Amiri Baraka stands by his words

New Jersey's poet laureate, facing a hailstorm of criticism for his fevered 9/11 poem, tells Salon that 4,000 Israelis really did stay home from the WTC that day.

By Suzy Hansen

Oct 17, 2002 | It seems that the only person who feared that Amiri Baraka might stir up controversy as New Jersey's state poet laureate was Amiri Baraka himself.

Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) warned New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey that he would "catch hell," for honoring Baraka with the title last July. The poet made good on his promise at the Geraldine R. Dodge Festival in Stanhope, N.J., on Sept. 19. Baraka read the now-notorious poem "Somebody Blew Up America," in which he suggested that 4,000 Israelis stayed home from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 because they had advance warning of the attacks. The following lines were met with boos from the crowd:

"Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed.
Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the twin towers
To stay at home that day
Why did Sharon stay away."

The controversial stanza -- one out of over 60 -- refers to the "Big Lie," a conspiracy theory that has been embraced by many people in the Arab world. Besides being widely regarded as anti-Semitic, the theory is a logistical impossibility -- 4,000 Israelis never worked at the World Trade Center in the first place.

Not surprisingly, Baraka's poem has inspired outrage around the country. Days after Baraka read the poem at the Dodge Festival, the Jewish Standard, a weekly paper in northern New Jersey, denounced the poem in an editorial. The Anti-Defamation League quickly wrote a letter to Gov. McGreevey and compiled a list of Baraka's previous anti-Semitic remarks on its Web site. Various newspapers across the country also condemned the poem, including Baraka's hometown paper, the Newark Star Ledger, which challenged Baraka on his own terms:

"Of poets one hates to be critical
But not when they're anti-Semitical
And that's why Amiri
Of whom we've grown weary
Should quit, heeding pleas non-political."

But the 67-year-old Baraka won't quit, something he made clear at an Oct. 2 press conference at the Newark Public Library. "I will not apologize and I will not resign," he said. Baraka has vigorously defended himself against accusations of anti-Semitism, calling such charges an "an insidious attempt to defame and slander me."

In his speech, Baraka also explained that "the poem's underlying theme focuses on how black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into U.S. chattel slavery. The relevance of this to Bush's call for a 'war on terrorism' is that black people feel we have always been victims of terror, governmental and general, so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who [are] asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them, in the name of a shallow 'patriotism,' in attacking the majority of people in the world, especially people of color and in the third world."

According to New Jersey law, the governor can't fire its poet laureate, a post that lasts two years and includes a $10,000 honorarium. Now McGreevey is pushing for legislation that will give him the power to do so.

It's a murky situation, especially post-Sept. 11, with a possible attack on Iraq looming. As Shai Goldstein, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League of New Jersey told Salon, and as other journalists have suggested over the past year, anti-Semitism appears to be on the rise around the world. It's no wonder that Gov. McGreevey, under much political pressure, would want to clean up the mess about the state bard as thoroughly as possible.

Two significant questions remain: Would firing Baraka amount to censorship? And why was the notorious incendiary poet and radical activist, who has faced charges of racism and anti-Semitism in the past, selected for the rather prim position of "laureate" in the first place?

Let's start with the second question. Baraka's poetry, plays and politics have often been inflammatory. Ishmael Reed, another prolific African-American writer who, despite having had some disagreements with Baraka in the past, is publishing the poet's next book, explained, "That's his school. Allen Ginsberg went on trial for 'Howl.' It's a provocative movement. This is not the first time that Baraka's been subjected to controversy. That's part of that movement. Sometimes they go off the deep end. That's theater. That's art."

Next Page: "Those who appointed him should resign"

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