âȘ Poetry is all but dead in this generation and the last. And black nationalist poets rank somewhere from terrible (Maya Angelou) to vile deranged racism (Amiri Baraka) to pathetic nonsense (Audre Lorde) to “Does she even understand the concept of poetry or words” (Amanda Gorman)…
As far as Angelou’s politics go, they’re a whole lot worse than her poems. And that’s saying something. Compared to Baraka, Lorde, or Gorman, the best you could say about Angelou’s poems is that they’re the work of someone who would have no career if it wasn’t for race, politics, and personal associations.
Meanwhile, on the heels of Mattel issuing a Maya Angelou Barbie doll (seriously), there’s a Maya Angelou quarter:
The U.S. Mint has begun rolling out quarters which feature writer, poet and activist Maya Angelou, the first Black woman to appear on the coin. âEach time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country â what we value, and how weâve progressed as a society,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Iâm very proud that these coins celebrate the contributions of some of Americaâs most remarkable women, including Maya Angelou.â
Considering inflation under Biden, the quarter, like Angelou, is worthless.
Angelou’s anti-American politics make her unfit for this honor. This is the woman who hatefully wrote, “Of course, Castro never had called himself White, so he was O.K. from the git. Anyhow, America hated Russians, as Black people said, âWasnât no Communist country that put my grandpappa in slavery.  Wasnât no Communist lynched my papa or raped my mamma.â “
Maya Angelou appeared at Farrakhan’s Million Man March and had a long history of supporting hateful causes.
As Discover the Networks notes, “In the early 1960s, Angelou championed Fidel Castroâs rise to power in Cuba. Her first published story appeared in the Cuban periodical Revolucion. In September 1960, she was deeply moved by the sight of Castroâs exuberantly warm public embrace of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in New York, where both men were attending a United Nations session.”
In the same interview, Angelou was asked if she thought âour free-market systemâcapitalism itselfâcreates divisions and inequality,â to which she replied: âYes. Absolutely. Unfortunately, I canât find many other âismsâ that donât do the same thing.â
How better to commemorate an enemy of capitalism than to put her on a quarter? âȘ
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