Roses are red
Violets are not
Why y’all care
‘Bout that cop I shot?
ESPN, the sports network that’s hemorrhaging viewers and purging much of its on-air talent, on Tuesday published a poetry tribute to a woman who was convicted of killing a police officer…
“Revolution” [is] dedicated to Assata Shakur, an icon among black power enthusiasts who was convicted of murdering a police officer in 1977.
Why is ESPN publishing poetry, you ask, let alone poetry that has nothing to do with sports? Why not? Here’s an excerpt:
Revolution is the impulse
that follows. It’s a relative that
wrings you ’round the elbow,
a human leash to snatch you
from dreaming. The last time
I saw revolution, she was being dragged
on her tip toes and screaming
Mmmmmm, that’s good wokeness!
ESPN has since taken down the poem, citing an “oversight in the editorial process.” Praising a cop-killer seems like a pretty big oversight. But it was an error made in the pursuit of social justice, so that editor is probably one of the people they didn’t fire this week.
Assata Shakur broke out of prison and has been hiding in Cuba for the past 30+ years, so she wouldn’t have seen the poem anyway. The cars there are all from the ’50s, and so is the Internet access. But hey, it’s the thought that counts. The cop-killer-praising thought.