10018: Cake And Cultural Cluelessness.

From NewsRescue…

Sweden Cultural Minister eats “Nigger Cake”

DailyMail—Sweden’s culture minister today faced furious calls to resign after she was pictured cutting a ‘racist’ black cake designed like an African tribal woman.

Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth had appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm when she was invited to cut the cake which was designed like a naked African woman.

The Swedish minister cut pieces from the black cake, which had blood-red sponge and was designed to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation.

Despite the intentions of the bizarre cake, however, critics described it as a ‘racist spectacle’, and demanded Ms Liljeroth resigned for participating in the ‘tasteless’ event.

The 'artist' who made the cake appears above. Many regard it as an attack against Blacks, Women and humanity.

The Association for African Swedes said the cake was a crude racist caricature which ‘makes a mockery of racism’.

Kitimbwa Sabuni, a spokesperson for the group, told Swedish news agency TT: ‘To say that you did this for a good cause only makes the mockery of people who are victims of racism and of circumcision worse.’

Mr Sabuni told a Swedish newspaper Ms Liljeroth’s participation in a dubious event with cannibalistic overtones showed her ‘incompetence and lack of judgment’.

Makode Linde, the artist who came up with the cake, had placed his own head at the top of the cake and said it had been misunderstood.

The black cake, part of an exhibition on World Art Day, was intended as part of the artist’s project illustrating degrading stereotypes of black people through history.

Liljeroth, whose photograph cutting a piece of the cake was widely shown in Swedish media, said she understood why people would be offended by the incident.

She said in a statement: ‘I was invited to speak at World Art Day about the freedom of art and its right to provoke.

‘And then they wanted me to cut into the cake. I don’t review art, but I can very well understand that this whole situation was misunderstood.’

9597: Maya Angelou Uncommonly Irked.

From The New York Post…

Rapper N-bombs poet pal

Maya lyrical lashing

By Larry Getlen

It might be the most uncommon hip-hop beef ever.

Legendary poet Maya Angelou told The Post she’s horrified that one of her biggest fans, the rapper Common, put her on a song peppered with the “N” word — which she abhors.

The song “The Dreamer,” off the album “The Dreamer, The Believer,” features a poem that Angelou penned and recited at the rapper’s request. It urges people to follow their dreams, with such lines as “From Africa they lay in the bilge of slave ships / And stood half naked on auction blocks /… and still they dreamed.”

Common’s lyrics, however, include such lines as “Told my n---a [Kanye West] I’m ’bout to win the Grammys now” and the boast “N---as with no heart, I’m the pacemaker.”

The Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet was petrified when she heard the lyrics.

“I had no idea that Common was using the piece we had done together on [a track] in which he also used the ‘N’ word numerous times,” Angelou said.

Angelou said she never knew Common used the “N” bomb at all, calling it “vulgar and dangerous” to the black community.

“I’m surprised and disappointed. I don’t know why he chose to do that. I had never heard him use that [word] before. I admired him so because he wasn’t singing the line of least resistance.”

Common tried to squash the squabble, insisting that he’s spoken with Angelou about his use of the “N” word — and claiming they have agreed to disagree.

“She knows I do use the word,” he told The Post. “She knows that’s part of me.”

But he admitted he never bothered to tell her he’d be using the word on the track she worked on.

“I told her what ‘The Dreamer’ was about and what I wanted to get across to people,” he says. “I wanted young people to hear this and feel like they could really accomplish their dreams.”

Common’s dreams in the song include living in Miami with “exquisite thick bitches.”

Angelou and Common met several years ago when they recited poetry at the same benefit. Since then, the two have grown tight. He has rapped at her birthday bash, and she once said he could be her son.

Common said the best lesson he has learned from Angelou is to “continue to be true to your voice.”

This is the second time this year that the rapper’s lyrics have gotten him in trouble. The White House was slammed in May for inviting him to a poetry event there because of anti-police lyrics, including “Tell the law my Uzi weighs a ton” and a line about President Bush: “Burn a Bush, ‘cause for peace he no push no button.”