The following sonnet, "Hypocrisy, American Style," appears in Hints & Allegations: The World (In Poetry and Prose), by William M. Kunstler, published by Four Walls Eight Windows. Kunstler was a defense attorney at the trial of the Chicago 8. More recently, he represented accused Long Island Railroad gunman Colin Ferguson and the men convicted of conspiracy in the World Trade Center bombings. The sonnets in the book comment on a number of political issues, court cases, and personalities, including Huey Newton, Anita Hill, Abbie Hoffman, Marion Barry, Mafia boss Joe Bonanno, and even O.J. Simpson. Kunstler, who has been writing sonnets for more than fifty years, supplied the introduction to the poem that appears below.

During the 1992 Presidential Campaign, Bill Clinton, in a speech to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago, blasted Sister Souljah, a black rap artist, who had written songs that supported the so-called rioters in South Central Los Angeles after the return of the verdicts acquitting all the police officers charged with beating Rodney King. Not to be outdone, Vice-President Dan Quayle ripped into Ice-T, another black rap performer, for creating lyrics criticizing police officers. It all goes to show that both Republican and Democratic Parties will pander to white voters whenever it serves their purpose.

When Sister Souljah spoke in irony,
Reacting to rebellion in L.A.,
The Democrat sensed opportunity
And shocked the Rainbow with a bitter "Nay!"
Then, Mr. Quayle, not to be left behind,
Claimed Ice-T was one of the nation's blights
For rapping cops were something less than kind
When they had Third World suspects in their sights.
The honkies urge the blacks to sing their songs
Like "We Shall Overcome" and all the rest,
And recommend that everyone belongs
To groups that say nonviolence is the best.
The words of rage are never nice to hear,
But white America must lend and ear.

[Ed.: As the Los Angeles riots were underway, Sister Souljah commented that "if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" Likewise, Ice-T's criticisms of police include the lyrics, "die, die, die, pig, die."]

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