like, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” When they couldn’t answer, they couldn’t vote.”
Does that not sound to you like the phoniest of phony stories?
“And since President Barack Obama’s historic election, we’ve moved forward in courageous and beautiful ways.”
See? Our ways of moving forward are “courageous” and “beautiful.” That’s what makes her a poet! A normal person would say “we’ve moved forward in tyrannical and destructive ways,” but a true Master of the Written Word knows that, in fact, it’s courageous and beautiful.
My favorite is her sign off.
“Dr. Maya Angelou”
Ha ha! I love honorary degrees. Of which Doctor Angelou has received over 30. Really, you have to admire her. She paved the way for the “articulate, well spoken black person” to game the system and receive honors far beyond anything she’s ever deserved. In this way, she is Barry Obama’s spiritual Grandmother.
Best tidbit of all: on her website, she labels herself “Maya Angelou, Global Renaissance Woman.”
Maya Angelou = anti-racist/promoting justice?
OT, but I’m surprised you haven’t yet done a post on the campaign ad telling young women to give Obama their virginity…
brian10/25/2012 at 1:05 pm
I am not writing to you as a black voter, or a woman voter, or as a voter who is over 70 years old and six feet tall.”
But I’m going to remind you of all these things in my introductory sentence anyway.”
This is exactly the point. This entire world view is saturated and overflowing with the primacy of identity and the exclusion of any other mode of thought.