![]() ![]() Who could have predicted that a black man would serve two terms as president barely 40 years after an avowed racist governor who had bellowed “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” at his own gubernatorial inauguration would go on to win five states and 20% of the presidential vote in 1968? Same goes, perhaps even more acutely, for another historically marginalized group-gays- whose fortunes have also been on a dramatic upward arc. It made me think then-and I haven’t changed my mind-that most all prejudice was due to the twin lacks of exposure and education, and that the only way out of the roadblocks they posed to continuing progress was to widen the opportunities for both.ĭespite the past few years of explosive racial turmoil, there is certainly no minimizing that blacks’ standing-politically, culturally, economically-is worlds beyond where it was when the voices cited above were holding forth a half-century ago. What white person could possibly withstand that barrage of brilliance and moral courage and hold fast to any sense of superiority or earned privilege? And of course the soaring rhetoric of MLK was ubiquitous across the media back then. I remember reading “ …Caged Bird…” as a college student shortly after it came out and wondering to myself at the time how it was possible to hold onto anything resembling overt racist views in the wake of such a powerful and assertive work.Īt the same time, in rapid succession like cluster bombs going off in my brain, works by Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Gordon Parks, Ralph Ellison. I am the dream and the hope of the slave. Let’s read it now and then wrap up with a few concluding comments so you can settle into whatever serves as a proper New Year’s Day.īringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, Having survived being raped as a child and various other assaults on her being that she chronicled in her best-selling 1969 memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Angelou fashions a beautiful statement of personal freedom out of this poem, reflecting an inner core that no one can touch unless she allows it. ![]() Of having found the wherewithal to rise up on her haunches and insist on her rightful place in this world, which her oppressors had made hapless attempts to deny. She’s taking the liberty to indulge in a little fun, taunting her would-be oppressors for their failure to dampen her spirit and then bragging to them about all the riches she has managed to bring into her life: the metaphorical oil wells, gold mines and diamonds serving as stand-ins for the true riches of self-possession and courage, independence, haughtiness and laughter. In “Still I Rise,” she rises up not only in righteous anger at the atrocities and oppression foisted upon black women over centuries, but also with substantial undertones of humor (yes, at others’ expense). ![]() Having survived being raped as a child, Angelou fashions a beautiful statement of personal freedom out of this poem, reflecting an inner core that no one can touch unless she allows it. She was a kind of James Earl Jones of the literary set, giving nothing away to him or anyone else in sheer gravitas.Īnother (related) part of her genius was rooted in a sense of presence that clearly conveyed it would be unwise to mess with her, in whatever form one was considering it. Morally serious, unafraid, measured and eloquent, her voice resounded both on the page and into microphones, making her compulsively listenable. (The poem is printed in full below.)Īngelou was a seeming force of nature over the course of her 50+ year career as a memoirist, essayist, poet and civil rights activist. We know this because she described these mighty assets in her 1978 volume from Random House, “And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems,” one selection simply dropping the “And” to make “Still I Rise” the near-title poem in the collection. (No word on whether they came from a diamond mine in her bedroom…) ![]() Before she died in 2014, Maya Angelou had for decades enjoyed oil wells pumping in her living room, gold mines spewing riches in her backyard, and for a nice sexy touch, she appeared to keep diamonds at the meeting of her thighs. ![]()
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