Whose Ox Does Hate Speech Gore?

At the Virginia Tech memorial meeting, Nikki Giovanni, a poetess in residence who is also a "University Distinguished Professor," was asked to speak. She also claims to have spotted the killer (may his name be blotted out) in her classes.

Steve Sailer points out she authored this gem:

Ni**er
Can you kill
Can you kill
Can a ni**er kill
Can a ni**er kill a honkie
Can a ni**er kill the Man
Can you kill ni**er
Huh? Ni**er can you
kill
Do you know how to draw blood
Can you poison
Can you stab-a-Jew
Can you kill huh? Ni**er
Can you kill
Can you run a protestant down with your
‘68 El Dorado
(that’s all they’re good for anyway)
Can you kill
Can you piss on a blond head
Can you cut it off
Can you kill
A ni**er can die
We ain’t got to prove we can die
We got to prove we can kill

Wikipedia says of her,

She has a tattoo with the words "Thug life" to honor Tupac Shakur, whom she admired. Her book Love Poems (1997) was written in memory of him, and she has stated that she would "rather be with the thugs than the people who are complaining about them." She also tours nationwide and frequently speaks out against hate-motivated violence.

Giovanni's self-presentation on the English Department website goes like this:

The recognition of Middle Passage as our porthole to prolonged space travel is a unique way to understand both slavery and space which I explore in Quilting the Black Eyed Pea. These two apparent opposites, our shameful past and the possibility of water and atmosphere on a distant star, must combine to make not just poetry but a better theory of life. My primary interest is the evolution of Black America and the impact of that evolving upon Earth. Rhythm and Blues was born from a fusion of gospel and jazz. Fusions continue in many other aspects of the Black experience whether it is food, clothing, painting, movies or any other art. We even Rock the Vote these days. Charles Darwin went in search of The Origins of the Species. Much of his work has been used against him and the rest of us. I am in search of Darwin by land and sea to put together my theory of luck and happenstance. If luck and happenstance are factors, then responsibility has to change. My primary interest is in learning something new.

I'm not making any of this up. I couldn't if I tried. And no, I haven't studied her entire oeuvre.

The VTech English Department is a strange mixture of post-modern cant, focus on racial and "gender" issues, and fairly traditional studies of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and poets like John Donne. There's certainly a lot of goofy stuff there. And a lot of what one expected in an English Department when I was young, back in the day.