“Well, it was fine with me, 'cause you don't want to be black, you don't have to be.” - Nikki Giovanni

The other night I was watching Nikki Giovanni being interviewed by Bill Moyers of Bill Moyers Journal. She was actually being interviewed about her new book Bicycles, and during the interview many topics came up. The two quotes below were made by Ms. Giovanni during the course of the interview that certainly made me think and I hope they will make you think as well. I’d love to hear your thoughts on her comments below. Feel free to comment.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. was about justice for the world. Martin would be happy, I'm sure. And, I don't want to speak for Martin, I don't want you to misunderstand. But he would be happy that the United States had elected a fine young man. But he would still weep for the genocide that we're finding all over Africa. He would weep for the children dying of malaria. He wanted a just earth. His vision was way beyond an American president.” Nikki Giovanni

“We have to recognize that when we look at a Barack Obama, we are looking at a man of color. If we just go back even ten years, when we looked at Tiger Woods, maybe 15, I forget how long Tiger Woods has been around, I remember Tiger Woods having that discussion, "I'm not really black." Well, it was fine with me, 'cause you don't want to be black, you don't have to be. Nikki Giovanni