Somebody Blew Up America

Amiri Bakara – Somebody Blew up America Amiri Bakara was born in Newark, New Jersey on October 7, 1934. He was born as Everett Leroi Jones. In 1952 he changed his name to Leroi Jones and in 1967 he changed it to Amiri Bakara. He lived with his parents, his father who was a postal supervisor and his mother who was a social worker. He attended Rutgers University, Colombia University and Howard University studying philosophy and religious studies. He did not obtain a degree from any of the three colleges.

Instead, he joined the United States Air Force in 1954 but was later dishonorably discharged because of the discovery of so called communist writings. After his time in the Air Force, Bakara moved to Greenwich Village and found Totem Press after becoming interested in jazz music. That same year, 1958, he met and married Hettie Cohen and together they worked as editors of Yugen, a literary magazine. The experiences had a powerful influence on his later works of poetry.

After the assassination of Malcolm X, Bakara left his wife and two children and moved to Harlem to become what he considered a black cultural nationalist. In 1966, Bakara married his second wife, who would later change her name to Amina Bakara. In 1967, Bakara joined the staff of San Francisco University as a lecturer. The following year he was arrested for illegally carrying a concealed weapon and for resisting arrest during riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In the 1970s, Bakara was criticized for several poems he had written that many claimed to have anti-Jewish undertones.

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Amiri Baraka Somebody Blew Up America

This is still a critique that Baraka deals with regarding his more recent works. In later years, Bakara’s 31-year old daughter was murdered and he was listed as one of America’s 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America (Wikipedia, 1). There is much controversy surrounding the work of Amiri Bakara. He often used violent and graphic imagery in his work that has been aimed at women, gay people, white people and Jews. Many people have taken offense to Bakara’s work and this dates back to his early career as well. Bakara aintains that he writes about black oppression, but often his work is blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic. The poem that this paper will racially review and critique is Somebody Blew up America, written about the September 11 attacks in New York City. Somebody Blew up America is one of Bakara’s poems that has caused much controversy among Americans in particular. The poem names specific names, including Trent Lott, Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas and these people are spoken against in extreme anger. Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for? Who doo doo come out the Colon’s mouth? Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza? ” (Baraka, 2001, 1). It also sites Israel as playing a part in the attacks. “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? Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion and cracking they sides at the notion” (Bakara, 1). He also cites President George W. Bush as having a role in the September 11 attacks. Who the fake president” (Bakara, 2001, 1). “My writing reflects my own growth and expansion, and at the same time the society in which I have existed throughout this confrontation. Whether it is politics, music, literature, or the origins of language, there is always a historical and time/place/condition reference that will always try to explain why I was saying both how and for what” (Bakara & Harris, preface). This is quote from Amiri Bakara when describing why he writes the things that he does.

He said this before he wrote the poem Somebody Blew up America, which shows that he has been defending his work since the beginning of his writing career. Bakara once again had to defend himself and his writing when the Anti-Defamation League spoke out against this poem and the racial and personal attacks it contained. The Anti-Defamation League felt that this poem was racially directed towards white people as well as Jews. They were unimpressed with Baraka’s choice of language when providing his examples within the poem.

Bakara, Amiri. (2002). I will not apologize, I will not resign. Retrieved on April 27, 2008 from http://www. amiribaraka. com/speech100202. html. Bakara, Amiri. (2001). Somebody blew up America. Retrieved on April 27, 2008 from http://www. amiribaraka. com/blew. html. Bakara, Amiri & Harris, William J. (1960). The Leroi Jones/Amiri Bakara Reader. New York, NY: Thunder Mountain Press. Wikipedia. (2008). Amiri Bakara. Retrieved on April 27, 2008 from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/LeRoi_Jones.