This piece of spoken word poetry by Danez Smith is a piece
of African American literature that touches upon the issue of trying to take
race out of our vocabularies, as we discussed in class on Wednesday. The
classification of whites vs. blacks in America became integral to the
development of black culture. Smith mocks this, saying essentially that Africans
were forced to assimilate to American culture, and yet presently people are trying
to strip African American culture of this in their efforts to erase the topic
of racial tension.
Some quotes to consider:
“We did not ask to be part of your America, though are we
not, America?”
“You took one look at the river plump with the body of boy
after boy after sweet boy and asked, ‘why does it always have to be about
race?’ Because you made it that way.”
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